Team Tourism

Team Tourism is made up of six highly motivated professionals with diverse cultures and backgrounds who are looking into ways on how to develop, improve and ultimately sustain the tourism industry in Weligama and Mirissa located in the south of Sri Lanka. Wes English is looking into 10 local hotels situated around Weligama Bay and investigating local attractions that are on offer for potential tourists. Key question that have arisen as a result include ‘What is the current tour guide setup?’ and ‘How can we collect feedback from tourists on departure to aid continuous improvement?’. Kyoko Nakano is looking into general tourism statistics and also what services can hotels look to offer for example relax therapy. Chris Flynn is looking into a country to aid as a benchmark possibly Thailand. Key question that have arisen as a result include ‘What can we learn from what went well and not so well?’ and ‘What are the synergies?’. Dan Pfeiffer is looking into the National and Local culture of Sri Lanka. Key question that have arisen as a result include ‘How is tourism important to the region moving forward?’ and ‘How can the local people help to sustain any growth in tourism?’. Stu Marlee is looking into risk management and disaster recovery. Key question that have arisen as a result include ‘What have the people learnt from the tsunami?’ and ‘Is there any synergies with Thailand to help reduces risks in the future?’. And finally Rob Chignell is looking into existing and potential water sports activities. Key question that have arisen as a result include ‘How are the local people currently involved with such activities?’. The Team are currently working hard on their individual research areas and are set to meet up again on 13th April 2011 to discuss their findings moving forward.

Team Cinnamon

Following on from previous MBA studies of the cinnamon industry, four current MBA students, Chris Atkins, Jessica Root, John Morgan and Parik Chandra, have have decided to focus on Fair Trade as a theory of international development, wishing to examine whether Fair Trade is a route to genuine social, economic and environmental change within the Sri Lankan cinnamon industry. Amongst other things, this will involve a critical analysis of Fair Trade vis-a-vis other theories of international development, an analysis of benefits seen by cinnamon producers who have achieved Fair Trade accreditation and an assessment of the benefits for a particular cinnamon producer, in our case Rathna Cinnamon, of pursuing Fair Trade accreditation with a view to entering the European market and providing economic and social benefits for their employees and the Sri Lankan economy as a whole.

Team Coconuts

We hope to produce a preliminary report into the state of the Coconut Industry in Sri Lanka in order to help develop projects to ensure the sustainability of local production for this crop which forms a staple part of the national diet. Within this brief we hope to explore the opportunities available for both fair-trade and organic trade of coconut flesh and milk as well as by-products such as wood and coir.

Team Members

• Chris Gray – executive MBA 2010 – Veterinary Surgeon
• Sheila Watson – executive MBA 2010 – Accountant
• Kristine Le – full time MBA 2010

Team Eco-Village

The green team will be looking to investigate best practice across the various Eco-vilage model’s within Sri-Lanka. Our team is made up of individuals from various international cultures with keen and specific interests across the environmental sector and sustainability.  We will be researching the history, people, environment and economic conditions that have fertilised the growth of various different types of Eco-Vilage models within Sri-Lanka. In addition, and In order to give the project context, we will also be visiting other Eco-Vilages in the UK and in the Middle East to investigate best practice on a wider scale. The foundations of our research will be built around 4 key areas –

1. Infrastructure and communications capacity.
2. Community and agriculture.
3. Funding resources.
4. Energy supply, independence and the role of renewables.

An understanding of each of these key elements and their application will give us an insight that can work as the foundation of further projects in the area.