This document outlines the objectives, schedule, and assessment for a 6-hour course on culture, communication, and tourism. The objectives are to build on prior LPHT knowledge, define culture and consider its impacts and role in tourism. The schedule includes two 3-hour sessions, the first defining culture and its potential role in tourism, the second addressing cultural issues from supply and demand perspectives. Assessment involves dividing students into five teams to present 10-minute "elevator pitches" addressing assigned questions about culture and tourism, and will evaluate coverage of questions, clarity, use of experience and knowledge, and persuasiveness.

1. LPHT Culture, Communication and Tourism Introduced
Duration: 6 Hours class contact. It is, however, expected that students wishing to
successfully complete the unit will normally spend a minimum of another 5-10 hours
outside class researching and preparing the assessed material, liaising with colleagues,
reading around the subject area and considering its relationship to other LPHT units
Objectives:
•To harness and build upon pre-existing knowledge of LPHT units across the curriculum
•To define and consider culture and its impacts upon and implications for Tourism.
•To consider the role and value of culture as an attractor for destinations national,
regional and local.
•To consider culture as a feature of international Tourism management
•To act as a base for the further development of the theme of culture in Tourism
Programme/Plan: (2 x 3 hour sessions)
Teaching Schedule:
Unit set-up. unit structure and rationale; resources (traditional and online) ; assessment
strategy. Defining ‘Culture’ Potential role of culture in Tourism. Basic Communication
theory. Mini-Assignment set up. (Tutor-led)
Demand side issues International marketspace and cultural differentiation.. Supply-side
issues Culture and its representation in marketing and animation. Culture within the
organisation. Mini-assignment.
Assessment
This assignment is very brief (as the unit teaching time is only 6 hours) and will be based
upon a team presentation made in class. I will require thought, participation and
contribution on your part rather than research and essay/report production. It will involve
some thought by the teams outside class, however.
You will be divided into FIVE teams with equal number of members. You will
‘Brainstorm’ your answers to the following and then each team will deliver an ‘Elevator
Pitch’ to me and the other teams.
You will be given 10 minutes only per team to get across your answers and suggestions
as clearly and succinctly as is possible. (You will be stopped on the stroke of 10 minutes
– you have been warned!)
Teams will be chosen in Wk1 and the brainstorm and presentations delivered in Wk 2.

2. Assessment (Contd)
Team A. Is there such a thing as ‘Alsacian Culture’? What exactly is it, and is it
marketable? How can you turn such an intangible thing into a concrete
Tourism marketing opportunity?
Team B. To what extent has Tourism destroyed the cultures that once drew people
to them? Is Tourism a global force for cultural homogenisation? Is such
homogeneity desirable / acceptable? Can Tourism’s impact on cultures be
made to be benign or positive even (rather than negative)? How might this
be achieved?
Team C. Do generalist Travel Agents OR Tour Operators OR National/Regional
Tourist Offices really make the most of 'culture' as a stimulus to sales? To
what extent do their websites OR brochures feature 'culture' as opposed to
other dimensions/attractions? Is the mass market interested in 'culture'?
Team D. What are the potential positives and negatives in operating within (or
leading) a team drawn from many different national cultures? Are more
varied opinions, ideas and ways of going about things refreshing and
ultimately helpful ... or an annoying, unfocused and time-wasteful
distraction? Does one manage by knowing the general, stereotypical
characteristics of persons from particular nations or by knowing the
individual?
Team E. 1. “With the Internet, one marketing message can potentially reach
everybody who is attached to the system/network: it is relatively cheap and
simple to achieve”. Mr A. Reasoned-View (2009)
2. “It is people who are at the end of the network with whom contact,
communication and relationship needs to be made: such people are from
entirely different national, regional and local cultural backgrounds: it is
desperately expensive to adapt messages to culture, but there is no other
effective alternative.” Mr A. Pretty-Good Idea (2009)
3. “‘One message for all’ and ‘culturally adapted messages’ miss the
point: we are all individuals and not averages of a local, national or
global community – we want to be approached individually. As Anna
Pollock put it: ‘We are no longer in the era of the mass market, but in the
age of mass markets of one’.” Mr Yaw Allwrong Imright (2009)
Consider the above and where the truth may lie.
Means of Assessment. I will engage with the teams in their initial brainstorms in class
and will listen to (and may ask questions concerning) your team’s 10 minute ‘Elevator
Pitch’. I will be looking for the following:
1. Full coverage of all the component questions asked
2. Very clear and succinct presentation of the most critical items
3. Evidence from experience and knowledge of Tourism and of culture
4. Creative ideas and suggestions
5. A ‘convincing’ pitch which I would be prepared to support.

3. NBs.
1. I am NOT looking for powerpoint (I doubt you would try to show one in an
elevator!).
2. I will only award the team base mark to people who ARE present and contribute. (If
you are absent, do not expect to receive the mark unless you have medical or other
reasons acceptable to Course Management).
3. Although I am expecting everyone to participate in the Brainstorm, clearly I cannot
expect you all to participate in the presentation itself…. Although I will expect
anyone to be able to answer questions about it!
4. I will not be marking the technique of the presenting persons but may offer feedback
on this to the presenters if they would like it.
As to the actual weighting of the mark, I will produce a mark /20 for each team and
present it to the tutor who carries forward the unit. I imagine my mark will be weighted
according to the number of hours in my element of the unit compared to the unit as a
whole.