Research areas
- Service quality and operational management in the events, sports, and leisure industries
- Health and wellness, lifestyle
- Understanding tourism, hospitality and leisure experiences
Service quality and operational management in the events, sports, and leisure industries
Service quality, satisfaction and customer behaviour analysis in sport, leisure and tourism is considered as a major focus of the centre. The CERM Performance Indicators Project has developed benchmarks for operational performance for public sports and leisure centres in Australia and New Zealand. This applied research has expanded into areas such as golf courses, botanic gardens, zoos, national parks, trails and tourist parks.
Health and wellness, lifestyle
Healthy lifestyles have been identified as a long term priority theme for University research over the next ten years.
Health benefits is also considered and studied in a more wholistic paradigm. Examples of this approach includes a range of studies assessing personal health benefits for customers at public sports and leisure centres, visitors to botanic gardens, and users of tracks and public trails.
Understanding tourism, hospitality and leisure experiences
Tourism is one of the growth industry sectors in
Australia, contributing over five per cent to the total GDP of
Australia. Consequently, understanding the tourist experience is of
key economic, marketing and social significance and hence is an integral
theme of the centre.
Research endeavours to understand tourism, hospitality and leisure experiences have been international in scope and broad ranging in topical coverage. Much of the work has been guided by theories related to relationships between tourism and place identity and levels of involvement and tourism. Projects related to tourism experiences at events features prominently as another area of research activity. The interdisciplinary appeal of this theme is reflected in publications that have appeared in a range of leisure, sports and tourism journals.