Sustainable Tourism

(Course Code: ENV531 – GIS)

Semester:	Spring	Teaching Period:	2 weeks	ECTS Credits:	2	Type:	Elective
Prerequisite Courses:	–		Coordinator:	Ioannis SPILANIS		Instructor:	Ioannis SPILANIS

AIMS & OBJECTIVES

The main objective of the course is to provide students with an understanding about the different components of tourism activity. The assessment of potentials (tourism attractions), tourism trends, strategies and obstacles regarding the application of policies and the role (responsibility) of different stakeholders in achieving development goals is going to be used as the necessary framework for policy development. The students will be assigned in groups to review the present situation of a specific area, to interview stakeholders and discuss potentials, limitations and development strategies in relation to the implementation of a Tourism Observatory.

After successfully completing this course, the students will:

• Understand the overall concept of sustainable tourism.
• Be familiar with the present trends in tourism development (demand, supply, organization of the market)
• Learn about different methods for measuring and evaluating economic, ecological and social factors for sustainable tourism development.
• Be familiar with basic principles and related indicators to measure performance and impacts or/and progress (tourism observatory).
• Recognize the different policy instruments and tools available for entrepreneurs and policy makers
• Be familiar with the different steps to be followed from the creation of a tourism product up to its commercialization

The students will be assigned in groups to review the present situation of the island of Lesvos/Eressos, to interview stakeholders and discuss potentials, limitations and development strategies in relation to the implementation of a Plan of Sustainable Tourism based on knowledge and scientific analysis. A “design studio” will be established for the generation of policies concerning products and services designed to support public authorities and tourism enterprises, but also tourists in their effort to foster a sustainable tourism development.

Students will be individually graded based on:

Individual assessment (written exam on lecture material) (40%)
Evaluation of Group written report and oral presentation – case study (60%)

Activities

Estimated Workload

Lectures

Seminars

Case study

16h

32h

TOTAL

60 hours

Notes provided:
Basic Textbook:
Bibliography:	THEORY Spilanis I., LE Tellier J., Towards an observatory and a “quality” label of tourism sustainability in the Mediterranean, UNEP/MAP/Blue Plan, 2012, http://planbleu.org/en/publications/towards-observatory-and-quality-label-tourism-sustainabilty-mediterranean ECORYS, Study in support of policy measures for maritime and coastal tourism at EU level, EU, 2013, http://ec.europa.eu/maritimeaffairs/documentation/studies/documents/study-maritime-and-coastal-tourism_en.pdf The Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria: http://www.sustainabletourismcriteria.org/ Agenda for a sustainable and competitive European tourism. Communication from the Commission. Brussels, 19.10.2007. Available at: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/tourism/docs/communications/com2007_062101_en.pdf Simpson, M.C., Gössling, S., Scott, D., Hall, C.M. and Gladin, E. (2008) Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation in the Tourism Sector: Frameworks, Tools and Practices. UNEP, University of Oxford, UNWTO, WMO: Paris, France. Available at: http://www.unep.fr/scp/publications/details.asp?id=DTI/1047/PA Karatzoglou B & Spilanis I, 2010, Sustainable Tourism in Greek islands: the Integration of Activity-Based Environmental Management with a Destination Environmental Scorecard Based on the Adaptive Resource Management Paradigm, Business Strategy and the Environment, 19 (1), January, pp. 26-38 Varra L., Buzzigoli Ch., Loro R, (2012), Innovation in Destination Management: social dialogue, knowledge management processes and servant leadership in Tourism Destination Observatories, Procedia – social and Behavioral Sciences 41, p.375-385 Stefan Gossling, (2002), Global environmental consequences of tourism, Global Environmental Change 12, p 283–302 Vagianni L., Spilanis I., Karagounis I., 2005, Framework for comparative evaluation of tourist products: the case of bird-watching and mass tourism in Lesvos Island, Greece, Congress on “Recent Development in Tourism Research” Faculty of Economics – University of Algarve, Faro, 6-8/10/2005 – ISBN 972-99397-2-1 TOOLS Test to implement tourist indicators in EDEN Destinations – Evaluation report, UAB – Universitat Autonome de Barcelona, September 2010 Guidance on the implementation of indicators, UAB – Universitat Autonome de Barcelona, September 2010 The European Tourism Indicator System – ETIS http://ec.europa.eu/growth/sectors/tourism/offer/sustainable/indicators/index_en.htm Hamele H., Eckardt S, 2006, Environmental initiatives by European tourism busineness, EcoTrans-TourBench, p.38 Action for more Sustainable European Tourism. Report of the Tourism Sustainability Group of the European Commission, February 2007. Available at: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/tourism/docs/tsg/tsg_final_report_en.pdf Corporate Social Responsibility. CSR – Reporting in Tourism, 8 Steps to Sustainability Reporting. Center for Ecology & Development, Germany, 2008 http://www.kate-stuttgart.org/zmskate/content/e830/e2740/e4397/e5447/e5556/CSR-Leitfaden_ENG_ger.pdf Climate Change and Tourism – Responding to Global Challenges. UNWTO & UNEP. October 2007, http://www.unwto.org/media/news/en/pdf/davos_rep_advan_summ_26_09.pdf Making Tourism More Sustainable – A Guide for Policy Makers. UNEP, 2005, http://www.unep.fr/shared/publications/pdf/DTIx0592xPA-TourismPolicyEN.pdf Tourism eco-labelling in Europe – Moving the market towards sustainability. The Visit Initiative, 2004, http://www.ecotrans.org/visit/brochure/fr/130.htm Publications by the EU-DestiLink project available at: http://www.destilink.net/index.php?id=publications UNWTO, 2013, A closer look at tourism: sub-national measurement and analysis. Towards a set of UNWTO guidelines Royal Caribbean – Working together to create sustainable destinations http://destinationsfortomorrow.org/8-general-content?start=4
Language:	English
Internet Links:	http://www.ecotrans.org/ http://destinet.eu/resources/…-various-target-groups/tb-01-en-pub.pdf http://sutour.ier.uni-stuttgart.dehttp://www.traintoecolabel.org/r/-en/accomodation http://www.destilink.net/ http://www.its4travel.com/ http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/sectors/tourism/index_en.htm http://www.unep.org/resourceefficiency/Portals/24147/scp/tourism/activities/taskforce/pdf/fact%20sheets%20pdf/-green_passport.pdf http://www.unep.fr/scp/publications/

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