Assignment Task

Please debate EITHER in favour OR against ONE of the following motions*:

Motions

  1. Are loyalty schemes still relevant within the current aviation and/or hospitality industries?
  2. Luxury Versus Budget – which will dominate travel, tourism, aviation or hospitality products/services over the next 3 years?
  3. Will post-pandemic travel be better than that up to December 2019?
  4. Is the cruise industry doomed in a post-pandemic environment?

 

Task Guidance

Full guidance on completing this assignment will be provided during the lecture and seminar sessions.   Please also review the vodcast about the assignment on Canvas.

 

Students can choose their preferred position to one of the debate motions above.

 

Format for the debate (with an indicative guide to timings)

  • Opening Remarks (maximum 10 minutes): Each student will formally present FOUR key arguments to support their chosen position. Students are required to use a maximum of 1 slide per argument, followed by their list of references on a subsequent slide(s). Slides should be used as a prompter for each argument as opposed to providing excess text on each slide. Please avoid simply reading your notes.

 

  • Cross-examination & counter arguments: (maximum 13 minutes) The lecturer will then cross-examine each student. The student will then have an opportunity to counter-argue their points further, based on the cross-examination.

 

  • Concluding Remark (2 minutes): Each student will provide an overall conclusion to the debate, reaffirming their position.

 

Marking Criteria

The following is the marking criteria for your assignment:

 

Opening Remarks (through a formal presentation) – Structure/clarity of communication/flow of discussion – clear introduction setting the context of the debate, making key headline opening arguments, supported effectively with references/examples; The articulation and depth of the opening arguments relating to the motion position will account for 40%.

 

Cross-examination – Ability of student to address issues raised in the cross-examination and present further arguments to support their chosen position. It is important that the debate stays focused on the motion and every argument is backed up with effective evidence (and triangulation of evidence) – case studies, statistics, newspaper articles, industry reports etc. The articulation and depth of counter arguments relating to the motion position will account for 45%.

 

Concluding Remark – a clear overall reasoned conclusion reinforcing the position taken in the debate will account for 5%.

 

References – quality, range and extensiveness of references (at least 30 references across different sources are expected). The currency of the data (how recent is the data) and the triangulation of references (cross-referencing data to add further justification to points) are critical. Marks for references will also be embedded with the debate itself, but the extent, presentation, currency and quality of the references will account for 10%.

 

Timings – the lecturer will ensure strict adherence to the allocated debate time, so please practice your opening comments accordingly, anticipate the counter-arguments from the lecturer and be well prepared overall.