Dr Irma Booyens

Lecturer

Work, Employment and Organisation

Personal statement

I am a lecturer in the Work, Employment and Organisation department, mostly on our tourism and hospitality courses. Tourism is one of my key research interests which I have approached from the theoretical frameworks of human geography, development studies, tourism management and innovation studies.

Before joining the Strathclyde Business School, I was a Senior Research Specialist in the Economic Planning and Development unit at the Human Sciences Research Council in Cape Town where I worked on a range of projects with policy impact. I also have experience as a tourism and business studies lecturer and as a consultancy researcher.

I am affiliated as an associate researcher with the School of Tourism and Hospitality at the Univeristy of Johannesburg, South Africa, where I held a post-doc position and also completed my PhD.

Expertise

Has expertise in:

I understand the research process well and have been involved at all of its stages from conceptualization and proposal writing to research design, supervision; and co-supervision of various projects; collaboration on large national projects/ studies; data collection (primary and secondary), data analysis, synthesis and interpretation; report writing and dissemination.

Futher areas of expertise are:

- Mixed method research

- Project management

- Policy and/ strategy formulation

- National surveys

- Indicator development

Prizes and awards

TWAS/DFG Collaborative Visit Grant: Recipient; 2019
NRF researcher rating: Recipient; 2018
Newton Mobility Grant: Recipient; 2018
Scarce Skills Doctoral Scholarship: Recipient; 2012
Young researcher excellence award: Recipient; 2010
Best student in course work: Masters in Development Studies: Recipient; 2008

More prizes and awards

Qualifications

PhD Geography, University of Johannesburg, 2015

Masters in Development Studies, University of the Free State, 2008

Post-graduate Certificate in Education, University of Pretoria, 2002

B.Com Tourism Management, University of Pretoria, 2000

Publications

The Cultural Centre of GugaS’thebe as a Transformative Creative Space: Booyens Irma, Mkuzo Ndipiwe, Morgan Marco Brent; Developing Creative Economies in Africa Spaces and Working Practices (2021) (2021); https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003191681
The Evolution of Township Tourism in South Africa: Booyens Irma; Tourism, Change and the Global South (2021) (2021); https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003091325
Social washing and customer misbehaviour in the hospitality sector : a problem that remains unreported: Hadjisolomou Tasos, Baum Tom, Nickson Dennis, Booyens Irma; 29th Annual Council for Hospitality Management (2021)
Education and skills in tourism : implications for youth employment in South Africa: Booyens Irma; Development Southern Africa Vol 37, pp. 825-839 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1080/0376835X.2020.1725447
Tourist and resident perspectives on 'slum tourism' : the case of the Vilakazi precinct, Soweto: Hoogendoorn Gijsbert, Lesatsi Nthabiseng, Malleka Thabisile, Booyens Irma; GeoJournal Vol 85, pp. 1133-1149 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-019-10016-2
Tourism innovation and sustainability : implications for skills development in South Africa: Booyens Irma, Motala Shirin, Ngandu Stewart; Sustainable Human Resource Management in Tourism African Perspectives (2020) (2020)

More publications

Teaching

Tourism and business studies lecturing and supervision

Research interests

My research interests include local and regional economic development and planning; social innovation; innovation measurement; tourism innovation; tourism sustainability; tourism livelihoods, employment and workplace issues; creative industries - employment and spatial perspectives.

Projects

Confronting customer abuse and harassment during the Covid-19 crisis? Evidence from Scotland’s hospitality industry: Hadjisolomou, Tasos (Principal Investigator) Baum, Thomas (Co-investigator) Booyens, Irma (Co-investigator) Nickson, Dennis (Co-investigator); 01-Jan-2021 - 31-Jan-2022

More projects

Address

Work, Employment and Organisation
Duncan Wing

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