Universities and destination development

I was recently asked to write a book chapter on the subject of universities and their contribution to tourism. Surprisingly little has been written on the subject  - in the late 1990s one academic wrote a bit on the use of university accommodation and in 2000 UNESCO published a whole journal about university museums.  But I have been struggling to find more detailed research on the role of universities in place making for tourism, or in destination development.  So the next few weeks are going to involve a lot of primary research, an intensive literature review and some rapid writing up.  That’s not an excuse for me not updating the blog on a regular basis, but bear with me and I’ll be able to share some interesting stuff in a month or so. In the meantime, here is a picture of the James Graham Building at Leeds Metropolitan University in the UK - this campus will be hosting a training camp for the Chinese athletics squad competing at the 2012 Olympics this summer - sports & events tourism  based at university campuses is surely one area that is worthy of further investigation by someone.