The research of Dr Charlie Mansfield in the University's tourism department examines the practices of holidaymakers and those working in the tourism industry as constructive components of the destination image (TDI). Then, through an innovative process of interpretation, using ethnographic and phenomenological methods, to arrive at mediating texts for destination place branding.
In November 2018, Charlie Mansfield, his colleagues and his doctoral researchers were awarded an ESRC Festival grant to take this work out into a public arena for Cornerstone Heritage. The outcome was a Waytales guided walk on the English Riviera with follow-up workshops on IPA (Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis) and Travel Writing. With the success of the impact of this first public engagement further lab sessions are planned, with the next on 9 January 2019.
The background research for this methodological approach to understanding the synthesis of urban leisure spaces began with Mansfield's postdoctoral work on the Loire Valley in 2015 and an EU-funded project 'Writing Nantes' which developed archaeological topophonics as a method of data collection that involved local public groups across the city.
