Tourism and hospitality research in Ireland – Concepts, issues and challenges

O’Connor, N. (Chair of Editorial Board), Keating, M., Malone, J. & Murphy, A. (eds.)

Foreword

I am delighted to have been asked to write the Foreword to Tourism & Hospitality Research in Ireland which is an edited collection of some of the papers presented at the Tourism and Hospitality Research Conference held in Waterford Institute of Technology in June 2006. It is indeed a positive reflection on those associated with the organisation of this conference that the event has so quickly established itself as an important element on the Irish tourism calendar.

For a number of reasons, it is particularly timely that this book should be published now. In the first place, the conference is a very real and positive example of Irish tourism and hospitality researchers developing a forum where they can present their work to peers. It is also an invaluable opportunity to get feedback from other researchers. The conference, along with a number of other meetings that have taken place over the past year or two, provides some evidence of a tourism research community that is growing in self-belief. Failte Ireland welcomes this development and has recently begun to expand its programmes of support for this type of research activity.

Secondly, it is important that tourism research, and the role of the Higher Education Institutions, should be understood in the context of the priorities presented in the National Development Plan 2007-2013 which was published last January. In its assessment of the economic challenges that lie ahead, the plan set out a “vision of an Ireland in 2013 internationally renowned for the excellence of its research and at the forefront in generating and using new knowledge for economic and social progress”. As this vision now begins to gather momentum, it is clearly important that the tourism sector finds a place for itself as a part of this research story.

Elsewhere, the NDP also referred to human capital investment and set an objective to ensure “access to a very good standard of education and training for all and, in particular, to provide the labour force with the skills and adaptability to meet the challenges of the future”. There is a strong link between this latter point and tourism research. In order for the education institutions to support the labour force with the right skills, we must have a clear understanding of emerging patterns in the tourism industry, how consumer tastes are changing, where further product development is needed, where new markets might be opened up, how we can best communicate with potential  customers, how we can manage our cost base and so improve value for money, how we can monitor and maintain the quality of the tourism product, and how we can recognise when new skills are needed and when old ones should be replaced.

We can either stumble into these emerging circumstances, or we can anticipate them and so manage the necessary transition in a more measured fashion. To do the latter however, we need good programmes of tourism research that  anticipate significant trends in the industry and that point to new insights as a first step to finding the solutions we need. Looking to the future, the intellectual and institutional capacity to drive this research must be found in the Higher Education Institutions.

Accordingly therefore, I welcome and support the publication of this text. Representing as it does a collaborative effort on the part of tourism researchers from all parts of Ireland, along with a number of contributors beyond the island, it is a valuable addition to our growing literature on Irish tourism. I would like to commend the editors on their excellent work and express the wish that the text enjoys the attention and use that it deserves. 

Aidan Pender
Director of Policy & Industry Development
Fáilte Ireland

May 2007.