Sustainable Tourism: Rethinking the future
Gain the skills and knowledge to rethink current tourism developments and reimagine practices to build alternatives futures.About this course
Are you aware of the sheer size and rapid development of tourism? And do you like to engage in meaningful debates about these developments as they appear today and/or tomorrow? If so, this course is for you! Learn more about different social science perspectives to tourism. Implement these perspectives to a tourism practice of your choice, and share your insights through regular feedback with experts and other participants in this course. Learn and work on promising and new tourism developments, such as Van Life and voluntourism. In this course, you’ll explore these and other inspiring changes observed in the tourism industry. You’ll make use of interdisciplinary insights to rethink the status quo of tourism.
Alternatives can only become real if we allow for an open space for continuous discussion and representations of new ideas. Not only do we provide space for discussion here, this MOOC will also offer a platform for ongoing discussions of tourism developments after completion of the course. Through social media, you will be invited to remain connected to novel ideas.
The effects of Corona virus on the tourism industry
There is no doubt that the tourism industry is being affected by the Covid-19 corona virus outbreak. How will we recover, and will we fully recover? How does corona effects the tourists and their behaviour? And how can we pick up after this? How do we take it from here? Since it’s so relevant, we will address these questions and this topic in this MOOC and make room for this on our discussion platform and case studies.
Course details
What you’ll learn
- How to implement insights from various tourism disciplinestocurrent developments in the tourism industry
- Become familiar with, and share, inspiring tourism developments across the world
- Recognize and co-create future narratives as a tool to compose new business cases and/or project proposals in your professional context
- Ways to become part of ongoing dialogues on developments for the future of tourism
Course partners
Course outline
Module 1: Tourism Studies and Development
In module 1, you will learn more about the cases from which we will depart in this course. Each case represents a unique setting in which tourism develops one way or another. As situational these cases appear, they may well connect with other practices that you are familiar with or have a special interest in. It is also possible to come up with your own case and find collaborators (other learners) who wish to join you in the exploration of this case. We very much welcome your creativity in outlining a case that is of interest to you!
If you are eager to move forward and engage in a dialogue on these cases, you must enrol as a verified learner. As a verified learner, you are given access to your own team environment but also to previous ideas developed in this course. You can work with other international team members on a case of your choice, share inspiring solutions to problems addressed, participate in (optional) fieldwork and engage in analyses corresponding to modules 2-4.
Module 2: Psychology of Tourism
In module 2, you will get an overview of the psychology of tourism and explain tourist experiences before, during and after holiday trips.
Module 3: Sociology of Tourism
In module 3, you will get an overview of the sociology of tourism, and learn how to explore the policy environment of any tourism case.
Module 4: Geography of Tourism
In module 4, you will get an overview of the geography of tourism, and learn how to explore the politics of place making and objects in tourism contexts.
Wrapping Up and Looking Forward
In module 5, we will invite you and your team members to present your group findings to all learners of this course. As such, you can possibly become inspired with the work of other learners in this course and gain final feedback to improve your final team vision.
Finally, verified learners can complete this course by filing a personal report in which you reflect on the team process and outcomes individually.
Requirements
This course is especially valuable if you have a background in either the social sciences or tourism/hospitality studies, but everyone is welcome to join (you might want to consider taking TOUR01x first to learn the basic concepts used in this course).
