A Leeds Met student who presented to delegates at an international conference has been awarded Best Paper for her studies.

Phd student Yasmine Yap presented 'Exploring virtual tours hosted in UK hotel websites', a preliminary study of her work, at the 3rd Asia Euro Tourism, Hospitality & Gastronomy Conference held at Taylor's University Lakeside Campus, Subang Jaya in Malaysia.

Other speakers at the event included Malaysia's Deputy Minister of Tourism, Hon. Dato' Dr. James Dawos Mamit who welcomed guests and addressed the policies and strategies of green tourism in Malaysia, and Professor John Tribe, from the University of Surrey, who discussed the issues of transformation and modernisation in tourism studies.

Describing her research, Yasmine said: "Literature reveals there is unlimited potential associated with virtual tours; yet the findings show that there are only a small portion of hotels (15 per cent) of the total sample (1232 hotels) that own a virtual tour.

Despite a few pre-speech nerves at the conference, Yasmine won over the conference committee to earn herself the title of Best Paper in the hospitality category.

Commenting on her experience, she said: "During my presentation I started off a bit panicky as I spoke to a few people before the start of the session and they were mostly academics from different parts of the world. But, everyone was very supportive, providing me with suggestions and recommendations as they are well experienced with research knowledge.

"It was a great experience to attend the conference and an excellent accomplishment for me to have won it thanks to the support and guidance of my supervisors, Alex Kenyon and Keith Johnson."