Associates

Richard Smith

Richard has worked in destination tourism for over 20 years and has worked in tourism consultancy with for more than 10 years. During this time he has specialised in tourism research and intelligence, and strategy development and planning.

As a researcher, he has established innovative frameworks for analysing and assessing the performance of tourism destinations and the impact of tourism spend on them. He is also an experienced market researcher who has both managed and undertaken over a 100 pieces of primary market research looking at all aspects of the visitor - their characteristics, satisfaction, behaviour, spend, opinions, perceptions etc - and different types of tourism business (accommodation, attractions and conference venues - their performance, opinions, etc.).

He is experienced in the development of a range of destination strategy and action planning projects in a number of different types of destination both in the UK and internationally. His approach to strategy development is holistic - looking at all aspects of how a destination performs - but always focused on the needs and motivations of the potential visitor.

Before joining TEAM, Richard had over 10 years' experience in destination tourism in consultancy, and with tourist boards and local authorities, at a regional, city and resort level where he established a reputation as one of the UK's leading tourism researchers. His professional career started in a tourism marketing consultancy. This was followed by approximately five years with the East Midlands Tourist Board as Research Manager where he was responsible for the development and delivery of the Board's research and development services. A key achievement was the introduction and development of an innovative programme of market and industry performance research in both the East Midlands and East of England.

Richard has an MA in Geography, a post graduate diploma in Tourism Management from the University of Surrey, and qualifications in Market Research. He is a member of the Tourism Society, and Tourism Management Institute.

Key areas of expertise

Business planning, tourism strategy and destination development planning, conference marketing and development, project management, external funding bids, research design, research management and delivery, and tourism marketing and market planning, and e-business.