The evolving nature of town centre management internationally and my advocacy for a strategic global-local approach to practice and research in this profession

Town centre management (TCM) as a practice-based concept has existed in the UK, North America and much of Western Europe for over twenty five years. TCM was first defined by Wells (1991, p. 24) in the academic literature as “a comprehensive response to competitive pressures, which involves development, management and promotion of both public and private areas within town centres, for the benefit of all concerned”. Yet, this concept has evolved considerably since its first inceptions in the 1980s as the public-private partnerships that manage high streets, districts, town centres, quarters and other place formats have themselves faced a period of unprecedented environmental and socio-economic changes in the matrix of our towns and cities. This DProf by Public Works project explores the author’s contribution to this evolving paradigm over a ten year period by advocating a global-local approach to the town centre management profession. Specific knowledge gaps addressed by the author over this period include the contribution of small and medium sized retailers to the vitality, diversity and viability of town centres in a number of European countries, a pan-European classification tool (typology) of town centre management schemes, the development of the UK’s first ever professional and academic qualifications in place management and the founding of the first-ever practice-based international interdisciplinary publication on the management of towns and cities – the Journal of Town and City Management. The author’s transformational learning experience over this period serves as a backdrop for reflection throughout. Finally, insights into the future of town centres are offered along with some of the key strategic challenges that the town centre management profession will need to address in the medium term in order to continue to thrive into the future

Written evidence submitted to "High streets and town centres in 2030 inquiry" parliamentary select committee

The current state of high streets and town centres in England and much of the UK can be probably best described as “being at a crossroads” in terms of central government’s policy making as well as the effectiveness of their management. Although online retail is progressively undermining the viability of many traditional high street retail formats, it could also be argued that there are a number of avenues that remain underdeveloped by town centres and high streets. These include the management of the visitor economy, the development of attractive evening and night-time economy formats, the innovative use of traditional markets (for instance, as platforms for innovation and local entrepreneurship) and the strategic positioning of town centres and high streets as competitive place brands that build on the local DNA of the area to offer a unique selling proposition that is not limited to retail

Effectiveness of Drafting Models for Engineering Technology Students and Impacts on Spatial Visualization Ability: An Analysis and Consideration of Critical Variables

Results from a number of studies indicate that the use of drafting models can positively influence the spatial visualization ability for engineering technology students. However, additional variables such as light, temperature, motion and color can play an important role but research provides inconsistent results. Considering this, a set of 5 quasi-experimental studies, was conducted to identify additional critical variables. According to the results, a dynamic, 3Dprinted drafting model, presented with a blue background under lighting conditions between 500–750 lux had the highest impact on spatial visualization ability of engineering technology students

"High Streets and Town Centres in 2030" inquiry - oral evidence submitted on 10th September 2018

This full HANSARD transcript includes the full content of the oral evidence session held on 10th September 2018 as part of the "High Streets and Town Centres in 2030" inquiry led by the Housing, Communities and Local Government parliamentary select committee, which Assoc. Prof. J. Andres Coca-Stefaniak was invited to participate in as an expert witness

National high street retail and town centre policy at a cross roads in England and Wales

For eighty years, UK government policy related to urban sprawl, town centres and high streets in England and Wales has been dominated by planning/land-use control. In the post-war period, retail developments have often been discussed in the literature on planning for places – but the wide range of pressures for retail change are rarely brought together. This review of policy discusses many of these pressures: many of which fall beyond the urban planning remit. For example, although retail planning regulations have been influenced by Central Place Theory, this theoretical framework offers no insight on those private sector businesses that interface with urban planning. Worse, few (if any) professional town planners study retailing before formulating plans. Furthermore, the willingness of successive governments to exert meaningful influence through planning rules has ebbed and flowed, leaving town centres at a potential crossroads. This study addresses the vital missing link to business operations – and the rising pressures upon them – using Institutional Theory. Building on the findings of this analysis as well as earlier studies from other parts of the world, this article outlines implications for the management of town and city centres in England and Wales

Bounds on R-parity Violation from Resonant Slepton Production at the LHC

We consider the ATLAS and CMS searches for dijet resonances, as well as the ATLAS search for like-sign dimuon pairs at the LHC with 7 TeV center of mass energy. We interpret their exclusions in terms of bounds on the supersymmetric R-parity violating parameter space. For this we focus on resonant slepton production followed by the corresponding decay.Comment: 17 pages, 11 figures, 3 table

Marketing smart tourism cities – a strategic dilemma

There is a growing consensus among scholars in neuroscience with regards to the adverse effects of technology on the cognitive functions of the human brain (Loh and Kanai, 2016). These include the processing of emotions, memory and the storage of lived experiences. In fact, this has been shown to be particularly applicable to regular users of smartphone-based mobile applications (Wilmer et al., 2017). Rather worryingly for today’s prevalently technology-based conception of what a smart tourism destination should deliver, recent research has shown that visitors’ intentions to preserve the memories of a visit to a tourism attraction by engaging with mobile media (e.g. taking photos and sharing them with others via social media) during their visit may actually prevent those same visitors (though perhaps not the recipients of their photos via social media) from remembering the very experience they are trying to preserve (Tamir et al., 2018; see also Soares and Storm, 2018). Furthermore, research has also shown that this ‘hyperconnected’ state of affairs may be altogether detrimental to visitors’ enjoyment of the overall experience (Barasch et al., 2017). For those tourists who can still boast an adequate level of battery charge on their smartphones after a busy visit spent updating social media profiles with new photos whilst trying to simultaneously absorb the multi-sensory experience offered by the tourist attraction, there is further bad news. Similar neurological research has shown that people who are over-reliant on satellite navigation systems for way-finding (say, back to the hotel or to a restaurant highly rated on Tripadvisor) tend to perform worse at finding their way in the absence of their digital aid than those who rely on paper maps (McCullough and Collins, 2019). Parallel research in tourism has argued that this ‘smart’ technology-enabled tourist may run the risk of alienation (or “e-lienation”, to use the term coined by Tribe and Mkono, 2017) from their surroundings and missing out on potentially enriching experiences offered by the tourism destination. All in all, this should be rather worrying news for aspiring and existing smart tourism destinations. Why? Well, given that memorable experiences remain arguably a desirable goal in the design and delivery of visitor experiences, it appears that technology could be actually conspiring to rewire our brains in the opposite direction (Ward, 2013). Should, then, smart tourist destinations strive to become more efficient at delivering other services instead of memorable experiences? Maybe, though this is perhaps particularly applicable to some of the earlier models in the smart cities longitudinal spectrum. In fact, there is growing consensus around the fact that technological innovation (Pinke-Sziva et al., 2019; Skeli and Schmid, 2019) can alleviate some of the effects of overtourism, particularly in the context of smart tourism destinations (Gretzel and Scarpino-Johns, 2018). This includes ‘smarter’ transport solutions, even if we know that residents and tourists will differ considerably in their assessment of urban mobility improvements (Albalate and Bel, 2010). However, all this is part of what smart cities (presumably) do already. Consequently, if the whole raison d'être of the ‘smart’ concept applied to tourism destinations rests mainly on the proviso of experience design and delivery, where do the insights from the latest neurological research leave smart tourism destinations? Should the next generation of smart tourism destinations re-consider their strategic focus altogether? This special issue of the International Journal of Tourism Cities (IJTC) on “Overtourism and the Marketing of Smart Tourism Destinations” attempts to shed light not only on the overtourism phenomena but also on a nascent field of research: the marketing and branding of smart urban tourism destinations. Inevitably, and given that both topics can hardly be considered in isolation, much of the research showcased in this special issue, including this editorial, explore also elements spanning the overtourism phenomena and the marketing and management of smart tourism destinations, chiefly from an urban perspective

Beyond smart tourism cities – towards a new generation of ‘wise’ tourism destinations

Purpose – Building on exponential trends of technological change affecting our cities and urban tourism destinations, avenues for further research and practice are explored in the context of smart tourism destinations. Design/methodology/approach – The literature on smart cities and smart tourism destinations is analysed in view of delivering a research agenda for a new generation of ‘post-smart’ tourism destinations, beyond existing paradigms in this field. Findings – Smart tourism research to date is found to be lacking in terms of addressing emerging (‘post-smart’) social issues increasingly faced by global tourism cities, such as growing inequalities between host communities and visitors, wellness (e.g. slow tourism, slow cities), resilience and mental health (e.g. digital detox), among others. Practical implications – A post-smart approach to tourism city management and marketing calls for a re-think of existing tourism and urban policies that address wider sustainability issues exemplified by the urban transitions debate as well as adopting a more holistic networked approach to smartness involving entire regions. This also calls for the development of a new research agenda in urban tourism through a new prism – the post-smart ‘wise’ tourism destination. Originality/value – A new tourism futures construct - the ‘wise’ tourism destination - is posited. This is done within the context of a new (‘post-smart’) generation of tourism cities. It is argued that ‘wise’ tourism cities will require novel attributes and adopt a visionary strategic positioning well beyond today’s smart tourism destination paradigms. Additionally, a tentative research agenda for ‘wise’ tourism cities is discussed

Does place matter in hospitality?

Location is a dominant factor affecting the success of hospitality businesses. However, when that location is not blessed with the footfall of a busy high street or cannot rely on the proximity of a nearby major visitor attraction, a more creative approach is required. Indeed, offering an attractive façade, attentive staff and excellent service may not be enough for a hospitality business to succeed unless it already enjoys a well-established reputation. Even then, research suggests that the brand of a place can still have a bigger influence on customer decisions and satisfaction than a business brand on its own, no matter how established. Hospitality professionals can have a big impact on the attractiveness of a place brand by adopting a partnership approach to managing and marketing places that deliver memorable experiences to local residents and visitors alike