Dr Deborah Slater

Senior Lecturer
School of Business

Deborah Slater is a senior lecturer and employability lead in tourism, hospitality and event management. | Deborah adopts a qualitative, phenomenographic approach to both her research and teaching - putting people first. | Deborah’s research provides a unique approach to tourism literature insofar as it takes a psychogeographical view of how tourists experience cosmic phenomena in the dark landscape.

Employability is the focus of Deborah’s teaching, she leads the subject group of Tourism, Hospitality and Events internship/placement modules. She works closely with international recruiters to provide World renowned career opportunities to under/post graduate students. Deborah is also responsible for organising a significant number of national and international study visits aimed at enhancing the student experience and understanding of the tourism and hospitality industry.

Deborah’s career, prior to starting with UCLan in 1996, was in human resource management and retail. In 2007, Deborah and her husband set up a new tourism venture in Dumfries and Galloway, in a grade one listed school house: a tearoom and antique centre. Although successful, they have now decided to renovate further and turn the school halls into boutique holiday lets for Dark Sky visitors.

PhD Astro Tourism, The University of Central Lancashire, 2020
Post Graduate Certificate in Business and Management Research Methods, The University of Central Lancashire, 2018
Counselling Skills in Organisations, The University of Central Lancashire, 2005
MA Human Resource Management, Bolton University, 2000
Post Graduate Certificate of Education, Bolton University, 1996
BA (Hons) Business Administration, Huddersfield University, 1995

Deborah’s current research is focused on exploring the experiences of Dark Sky Places visitors. With focus on the Galloway Forest Dark Sky Park in South West Scotland, a Gold Tier status park, designated by the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) in 2009. Deborah’s research provides a unique approach to tourism literature insofar as it takes a psychogeographical view of how tourists experience cosmic phenomena in the dark landscape. Deborah focuses predominately on ethnography, as she provides a useful astro tourist typology which clarifies the various types of visitors to Dark Sky events. This work is designed to enable stakeholders to plan for their astro tourism ventures.

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Dr Deborah Slater

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