"Choose a doctoral programme that you like
because you will dedicate years to it"
ESTELA MARINÉ ROIG. Serra Húnter Lecturer of Tourism and Leisure and European Doctor in Tourism and Leisure
I was in the second promotion of university studies in Tourism at the URV. Currently (2018) I am a Serra Húnter lecturer and coordinator of the Master's Degree in Social Media Marketing at the University of Lleida (UdL), collaborating professor in the Master's Degree in Social Networks and Intelligent Tourism at the UOC, and Director of Research Excellence at the International Federation for Information Technologies and Travel & Tourism (IFITT). My introduction to the world of research was inspired by my mentor and co-author of most of my publications, Dr Salvador Anton Clavé, Professor of Regional Geographic Analysis at the URV. In my final master's degree project I analysed the identity and image of the Catalan coast based on travel guides published in French and German over the last 100 years. Part of the final project was published in an indexed journal in the Web of Science (WoS) and the other in a book chapter by an American publisher.
The key milestone in my research itinerary was my Ph.D. I extended my analysis to the image and identity of Catalonia as a tourist destination based on information collected from travel websites that host user generated content (about 25,000 blogs and travel reviews), and also official tourism websites (about 3,000 pages from regional and local institutions). Since the methodology was a pioneer in what is now known as "tourism analytics" or "big data analytics", the thesis was very successful. An international court made me "Doctor Europaeus" and rated my thesis "excellent cum laude". The URV awarded me the Extraordinary Doctoral Award, and IFITT gave me the International Prize for Excellence in a Doctoral Thesis for its innovative character, scientific rigor and relevance to the field of Tourism. The thesis publication has received about 11,000 downloads and 14,000 queries. Numerous presentations and publications have been derived from the thesis. The culmination was the publication this year, together with a colleague, of an article on the image of Catalonia in "Tourism Management", number one in the world ranking of WoS-indexed journals in the field of Hotel and Tourism. The Catalan Government (DOGC 7735) awarded me the Tourism Medal of Catalonia 2018 for the best knowledge and research project related to the tourism sector.
I have participated as a secondary researcher in four research projects led by Dr Anton, as a research support technician in another project, and currently, I am the head researcher of a sixth project, all of which are competitive three-year projects, granted and funded by the Spanish Ministry. I have also been part of the GRATET consolidated research group funded by the Catalan AGAUR. I have combined research with teaching. First as a grant holder at the URV, then as a lecturer (associate, visitor and Serra Húnter) at the UdL. You can see the highlights of my CV at https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3275-0135
For new PhD students, I would recommend choosing a topic they like because they will have to spend not only hours but years on it and the path is often difficult. The topic you choose is essential because after the dissertation you will be an expert in that topic and you will be recognized for it. I would also recommend attending congresses and publishing articles while you do your thesis so that you can get research accreditation later: If you want to work in the university world, it is essential to have research accreditation nowadays. All papers (certificates, diplomas, etc.) must be kept and organized, as well as the certificates for everything you do (courses, congresses, seminars, languages, etc.) and that will be required for future accreditation/work. I would also advise students to take advantage of the years of doctoral studies to train and educate themselves (the university offers specific courses that have been very helpful to me). In general it is important to be in close contact with both the thesis supervisor and other doctoral students to share concerns, doubts and experiences, because everyone goes through a similar process when they do a thesis.