Following the 2004 EU accession of the eight Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries, the landscape of UK tourism workplaces transformed. Large numbers of predominantly young, female and educated migrants entered the industry through mostly entry level roles. Despite their significant contribution to the industry, the experiences of female migrant tourism workers remain under-researched. This study explores the experiences of CEE migrant women employed in low wage tourism positions. It examines how gender, age and ethno-nationality intersect and how media discourses of Eastern European migration together with stigmatizing low status tourism work impact on female migrants’ employment experiences and career opportunities. Additionally, it gives insight into the intersecting motivations for CEE women to migrate and enter tourism, with tourism workplaces both facilitating and restricting their occupational mobility. The exploration of participants’ employment experiences reveals tourism workplaces as hostile environments for migrant women, with complex power relations and limitations to career progression for those highly educated. Nonetheless, despite working in exploitative environments, CEE migrant women emerge not only as passive victims but also as active agents confronting inequalities and asserting their rights. Underpinned by feminist participatory action research, hopeful tourism and the theory of intersectionality, the study adopts a visual and participatory methodology. It employs a range of qualitative research methods, both conventional and innovative. Through its empowering and transformative approach, the study actively engages participants in the research process, gives in-depth insight into their multifaceted experiences, as well as fostering co-learning and reaching wider audiences via a public engagement community event. In this way, the research gives voice and visibility to this often disempowered minority group as well as advancing research theory and practice. The study demonstrates how the application of visual methods allows for participants to create representations of their experiences and unveil the multilayered nature of their realities.

Local food and the localisation of food are beset by many problems in the UK. We have still yet to agree on a consensus view of the term ‘local food’ despite the call for an enforceable definition. The continued absence of rules around products and their relative spatial determinacy has lead to the development of both fluid, and subjective interpretations around the term ‘local’, as well as a willingness by key actors to readily conflate ‘local’ with ‘regional’ as a pluralistic device in a market worth £4.6 billion in sales from farm shops and farmers’ markets alone. This research sets out to identify and diffuse the problems we have in defining what local food is, and presciently, what it may become. The research itself utilises a qualitative multiple case study approach, engaging with a final cohort of 23 producers of similar products, but at different scales of supply, and across a broad geographic spread of England. In encompassing areas which do not have a reputation for local food, the research mitigates against previous micro-analytical research and adds both construct and internal validity to its data, gathered by semi-structured interviews, process mapping and questionnaires. Template analysis is used as a data extraction tool in this research, which seeks to provide disambiguation around the sector and suggest a way forward which has the potential to offer greater derived benefit to current and future stakeholders.

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The main purpose of this study is to examine how a dyadic trust perspective can support effective development of key account relationships. The need for Key Account Management in the UK Mortgage Industry is investigated, factors for effective key account relationship management are identified and a trust/Mortgage Lender and Intermediary perspective of Key Account relationship effectiveness is analysed. The results of this study have been achieved through a mixed methods research strategy and these have been discussed in relation to Key Account Management and Trust theory. This study responds to concerns about the lack of research in this area, challenging and building on existing Key Account Management theory, integrating trust theory and applying this to a new context. A survey instrument to assess the effectiveness of Key Account relationships has been devised and can be applied to different contexts. Results show that demonstrations of trustworthiness leads to better key account performance but there is not a strong association of perceptions of higher trust with performance. Mortgage Lenders and Intermediaries have different perspectives of key account effectiveness and Mortgage Lenders lead the way in Key Account Management initiatives but there is evidence of various degrees of interdependence and willingness to achieve mutual gains. Key account relationships are not locked in to integrated Key Account Management programmes and exit from these relationships is quite easy. An important aspect of this research in the context of the UK Mortgage Industry has been the perceived positive role of the Key Account individual and that of different types of trust throughout relationship development, compensating for the perceived negative role of organisational culture aspects that may influence those involved in key account development within and between organisations. The contribution of this research is to show the relevance of Key Account Management as a business model providing market conditions are appropriate for Key Account Management development and that it is based on mutual learning and a format that suits the orientation of supplier and buyer, their own organisational design and culture and resources available as well as the environment in which they operate. This research suggests that fully integrated Key Account Management is not a realistic expectation and dependence on a few suppliers or customers as Key Account Management theory suggests, is not sensible. This study contributes to KAM practice in that it shows it is the management of trustworthiness rather than trying to manage trust that leads to a satisfactory Key Account relationship format for both supplier and buyer in the UK Mortgage Industry. This does currently rely heavily on the `intrapreneurial' skills of key individuals. In understanding how trustworthiness is demonstrated (through concern and benevolence, expertise, communication, intrapreneurial skills, commitment, organisational culture and KAM organisation) leads to more appropriate actions and behaviours to facilitate a relationship that works best for particular seller and buyer organisations given the particular circumstances. Organisations need to work on improving trust that is placed in the institution by for example developing effective marketing communications effort internally as well as externally and knowledge based trust, relating in particular to the exchange of confidential and strategic information. The identified factors for key account effectiveness presented in the survey can serve as useful guidelines for managing key accounts as they also demonstrate signals of trustworthiness. These factors can be used specifically to add to the limited range of performance criteria of key accounts currently adopted by the industry. Further research is suggested that may consider a key account manager or client's disposition towards trust, an examination of perceptions of supply chain t...

This thesis focuses on an under-researched area of tourism - individualised travel - by examining non-institutionalised solitary travellers. The purpose of the study is to discover precisely why non-institutionalised solitary travellers travel alone. In order to understand the travel behaviour and motivation of solitary travellers, they are contrasted with group tourists. To be able to tackle this research problem, Grounded Theory is chosen as the most appropriate approach, for the following reasons. First, Grounded Theory is a methodology which makes its greatest contribution in areas about which little is known. Second, its aim is to generate rather than to test theory. Based on the computer-assisted content analysis and interpretation of relatively neglected qualitative data obtained from interviews and diaries, sixteen socio-psychological justifications for solo travel are empirically identified. From these responses, a taxonomy of non-institutionalised solitary travellers is inductively constructed. It consists of two basic types. First, there are those who travel alone because they simply have no available travel companion, referred to as "solitary travellers by default". Second, there are those individuals who deliberately travel on their own, and who are regarded as "solitary travellers by choice". The elaboration of such a distinction is the primary contribution made by this research to tourism knowledge. A secondary contribution is realised by confronting the data on solitary travellers and group tourists with the extant literature on tourist typologies - an exercise that raises a number of issues about the mythical status of the former. As a result, an alternative taxonomy is generated that consists of two distinct types of tourists - individualistic and collectivistic. The individualistic tourist is someone for whom internal personal values. (e.g., sense of accomplishment) are the most important principles in life, who has motives stemming from ego-enhancement (e.g., personal development), and for whom travel means the investment of personal cultural capital. The collectivistic tourist, on the other hand, is someone who assigns greater priority to external personal values (e.g., sense of belonging), whose motives originate in the anomic conditions of society, and for whom travel is little more than a short break from routine.

The rapid expansion of tourism degrees over the last 30 years has been fuelled by the expansion of Higher Education, the popularity of tourism as an area of study, and the attraction of tourism careers. However, the tourism industry has not always been involved in these developments, nor appreciative of tourism degrees. Tourism employers have suggested that tourism graduates do not meet their needs, and voiced concern about the relevance of tourism degrees. Yet, there has not been a comprehensive study which explores employers' perceptions of the value of tourism degrees. This thesis aims to address this by providing an in-depth exploration of how tourism employers perceive the value of tourism degrees. To achieve this aim, a mixed method approach was adopted. A qualitative approach to this study was employed in its first stage. The findings from this stage were used to inform the second quantitative stage. The results indicate that the perceived value of tourism degrees is based on both its employment relevance and academic status. From an employment perspective, the majority of jobs available to graduates are entry level jobs which do not require holding a degree. These jobs are often customer facing, with what employers term as 'personality' being considered a key requirement. Tourism degrees are not seen to contribute to graduates meeting this requirement. Rather, they are seen to contribute to gaining knowledge of the industry, which incidentally is low on the employers' list of requirements. The importance of relevant work experience where skills such as customer-service skills can be developed and demonstrated should thus not be overlooked. Work experience schemes based on cooperation between universities and the industry could also have a positive effect on graduates' employability not only by expanding their work experience, but also because such cooperation is often linked to a more positive view ofthe value of tourism degrees. Where jobs which do require holding a degree are concerned, employers indicated that tourism degrees do not provide an advantage. They associated tourism degrees with new universities, and perceive graduates from new universities to exhibit deficiencies in higher level graduate skills. This suggests that although the expansion of HE was designed to meet the needs of the economy, employers may not be convinced of its benefits. The results indicate that regardless of whether the tourism degrees provide good, sound academic base, if employers associate them with former polytechnics and lower academic standards they will still opt for graduates from elite institutions and more traditional degree subjects.

Freight transport decisions are nowadays affected by the impact of the external environment, particularly within commodity markets like the natural rubber industry. Consequently, shipping managers are confronted with uncertain circumstances such as economic changes causing high price volatility, economic crises and emerging new markets. As China becomes the worlds’ largest rubber consumer and has introduced a mixture of rubber buyers to the market, the level of complexity in transportation has now increased substantially. This study considers freight transport mode choice. Despite the fact that mode choice selection is not exactly a new subject, the majority of existing studies conducted have been based only on surveys or secondary data, that have mainly sought to identify an optimized solution or the prioritisation of operational factors such as cost and transit time. The purpose of this study is to investigate factors influencing decision makers when it comes to choosing the transportation alternatives currently available, or that might be used, by natural rubber exporters in Thailand. This research used a preliminarily conceptual framework derived from the combination of the Organisational Buying Behaviour (OBB) model in terms of contextual factors, with relevant literature in relation to operational factors. These include organisation, business environment, individual perceptions and past experience, and operational factors in order to assess primary qualitative data gathered as part of the research fieldwork. This research has adopted a qualitative approach and methodology based on the interpretivist paradigm. The research was conducted using two methods: questionnaires and follow-up semi-structured interviews. To explore the background of the natural rubber industry, identifying its key demographic characteristics and the current situation with regard to freight transport usage, a questionnaire survey was conducted using a sample of 73 shipping managers. Fifty individuals completed and returned the questionnaires. In support of a substantive study, in-depth interviews of the managers of 21 companies were used to investigate what factors influence the selection of transport modes and how they impact on their decisions. The interviewed transcripts were analysed using template analysis. The conceptual model data gave a clearer picture of linkages and relationships between five dimensions: environmental characteristics, organisational characteristics, customer characteristics, transport decision making in the natural rubber industry and operational factors. This model can provide a deeper understanding of freight transport choice decisions in terms of a combination of operational and behavioural factors. The developed model also enhances the power of explanation of those various factors feeding into the decisions of freight transport mode choice and will be disseminated to shipping managers within the commodity market sector.

This study explores the ways figures of speech such as metaphors, puns and alliteration contribute to the creation of tourism images in print advertising. Extensive research has been conducted within the areas of advertising, tourism and linguistics. However, little has been done to emphasise the importance of textual analysis. The majority of the research used the more common visual semiotics approach in tourism. This study provides a detailed analysis of the figures of speech in tourism advertising. The choice of the above figures of speech was dictated by the previous research indicating the significant use of those devices in advertising. As no similar studies were conducted earlier, it was logical to start with the examination of the most frequently used figures of speech. Qualitative content analysis of 600 advertisements, selected from a range of sources, was carried out. The purpose was to find common patterns between the figures of speech used in the 1970s and 2000-2008, identify the links between advertised products and individual figures of speech and finally to explore how the interpretation process occurs when ambiguity takes place. This would lead to more in-depth understanding of the position of figures of speech in tourism advertising. Pragmatic approach, a branch of linguistics, was also implemented to explain the interpretation process. Textual analysis of puns, metaphors and alliteration reveals some concerns over the use of these devices when addressing potential consumers. Metaphors and puns are able to influence existing textual meanings carrying different degrees of ambiguity. Complex use of language devices might cause difficulties in its comprehension. Consumers require more information about the advertised products as their awareness and competence have increased. Growing legislation, development of new information technology devices, globalisation of the markets and growing consumer competence make the task of advertisers challenging and difficult. Creating new figures of speech, advertisers have to be aware of the consequential issues within their comprehension. Although Relevance Theory, a part of pragmatics, successfully explains the interpretation and derivation of ambiguous meanings, there are still numerous meanings expressed in advertising and advertisers leave the responsibility of correct interpretation for recipients. Low numbers of puns indicate that although tourism activity is associated with an enjoyment and pleasure, the satisfaction from resolving the pun is not always appreciated by readers. From another side, alliteration does not require any interpretation and thus cannot be misled, as no semantic meaning is involved. Hence, alliteration has more potential to succeed in the advertising communication. This thesis contributes to knowledge in theoretical and methodological concepts within tourism advertising depiction via linguistic devices and hopes to generate some further discussion within this area. The major contribution of this research lies in the detailed analysis of figures of speech used in tourism advertising. This work appears to be the first substantial attempt to undertake this linguistic approach.

This research aims to evaluate the use of tourism as a tool for poverty reduction in Bulon Island, Satun Province, Thailand. It focuses on local people’s perceptions of poverty and how tourism may be used to improve their livelihoods. It also critically evaluates the barriers to local people to participating in the tourism industry and how these may be overcome. An interpretive paradigm supported by the use of qualitative methods including semi-structured interviews, participant observation and focus groups has been adopted. Thirty-six local people participated in the research and two focus groups were conducted. The collected data was evaluated through thematic analysis to categorise the emergent key themes. The research findings are subsequently presented according to three main themes that emerged from the data. The first is local peoples’ perceptions of poverty focus on their ability to be self-sufficient rather than defining poverty solely as a measure of deficient income. Secondly, it is evident that local people benefit from tourism in terms of employment opportunities, which are important for supplementing work in the seasonal fishing industry. The creation of employment opportunities and an opportunity to earn income especially have direct benefits for local women, making them more independent and empowering them. The final iv thematic finding identifies the barriers to local participation in tourism, which centre upon deficiencies in financial, human and social capital. Recommendations are subsequently made on how to overcome these barriers and enhance the use of tourism for poverty reduction and alleviation in Bulon. Actions include capacity building and the establishment and strengthening of stakeholder partnerships.