P2P wins ATHE/ABTAs Making the Case Award for a Teaching Project

The Peer2Peer (P2P) Capacity Building in Tourism Initiative has won the Association of Tourism in Higher Education’s (ATHE) Making the Case Award for a Teaching Project for Building Leadership and Management Capacity in the Visitor Economy, which is sponsored by the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA).

The P2P initiative is delivered as part of the School of Sport and Service Management’s curricula in the undergraduate module Destination Niche Tourism and is also offered as an added value experence to  postgraduate students. It highlights to students the dynamics of sustainable tourism in the developing world.

The module is delivered in The Gambia and encompasses the structured exchange of knowledge and experiences between students, academics and the Gambian community. Through P2P students are inspired to realise a real life project in collaboration with local Gambian participants.

Over the past eight years the programme has led to a number of tourism initiatives and products, which have been implemented and are now managed by or in collaboration with Gambian P2P graduates and partners. One example of success is Turtles SOS The Gambia; a sea turtle conservation and observation project which is now turning into reality through fundraising.

P2P has provided significant impacts at destination level, in line with the University of Brighton’s commitment to widening participation and sustainable development in its broader meanings. In 2013, P2P participants worked on a project focusing on how they could implement and facilitate the reach and impact of another university initiative, Football for Peace (F4P). You can find out more about F4P in The Gambia in this short film.

Since the P2P initiative began, 150 University of Brighton students, over 100 Gambian participants and over 600 young learners have benefitted; being exposed to a learning opportunity through which they acquired knowledge, skills and values associated with sustainable tourism development and sport coaching.

Geri Mitchell, Sandele Eco-retreat and Learning Centre, Kartong, commented: “The value and impact that the P2P and F4P capacity building experiences has brought to the locality are far reaching into the community and go beyond tourism development.

P2P and F4P are due to take place again in December 2015, when 40 students and four member of staff from the School of Sport and Service Management will be visiting The Gambia.