The participating academics presented their research, which facilitated an open discussion and enabled planning for the year ahead. Research papers presented on the day included ‘Backstage Tourists: New Theatre Experiences for New Tourists’ by Dr Daithí Kearney, ‘Effects of Tourist Misbehaviour on other Tourists’ overall Holiday Experiences’ by Dr Kevin Burns and the paper ‘How is adaptive capability leveraged to support growth in micro-firms?’ by Teresa O’Rourke (Doctoral Candidate (SETU).

The Tourism Research Group (TRg) provides a platform to facilitate early researchers, with diverse interests in the multi-faceted nature of Tourism, and allied subjects of Hospitality, Consumer Behaviour and Events.  The TRg aims to pursue a rigorous approach to developing, advancing, and consolidating research in the domains of Festival, Events and Culture, Entrepreneurship, Sustainability and Community Development. The research activities will contribute in a significant way to practice in these three areas on a National and International scale.  This DkIT group have a record of successful supervision of both home and international students and are currently involved in several internally and externally funded research projects.  The vision is to grow the group so that this working group become a recognised Research Centre. 

 Dr Kevin Burns, DkIT said

‘I’m excited to lead and be involved in this group; and to provide a supportive environment for colleagues and students to feel confident in their research’.