Tourism in Transition: Exploring a Sustainable Future

Offered By: Wageningen University via edX

Course Description

Overview

Did you know tourism, the industry of adventure and leisure, is one of the largest worldwide? It faces many challenges. Among them the responsibility to become more sustainable. In this award-winning 3 online course programme Wageningen University & Research uniquely invites you to take on a reflective approach on sustainable tourism development.

The societal and environmental importance of tourism has grown significantly in recent decades. Its development is closely linked to major global changes in culture, politics, technology and the environment, affecting the quality of life of all stakeholders. While continuing its focus on growth, even in light of post-COVID ambitions to restore business-as-usual, tourism seems insensitive to sustainability issues. And with climate change forming an increasing challenge to both tourism and humanity, a radical paradigm shift is truly needed.

These 3 sustainable tourism courses are designed to take you on an wholistic investigation of the tourism sector and will eventually lead to your very own vision of what sustainable tourism should look like. To stimulate a continuous stream of new ideas, you are invited to join a platform for ongoing discussions on sustainable tourism business.

1. Instead of taking on tourism education’s customary approach – growth driven, applied and hospitality management – the first course of this programme offers an integral introduction to the complex phenomenon that is tourism, from its historical emergence to its current impact on society and the environment.

2. In the second course of the programme you will apply argumentation skills and different social science perspectives to tourism. You will learn of a broad array of sustainable tourism organizations, such as ecotourism and voluntourism. Together with your team you will pitch a case of your own.

3. In spite of tourism’s substantial contribution to climate change, international tourism continues to grow exponentially, with serious environmental impacts. That is why we dedicate this third course to address the mutual relationship between tourism and climate change. Study the key challenges related to mitigation and adaptation and learn to apply them to your personal position as well as your organisational situation.

So, are you eager to see tourism through a new lens? Join us on this unique all-round journey to bring about a much needed paradigm shift in the tourism industry. Together, we can drive sustainability in tourism. Subscribe now!

Syllabus

Courses under this program:
Course 1: Sustainable Tourism: Society & Environmental Aspects

Wageningen University and Research invites you to this integral introduction of the exciting and complex phenomenon that is tourism. Ranked top 10 best online courses by Class Central, join us to gain an understanding of the scope next to the social and environmental implications of tourism. Take on the challenge of a more critical reflection of this industry, steeped in comfort and enjoyment, and help drive its sustainability!

Course 2: Sustainable Tourism: Rethinking the future

Considering the negative impacts on climate change, the host communities and their natural resources, the growth-driven tourism industry needs to improve its footprint. Join Wageningen University and Research for this online course, nominated for the annual edX® award 2019. Engage in interdisciplinary debates to explore and co-create future responsible travel and tourism initiatives in your (professional) context. Subscribe now.

Course 3: Tourism and Climate Change

Global tourism’s CO2 emissions and overall environmental impact are substantial. Yet, is spite of the tourism sector’s vulnerability to the impacts of climate change, it continues to grow exponentially, driven by an ever rising tourism demand. Join Wageningen University & Research as our successful Tourism team explores the mutual impacts of tourism stakeholders and the climate. Take on our challenge of reimagining the tourism industry toward low-carbon, sustainable development! Subscribe now.

Courses

192 reviews
6 weeks, 5-7 hours a week, 5-7 hours a week
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Tourism’s profound impact on the world
Tourism continues to experiencing incredible growth. Of all the industries of major importance worldwide, Travel and Tourism directly contribute $1.4 trillion to the global economy and provides one out of ten jobs and that number is growing.

But tourism is more than just a powerful economic force. Tourist activities come with a host of social and environmental issues at tourism destinations. And return, tourism business itself is highly sensitive to global transformations such as changing consumer behaviour, economic developments, natural disaster, epidemics, or acts of terrorism. Tourism is in fact a complex phenomenon.

Introduction to tourism; an all-round perspective
Instead of taking on tourism education’s customary approach – that of growth driven, applied and hospitality management – join us to explore the tourism industry and build your own reflections. You'll be exposed to a variety of insights throughout the course. These include tourism's historical background and a variety of social science approaches will be looked at, with a special focus on the human geography of tourism. You will be exposed to the negative impacts on natural resources, the cultural heritage of host communities and climate change related issues, such as carbon emissions. Which role can sustainable tourism development play to address both the tourism associated economic benefits as well as the collateral costs for key stakeholders?

Based on weekly reflection exercises, you'll be challenged to form your own argument for a tourism development of your choice. You'll also help others by providing and receiving meaningful feedback on their critical reflections of tourism phenomena.

The effects of Corona virus on the tourism industry
There is no doubt that tourism has been greatly affected by the Covid 19 virus outbreak. With the upcoming attempt to rebound post-Corona, all players in the industry face a choice: will it be business as usual or do we re-invent toward more sustainable practices? But also, how has Corona effected tourists and their behaviour? We will discuss these and other highly relevant questions throughout our tourism courses.

For whom
Whether you are a business owner, work in tourism or an fervent traveller, join us for this MOOC for an science based understanding of what tourism does to our living environment, our behaviour and our cultural inheritance. Help drive sustainability in tourism. Subscribe now!

Professional Certificate Programme

This online course, ranked among the 10 best online courses in the world by Class Central, is part of the Professional Certificate Programme Tourism in Transition: Exploring a Sustainable Future, along with the MOOC Sustainable Tourism: Rethinking the Future, which was nominated for the annual edX® award in 2019 and the MOOC Tourism and Climate Change.
67 reviews
9 weeks, 6-8 hours a week, 6-8 hours a week
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Sustainable tourism development put into practice
In this course you will be teamed up and challenged to apply your argumentation skills to implement insights from various tourism disciplines and different social science perspectives to current tourism developments. For example:

Sociology: how is tourism organised (laws/regulations)?
Psychology: what effects how tourists experience tourism (COVID 19?!)
Geography: what does tourism development mean for a particular location?

Learn of and work on promising and new tourism developments, such as Van Life and voluntourism and other inspiring changes observed in the tourism industry. Recognize and co-create future narratives as a tool to compose new business cases and/or project proposals in your professional context. 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.

Debates on sustainable tourism development
Sustainable alternatives can only become real if we allow for an open space for continuous discussion and representation of new ideas. That's why this MOOC offers a platform for ongoing discussions of tourism developments, where you are encouraged to engage in meaningful debates on these innovative developments as they appear, during the course as well as after completion.

The effects of Corona virus on the tourism industry
There is no doubt that tourism has been greatly affected by the Corona pandemic. With the upcoming attempt to rebound post-Corona, the industry faces a choice: back to business-as-usual or re-invention toward more sustainable practices, such as ecotourism? But also, how has Corona effected tourists? We will discuss all related questions throughout our tourism courses.

For whom
Whether you work in tourism, are a tourism related business owner or a fervent traveller, join us for this MOOC as we apply science to a broad array types of tourism. Then come up with your very own to help drive sustainability in tourism. Subscribe now!

Professional Certificate Programme

This online course is part of the Professional Certificate Programme Tourism in Transition: Exploring a Sustainable Future, along with the MOOCs: Sustainable Tourism: Society & Environmental Aspects and Tourism and Climate Change.
1 review
5 weeks, 2-4 hours a week, 2-4 hours a week
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Tourism and climate change, inextricably connected
From global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions to ecosystem change and loss of biodiversity, from excessive precipitation to extreme droughts; the effects of climate change have become apparent around the world. Eventhough such disasters are devastating for tourism, the industry’s contribution to climate change remains formidable. And if it continues to grow as it does today, the United Nations expect tourism to be solely responsible for consuming the global yearly carbon budget by 2070, all by itself!

In turn, climate change is already affecting tourism destinations. For instance, numerous small islands and coral reefs are under threat of devastating storms and sea level rise. At the same time, we can see other parts of the world gradually turning into deserts, caused by incessant droughts as well as excessive water consumption by tourism.

Climate change adaptation and mitigation for tourism destinations
UNWTO: “The future resilience of tourism will depend on the sector’s ability to embrace a low carbon pathway and cut emissions by 50% by 2030”. In light of this, we have dedicated this online course to the key challenges tourism faces in context of drastic climate change. You will engage with fellow learners in (re-)modelling various case studies related to adaptation and mitigation. Through this exercise you'll gain a well-founded understanding of how to best engage with future tourism issues within your organisational situation. You will also learn about your own carbon footprint.

Join the debate to drive tourism's sustainability transition
The MOOC ends with a range of potential future scenarios. And you will be invited to vote, based on which the teaching staff will further equip the content of this course to best address emergent challenges. Importantly, you will be invited to join the debate platform on sustainable innovations, during and after finalisation of the course. Since there is no doubt that tourism has been greatly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, any Corona related questions will be discussed throughout our tourism courses.

For whom
Whether you work in tourism, are a tourism related business owner or a fervent traveller, join us for this MOOC as we project onto the future what impact tourism will have, if left unaltered. Help drive sustainability in tourism! Subscribe now.

Professional Certificate in Sustainable Tourism

If you find this MOOC interesting, we recommend you take also a look at our Professional Certificate Programme Tourism in Transition: Exploring a Sustainable Future, designed to take you on an wholistic investigation of the industry and eventually leading to your very own concrete envisioning of what sustainable tourism should look like. It consists of three MOOCs, the first ranked by Class Central among the 10 best online courses in the world, the second nominated for the annual edX® award in 2019:

Taught by

Prof. Dr. Edward Huijbens, Dr. Machiel Lamers, Joost van Heiningen, Dr. Arjaan Pellis, Jonas Skutka and Dr. Bas Amelung