The first winner of Springboard’s Len Lickorish Award for Excellence in Tourism Education has been announced.

Sharon Chou of the University of Westminster won the award, which is open to students completing a masters degree with tourism in the title at institutions that are members of the Association for Tourism in Higher Education.

Chou’s dissertation – which provided an analysis of the Visit Japan campaign in the UK and perceptions of Japan’s brand image – was picked by a panel of four judges for being a “well-written, intelligently conceived and thoroughly researched piece of work”.

She won a cheque for £500 at the award ceremony at the Tourism Society Annual Dinner in Nottingham on 15 June.