April 2012 For immediate release

Expert to tackle Chilean tourism project

The expertise of tourism researchers from Leeds Metropolitan University has been called upon by the Chilean government.

Dr Xavier Font, co-director of the International Centre for Research in Events, Tourism and Hospitality, has been contracted to develop a feasibility study on matching the supply and demand for sustainable tourism in Chile. It is a great honour to have been given the opportunity to tackle this ambitious programme, said Dr Font. The project aims to develop sustainability tools and upgrade industry practices both in the operational and communication and marketing sides of responsible tourism. It will also develop a sustainability label or differentiation system that incorporates the needs of distribution channels and consumers, unlike other labels that are supply driven and fail to engage consumers. The programmes first phase saw public and private sector representatives come together to discuss the ability of a sustainability certification scheme to help improve the competitiveness of Chilean tourism firms. Dr Fonts research at Leeds Metropolitan focuses on the marketing of sustainable tourism, including standard setting and certification, and supply chain management. He said the challenge with the Chilean project would be to ensure that a single scheme makes sense to the leisure industry as a form of communicating experiential aspects of sustainability, while being useful to

business travellers and the public sector as the single largest buyer of events, hospitality and tourism services in Chile. There is a small but very active group of companies in Chile that are world class, and yet havent received the international attention they deserve, commented Dr Font. At the same time there is a large majority of firms that do not consciously practice sustainable forms of tourism lacking both knowledge on what to do, the awareness of what they are already doing, and the confidence to understand and practice marketing and communicating their sustainability achievements.

Ends

For further details please contact Julia Williams in the Communications team at Leeds Met on 0113 8125978 or email j.t.williams@leedsmet.ac.uk

Notes for editors: Leeds Metropolitan University has over 25,000 students and around 3,000 staff. The Vice Chancellor of Leeds Metropolitan University is Professor Susan Price and the Chair of the Board is Lord Woolmer of Leeds. Leeds Metropolitans four faculties are: Arts, Environment and Technology, Business & Law, Health and Social Sciences, and Carnegie. Leeds Metropolitans heritage can be traced back to the founding of the Mechanics Institute in Leeds in 1824. International students rated the University top in the UK for language support, accommodation quality and learning spaces in the 2010 Autumn Wave of the International Student Barometer and sixth in the

world for the quality of its lectures. We have over 1,500 international students from 122 countries around the globe. The Universitys award-winning learning environments include

Broadcasting Place, which was voted the best tall building in the world in 2010 by the Chicago-based Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) and also winner of the 2010 Leeds Architecture Awards New Building category.