Draw on our expertise

Consultancy and enterprise

We have extensive expertise and knowledge through our research that is of key value to tourism and hospitality organisations. Engage with us to explore future innovations and transform your business for future challenges.

Strategic advice and funding opportunities

Harness the skills of our leading experts by sharing their expertise and knowledge through strategic advice, research or a Knowledge Transfer Partnership. We can help organisations in a range of areas, including strategic management and marketing, operations management, customer service, finance, human resources, technology and social media management.

There are also various funding opportunities available for organisations that wish to work with the university on projects.

Invite us to facilitate your strategy development with strategic away days and workshops

Our globally renowned tourism and hospitality experts can facilitate your strategic away days, either at Bournemouth University facilities or elsewhere. We can become catalysts of strategic developments and problem solving exercises, bringing cutting-edge expertise from around the world to your team.

Bespoke short courses, training and Continuing Professional Development (CPD)

We can help you to enhance the skillset of your workforce through specialist and bespoke training, tailored to your business and your needs. A wide range of organisations have used our services, including Corinthia Hotels, Hall and Woodhouse (H&W) the Dorset-based brewing and pub company, Pestana Hotels, Bournemouth Tourism and Scottish Tourism.

Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs)

KTPs are a government-funded scheme to share university knowledge with UK businesses. These partnerships allow you to recruit a graduate associate and access specific skills to increase your business productivity and improve performance. KTPs can last between six months and three years and often result in long-term partnerships. If your business would benefit from specialist university knowledge, you may be eligible for a KTP grant. You may also be eligible for a grant if you can identify a project that is critical to your future success. A KTP provides up to 67% Government funding to support the transfer of university expertise into small to medium-sized business and up to 50% funding for large organisations.

Learn more about KTPs with BU.

Take a look at some of our case studies

Hall and Woodhouse – CPD

Hall and Woodhouse (H&W), the Dorset-based brewing and pub company, is benefitting from its successful partnership with BU. Responding to the company’s management development requirements, the CPD programme has been designed by BU to meet specific staff needs. BU is delivering the accredited university-level learning for H&W team members drawn from different parts of the business.

“From our perspective, the central pillar to H&W’s long-term strategy is that we have to be a great place to work. It’s very simple. Learning and development sits at the very heart of that,” outlines Anthony Woodhouse, MD at the firm.

“One of the additional benefits of the CPD programme is group cohesion. As a company we understand no-one can know everything about the business. Having our team, drawn from all parts of the business, on this course means that when they come across a challenge, they have a peer group to help them find the solution.”

Corinthia Hotels International – CPD

Managers from Corinthia Hotels International have joined the university to undertake the Certificate in Higher Education (CHE) in Business and Hospitality Management.

Franco Valletta, Chief Officer for Organisation, Development and Human Resources at Corinthia Hotels, said: “I wanted to work with the best in the UK, and I knew Bournemouth University was one of them. We have lots of students from BU coming to work as interns at our London hotel, and they do fantastically well.”

He added: “I specifically wanted to create a programme that has that mixture of academic and life skills. We are hoping it will help them when it comes to problem-solving and decision-making.

“We are among the best in the world, and we want to make our staff even better and help them develop leadership behaviours and styles.”

Corinthia Hotels International was founded in Malta and now has hotels in locations including Prague, St Petersburg, Lisbon and Budapest, as well as a hotel in central London.

Quattro Foods - KTP

Quattro Foods worked with BU on a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) scheme and received a grant to cover two-thirds of the project costs which included the employment of a graduate and the services of an experienced Academic. The company manufactures a range of fresh chilled and frozen products without the use of additives, preservatives, artificial colourings or flavourings. To achieve sustained growth, the company recognised that its key challenge was to improve its manufacturing. It also needed to offer a wider range of products, in particular, ambient food lines with longer shelf life to help reduce seasonal fluctuations in production scheduling. The company required further expertise regarding the manufacturing process to retain nutritional balance and maximise shelf life and food product safety.

The key benefits for Quattro Foods:

Optimisation of manufacturing processes, increasing shelf life of selected products by recipe manipulation to enable reductions in seasonal fluctuations.
Development of a coherent quality development and production strategy necessary to support growth over the short to medium term, eg, reduced lead times, reduced waste and increased output.

Support match-funded PhD studentships

Our match-funded PhD studentships offer an opportunity for your organisation to work with our researchers on challenging research projects that are of relevance and benefit to you. Match-funded studentships are a unique opportunity for businesses to get involved in challenging research projects that are designed to find bespoke solutions to real-world problems. By working alongside and supporting a PhD student, you will have access to a wealth of resources at Bournemouth University and can contribute to a valuable knowledge exchange. Your business will need to provide funding for the duration of the PhD (typically three years) while Bournemouth University will subsidise the remaining cost of the research. We ask for £7,000 per annum as a stipend (maintenance grant) as well as £1,000 to £1,500 per annum to cover the cost of consumables from any organisation that wishes to match-fund a PhD studentship. The subsidy from BU is worth up to £20,000, comprised of a fee waiver and the other half of the stipend. You are not obliged to provide anything other than financial support for a match-funded PhD studentship. However, your organisation can also choose to:

Be involved in the supervision of the research
Provide logistical support for the project
Have access to information throughout the research.

The main benefit of contributing to a match-funded PhD studentship is in the knowledge and critical insight you will gain through the research that is conducted.

Use our facilities and labs

Whether you need to hire a small meeting room, a modern conference venue or a technical laboratory, we have a wide range of facilities that can help you to improve your business. We have a range of venue sizes, lecture theatres and seminar rooms with cutting-edge audio-visual facilities. Professional in-house caterers offer quality food to suit all dietary requirements. In addition, our food labs can be hired for training or demonstration purposes. We offer an external expert view to help businesses gain new knowledge as well as innovate, develop and grow. Our service is offered to all companies but can be particularly attractive to businesses that may not have an internal R&D department.

Our purpose-built labs are suitable for food-related work including food demonstrations, food product development, shelf life testing and food safety management. They are fully equipped with medium and small-scale food equipment and audio-visual facilities. Examples of how we can help companies include:

Understanding and improving the nutritional value of products
Helping to develop a food or drink product for a particular target market
Product innovation/differentiation
Advice to improve business performance (and reduce cost/increase profit) or product quality.

Find out more about hiring facilities at BU.

Join the Festival of Learning

Our annual Festival of Learning is home to hundreds of free events where we showcase our research output and explore how it can help people, families, businesses and communities. We look forward to welcoming you to the events that the Department of Tourism & Hospitality organises.