Guest lecture on business tourism and events in Brighton

Business and Sales Manager at the Brighton Centre, Emma Thurlow, visited Elm House to speak to our postgraduate tourism and events students.

She spoke to master’s students on our Globalisation, Society and Culture module about the value of business tourism and events to Brighton’s economy.

The Brighton Centre is the oldest purpose-built convention centre in the UK. Emma shared that it’s a critical site for the business tourism market in Brighton.

Emma spoke about MICE tourism, which refers to meetings, incentives, conferences and events and is a non-seasonal business tourism market. This is important in seaside destinations like Brighton because it doesn’t rely on only bringing in visitors in the summer months.

The Brighton Centre makes most of its revenue from MICE tourism and then fills any gaps with entertainment shows, such as music concerts.

Much of the market is large associations such as political parties, the health sector, plus digital and tech organisations. The Brighton Centre tend to opt for larger conventions and bookings like this to fill the space, rather than opting for small bookings and meetings.

Emma spoke about the centre’s commitment to sustainability in terms of exhibition set-ups, waste management, plus their food and drink offering.

Tourism and events lecturer,  Catherine Kelly, who organised Emma’s visit said: “For me, guest lectures are an important part of knowledge exchange, to bring venues in Brighton into the university to share experiences.”

Emma’s guest lecture was mentioned in the module evaluation by lots of students as one of the highlights of the module.

One student said: “Guest talks like this give us practical insight into our sector by real people who are doing the jobs we can imagine ourselves in one day.”

Find out more about our courses

Undergraduate courses:

• International Tourism Management BSc
• International Tourism Management with Marketing BSc
• International Event Management BSc
• International Event Management with Marketing BSc

Postgraduate courses:

• International Tourism Management MSc
• International Event Management MSc