LT4056 - London's Visitor Economy (2026/27)
| Module specification | Module approved to run in 2026/27 | ||||||||||||
| Module title | London's Visitor Economy | ||||||||||||
| Module level | Certificate (04) | ||||||||||||
| Credit rating for module | 15 | ||||||||||||
| School | Guildhall School of Business and Law | ||||||||||||
| Total study hours | 150 | ||||||||||||
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| Assessment components |
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| Running in 2026/27(Please note that module timeslots are subject to change) |
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Module summary
London’s Visitor Economy aims to showcase the extent of the visitor economy in London and encourage tourism and events students to examine its potential with regard to their studies, professional development, and employability. The module will explore different dimensions of a global city’s visitor economy, both in class and in the field.
With over 19 million international tourists per year, some 12 million domestic tourists in addition to over 200-million-day visitors, London is one of the major city destinations globally. However, this poses problems for tourism managers in terms of spreading visitors temporally and geographically within the capital, catering for very diverse visitor groups and maintaining its competitive position vis-à-vis rivals for leisure, events, and business tourists in an uncertain international environment.
The module aims are as follows:
• To develop a practical knowledge of London’s evolving visitor offer for leisure, business and events tourists.
• To facilitate students' ability to identify the needs and preferences of London’s diverse visitor groups
• To enable students to identify specific visitor experiences to suit specific tourist audiences
• To gain insight into the challenges faced by visitor managers in providing strategies, services, experiences, and events for diverse visitor groups
• To become familiar with the market intelligence, tourism and events reports and strategies produced by London’s Destination Marketing Organisation to guide London’s Visitor economy.
Prior learning requirements
No prerequisites. Available for Study Abroad? YES
Syllabus
• London as a global destination – Destination Marketing Organisations and their role in gathering marketing intelligence and delivering tourism and event strategies.
• The experience economy – creating an events and tourism offer to meet the needs of London’s visitors and tourists
• The tourist gaze - London’s tourist bubbles – cultural quarters and heritage attractions
• London’s events and entertainment sectors
• Investigating London’s niche and special interest tourism and events offer: dark London, film-set London, sport provision, and heritage
• The rise of the ‘New Tourism Areas’, incl. London’s villages and suburbs, the new destinations, London’s open spaces, London as a National Park City, local amenity, and festivals
• Analysing the tourist offer in the field will include visits to key tourism and event spaces in London, e.g. Southbank, Bankside and London Bridge; the Museum of London, etc.
• Engaging with industry professionals on visits and in the classroom
Balance of independent study and scheduled teaching activity
The formal delivery of the teaching and learning will be based on three contact hours per week, consisting of a three-hour lecture and workshop sessions. The workshop sessions are designed to focus on the assignment tasks – developing a wiki guide and reflective learning. Field visits and industry engagement are an important part of this module. There are multiple field visits and a guest speaker each year, varied depending on availability. The teaching sessions involve interactive lectures, discussions, group tasks (relating to the assessment tasks), videos, technical tutorials, and assessment workshops.
The Field visits involve exercises and student-centred learning, e.g., for the Thames fieldwork, students are allocated an attraction along the route to research and present to the rest of the group in their capacity as a guide. During the visit to the Museum of London, students meet a member of staff, discuss issues relating to visitors, and analyse the museum galleries.
Students are encouraged to reflect on their learning throughout the module. Assignment 2 asks students to analyse their learning and to identify the challenges they envisage in the process of moving from being a user (visitor) to a provider (supplier) in the city’s visitor economy.
Feedback is a continuous process in this module. At each stage of the assessment, students receive feedback on their proposals – their choice of target visitor groups, wiki guide title, choice of attractions, and places to visit in their guides. Students are encouraged to start developing their online guides early so that tutors can comment on their guides as they are being developed.
Learning outcomes
On successful completion of this module, students will be able to:
1. Describe different elements of London’s visitor economy
2. Discuss and select tourism products, events, and other experiences suitable to provide a satisfactory tourist experience in a chosen market
3. Demonstrate effective reflection on both: the potential and challenges that London’s visitor economy offers in terms of employability for students of the creative industries