Category: Tourism Education

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Dania Academy Denmark Meeting News Nordic Tourism Regenerative Tourism Tourism Tourism Education

TourNord goes to Randers, Denmark!

Regenerative and responsible tourism were the central themes of TourNord’s 5th network meeting in Randers, Denmark on the 9th and 10th of April, 2024. Despite the weather not living up to our usual “TourNord sunshine” standards, we none the less had a fantastic program in store in Randers, where TourNord was given firsthand insights from the tourism industry on their take of destination development, sustainability, regenerative approaches and challenges, as well as working with locals and biodiversity.  

TourNord in Randers, Denmark! (source: Christian Dragin-Jensen)

Serving as a forum for exchanging best practices and experiences for education and knowledge development within Nordic Tourism, TourNord had invited speakers from Destination Limfjorden, Visit Ærø, Cold Hand Winery, Randers Regnskov – Tropical Zoo and Dania Academy. We also had time to experience some of the tourism concepts firsthand, as well as discussing and working on our projects, future project applications and cooperation strategies. Read more below to find out what we did!

Day 1: Regenerative Tourism – how does this work alongside destination development, and what can we do as educational institutions?

After a warm welcome from Paul Aspinall from the Dania Academy and TourNord Project Lead Christian Dragin-Jensen, we received a tour of Dania’s campus, highlighting Dania Academy’s wide range of educational programs – from tourism and hospitality management, to optometry and technical design.

After an introduction of the network meeting program, we got stuck right in with our first speaker, Dania Academy’s Karla Løfquist, who came to talk to us about her research project, focusing on regenerative tourism from a Destination Management Organization perspective. We had great discussions afterwards – asking hard questions on how we approach fostering a more “sustainable” (if that is the right word) and responsible future for tourism?

Also, whether Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) based on overnight stays and economic growth are the most appropriate measurements? Or should it be based on metrics such as happiness levels, the number of new established cycling paths, and the diversity of bird species in the local forest?

Ass. Professor Karl Løfquist on Regenerative Tourism (source: Christian Dragin-Jensen)

Before we could get settled for a larger discussion, , Rasmus Friis Sørensen, director of Destination Limfjorden joined us and gave an interesting speech on how their DMO were going to tackle destination development, and what he saw as critical challenges and barriers for success. It was also interesting to see the difference between the first and second presentation, where sometimes great differences lie in what is prioritized in an academic context vs. what is needed in the industry.

Director Rasmus Friis Sørensen on Destination Limfjorden and destination development (source: Christian Dragin-Jensen)

Next up was a practitioner set on implementing regenerative practices on her hometown island of Ærø – Project manager Clara-Stina Amalie Rehde Eidenert, from Visit Ærø. An interesting talk on what challenges are met when trying such an approach with local tourism actors and citizens. This talk also led to interesting discussions on how such an approach can help foster more ‘traditional’ tourism angles – such as growth in the low-season and targeting new segments (such as business tourism).

The last presentation of the day at campus was by Dania Academy’s Morten Winther Hansen – who offered us an excellent insight into how AI can both thwart and thrive sustainability competences for the tourism workforce. His research project offered novel and exciting insights into what practitioners felt the modern tourism workforce needed to have skills and competence wise – particularly with regards to AI and sustainability.

Senior Lecturer Morten Winther Hansen on AI, sustainability and tourism workforce competences (source: Christian Dragin-Jensen)

Towards the evening, we had a wonderful excursion to Cold Hand Winery, where we received both an exquisite dinner and tasting from the legendary entrepreneur Jens Skovgaard, who loved to come and tell us about how his passion for apples has grown into a successful business of making more than 100.000 bottles of fruit wine a year. Equally fascinating, was his dedication to a good story and a drive for excellence, which has resulted in many Michelin-starred restaurants using his wine – recently none other than world’s best restaurant – Geranium in Copenhagen!

Cold Hand Winery (source: Christian Dragin-Jensen)

Day 2: Project Work, looking forward, and an excursion to Randers Regnskov – Tropical Zoo

After a good night’s rest, we started bright and early at Randers Regnskov – Tropical Zoo where we had the most amazing conference room available! Surrounded by snakes, spiders, poisonous frogs and other exotic animals, we received a fantastic presentation from Randers Regnskov on their global and local work with biodiversity, conservation and generating excitement for both adults and children about working with these important messages. Our speaker talked about – rightly so – that zoos in the past had a dark history of contributing to habitat and wildlife population loss, but now have become a critical part in ensuring species and habitats are conserved and cared for. It was therefore interesting to hear Randers Regnskov’s take on blending biodiversity, conservation efforts, and global partnerships with tourism and the experience economy. Without necessarily realizing it, there are many elements in Randers Regnskov’s manner of working which has regenerative approaches which other tourism actors and practitioners could learn from!

Randers Regnskov giving a presentation about their company, and how they work with biodiversity, conservation and the experience economy at the same time! (source: Christian Dragin-Jensen)

There was also time to discuss the significant process we have made on our upcoming Nordic Coastal Tourism book, as well as TourNord admin matters, and a workshop on future project applications within the group. The day was finished with a guided tour of Randers Regnskov and a lunch before we bade farewell to the group.

All the participating TourNord members would like to thank Dania Academy and its partners for their warm hospitality, and a fantastic program which ensured that our network meet serve:

1. As a forum for exchanging best practices and experiences for education and knowledge development within Nordic Tourism
2. To discover and implement innovative ways of teaching to benefit educators and students in preparing them for the current/future demands of Nordic Tourism

3. To promote & advance student/staff mobility amongst partners for learning, innovation and R&D activities within NT.

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Business Academy SouthWest Dania Academy Icelandic Tourism Research Centre Koszalin University of Technology Linnaeus University Lithuania Business University of Applied Sciences Meeting News Nordic Tourism Norway OVertourism Sustainable Tourism Tourism Education University of Gdansk University of Greenland University of Turku Western Norway University of Applied Sciences

TourNord goes to Bergen, Norway!

Resilience, sustainability, regenerative tourism and overtourism were some of the main topics discussed at our 3rd network meeting in Bergen, Norway. On the 6th and 7th March, 2023, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences hosted our largest ever network meeting, with TourNord partners participating from Denmark (Business Academy SouthWest, Dania Academy), Finland (University of Turku), Greenland (University of Greenland), Iceland (Icelandic Tourism Research Centre), Sweden (Linnaeus University), Lithuania (Lithuania Business University of Applied Sciences) and Poland (University of Gdansk, Koszalin University of Technology)!

TourNord in Bergen! (Source: Christian Dragin-Jensen).

Serving as a forum for exchanging best practices and experiences for education and knowledge development within Nordic Tourism, the central themes of the network meeting were:

  1. Innovative and Resilient Tourism
  2. Sustainable tourism: Preparing students for a greener future
Bergen UNESCO World Heritage Site, Bryggen (Source: Bergen Tourist Board).

Day 1: Overtourism and sustainability in Norway? Viewpoints from an industry and academic point of view

After a warm welcome from Ove Oklevik, from the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, and TourNord project lead Christian Dragin-Jensen, the group introduced themselves (as we had new TourNord partners participating for the first time from Lithuania, Poland and Iceland). It didn’t take long then before we went straight to the heart of the day’s topic – namely dealing with overtourism and sustainability – with a special focus on Norway.

The first presentation of the day was by Ståle Brandshaug, partner and consultant at 2469 Reiselivsutvikling, whose vast experience as not only a tourism consultant, but also as the former CEO of Visit Sognefjord and CEO of Region Stavanger, came to the forefront. Ståle challenged the media and academic notion and perceptions of overtourism in Norway, and instead suggested that due to Norway’s size and population, there was actually a case of undertourism! Ståle also challenged the notion of pointing the finger at cruise tourism as the easy scapegoat, instead suggesting that cruise tourism is easier to manage and limit, thus suggesting that land-based tourism could be the root cause of overtourism (since the tourism flow could not be controlled or managed).

Overtourism – a Norwegian perspective, by Ståle Brandshaug (Source: Christian Dragin-Jensen).

This was in stark contrast to the following presentation done by Ove Oklevik, who presented his paper: “Overtourism, optimisation, and destination performance indicators: A case study of activities in Fjord Norway”. The highly influential paper (published in the Journal of Sustainable Tourism and written with prominent scholars such as Stefan Gössling and Michael Hall), painted a very different picture to what Ståle Brandshaug presented.

These differences clearly highlighted some of the challenges we face in Nordic Tourism – balancing industry and academic viewpoints on how to progress with sustainable tourism (and defining whether we have overtourism or not!). This led to a fantastic discussion by all our partners on how such problems could be tackled and discussed, particularly also with how our tourism students need to be able to balance such different viewpoints.

The day’s program also had a presentation by Western Norway University of Applied Science’s research team – who came by to inform us of different Nordic and European funding possibilities which could be of relevance to TourNord, and led to great discussions, and finally, a decision on going for a project application!

Presentation by HVL’s Research Unit at the HVL Campus Bergen (Source: Christian Dragin-Jensen).

In the late afternoon, our hosts took us on an excursion of Bergen, which finished at the top of Bergen (Fløyen), where we could enjoy the beautiful sunset over Bergen and the fjord! We also found it hard to believe that Bergen is the city with the most annual rainfall when seeing this type of weather!

TourNord partners enjoying the view at Fløyen (Source: Christian Dragin-Jensen).

Day 2: Sustainable hotels in Bergen, sustainable lawmaking and practices in education, and centres for excellence with regenerative tourism

Our second day started at the historic Grand Hotel Terminus, a part of “De Bergenske”. It was therefore only fitting that the first order on the program was a presentation by De Bergenske CEO and Owner, Kjertil Smørås. Kjertil highlighted the uniqueness of the chain, in that they wanted to “go deep” into Bergen – becoming the foremost experts on hotels and restaurants in Bergen, as opposed to just scratching the surface in multiple cities in Norway. This was also a testament to De Bergenske’s desire to be an integral part of the Bergen identity, both on social and environmental sustainable dimensions. Kjertil also highlighed how their forthcoming hotel would be a testament that they weren’t “working with sustainability”, but rather that sustainability was at the heart of every decision, and would be as natural as a part of the hotel’s DNA. Lastly, Kjertil highlighted what type of tourist would lead to more sustainable tourism in Bergen (the cultural tourist), and how cruise tourism would be detrimental to such a strategy.

Kjertil Smørås, CEO De Bergenske, presenting at Grand Hotel Terminus (Source: Christian Dragin-Jensen).

Next, a presentation came from Western Norway University of Applied Sciences’ Project leader on Sustainability, Tom Skauge. Tom provided us with a fascinating insight on how the upcoming EU-taxonomy and governmental sustainability regulations will have an impact on both the tourism industry and the educational system in Norway. His examples of zero-emission requirements for cruise ships in the Norwegian fjords, as well as the steep increase in interest in sustainability from students at their universities, highlighted the omnipresence of the climate crises, and how governmental regulations from both Norway and EU will be fundamental for securing sustainable mindsets and industries.

A slide from Tom Skauge’s presentation on implementing SDG in Norway Higher Education (Source: Tom Skauge).
University of Turku discussing centres for excellence with a focus on regenerative tourism (Source: Christian Dragin-Jensen).

After a lovely lunch at the hotel, there was then a group discussion led by the Sari Nyroos and Johanna Aaltonen from the University of Turku, who presented an idea of how to create a centre of excellence with a focus on regenerative tourism. There were interesting concepts used here with regards to education – particularly that of open badges and micro credentials, thus lending further credence that the future of tourism education needs to evolve in order to secure the workforce that is sorely needed. Afterwards, Christian Dragin-Jensen and Grzegorz Kwiatkowski provided an update on TourNord’s book: Nordic Coastal Tourism.

The last order in the meeting room was looking forward to our 4th network meeting, which will take place in Nuuk, Greenland! Gestur Hovgaard from the University of Greenland presented some great practical information, tips (and even a bit of history about Greenland!), so we are ready to head to Greenland in August 2023!

Finally, we had an excursion to the historic UNESCO World Heritage Site Bergen Bryggen and the nearby Bergen Castle.

TourNord members investigating Bergen Bryggen (Source: Christian Dragin-Jensen).

All the participating TourNord members would like to thank the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences and its partners for their warm hospitality, and a fantastic program which ensured that our network meet serve:

1. As a forum for exchanging best practices and experiences for education and knowledge development within Nordic Tourism
2. To discover and implement innovative ways of teaching to benefit educators and students in preparing them for the current/future demands of Nordic Tourism

3. To promote & advance student/staff mobility amongst partners for learning, innovation and R&D activities within NT.

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Arctic Tourism COVID-19 Greenland Guest Post Nordic Tourism Sustainable Tourism Tourism Tourism Education Tourism Employment Tourism lessons learned: from remote locations University of Greenland

Arctic Tourism – some lessons for the Greenlandic South

Guest post by Gestur Hovgaard, Professor at the University of Greenland.

Greenland is not only the largest island in the world, it is also the most sparsely populated country. Today more than 50% of the total population of 56000 live in the five municipal centers of Nuuk, Sisimiut, Ilulissat, Aasiat and Qaqortoq; the capital, Nuuk, has 19000 people. The Greenlandic economy is primarily based on fishing and fish processing, but there is increasing emphasis on developing industry (trade, construction, services), mining for e.g., gold, and rare earth elements and not the least tourism. Although still in its infancy, tourism grew slowly over the past few decades, save for a downturn during the Covid-19 pandemic.

A minor indication of tourism development in Greenland can be seen in Table 1, which includes national and international stays:

                      Source: own table based on numbers from stat.gl

The Arctic in general has attracted great tourist interest, but destinations are unevenly distributed. The major tourist destination of the North, Iceland, had 4,5 million foreign overnight hotels stays in 2018, and 9 million overnight stays in all accommodations land and Greenland (Icelandic Tourist Board, 2019). Greenland is not Iceland and should not be, but the contrast between Greenland and Iceland suggests some possibilities for Greenland (Jóhannesson et.al. 2022).

Tourism in Southern Greenland

South Greenland is Greenland’s smallest municipality in terms of area and population. Today there are about 6700 inhabitants in the region, which is somewhat larger than Denmark, with four smaller towns (Narsassuaq, Narsaq, Qaqortoq and Nanortalik) and 11 settlements. There is a complicated geography, with no roads between towns and villages; the sea is the “highway”, with government providing some aircraft and helicopter connections.

In 2009, the three municipalities in the southern region, Nanortalik, Narsaq and Qaqortoq, were merged into Kommune Kujalleq, with Qaqortoq as the administrative center. The amalgamation was an attempt to use the region’s limited financial and cultural resources more efficiently. Although there is skepticism about the amalgamation, the region has gained Innovation South Greenland (ISG), an organization which serves as a meeting point for business development in the region (https://www.isg.gl/kl/). In the municipality’s planning, the development of tourism into a year-round activity is a central focal point for ISG.

The first organized adventure tourism in South Greenland started back in the early 1970s, and has developed slowly over the years to the current number of operators and destination options (for an overview, see: https://visitsouthgreenland.com/all-adventures-in-south-greenland/). South Greenland has also had development in cruise tourism that roughly follows the pattern in Greenland generally (see Table 2). The Disko Bay area has been particularly important. In 2020 and 2021, no tourist ships arrived, but the expectation is that cruises level will soon resume.

South Greenlandic tourism has been in a positive development in recent years, but was slowed down by Covid-19. As we see in Table 3, South Greenland had a declining relative share of total overnight stays in Greenland, but in fact increased relatively in 2020 and 2021. A probable exSouth Greenlandic tourism has been in a positive development in recent years, but was slowed down by Covid-19. As we see in Table 3, South Greenland had a declining relative share of total overnight stays in Greenland, but in fact increased relatively in 2020 and 2021. A probable explanation is that Covid-19 made South Greenland a popular destination for domestic tourism.

Some lessons for further tourism development

There are many challenges facing Arctic tourism (Rantala 2019). In a Greenlandic context, accessibility is the central parameter for the development of tourism. The planning of three new airports is particularly important. The airports in Nuuk (the capital) and Ilulissat (in the north) are underway, while the airport in South Greenland has not yet begun. At the local level, the formation of the ISG has been an important development. There are also two tourism programs at Campus Kujalleq in Qaqortoq which provide the entire country with new skills for the industry. Further, a short tourist season, and the many tourists with more and bigger cruise–ships will bring, pressure on local communities and the environment. It is also a challenge for the industry that work is seasonal and poorly paid. There is a need for more focus on environmental and social sustainability, both locally and nationally.

References

Icelandic Tourist Board. (2019). Tourism in Iceland in figures. https://www.ferdamalastofa.is/static/files/ferdamalastofa/tolur_utgafur/january-2019.pdf

Jóhannesson, G. T.; Welling, J.; Müller D. K., Lundmark, L., Nilsson, R. O., De la Barre, S., Granås, B., Kvidal-Røvik, T., Rantala, O., Tervo-Kankare, K., Maher, P. (2022). Arctic Tourism in Times of Change. Uncertain Futures – From Overtourism to Re-staring Tourism. Nordic Council of Ministers.

Rantala, O., de la Barre, S., Granås, B., Jóhannesson, G. Þ., Müller, D. K., Saarinen, J., Tervo-Kankare, K., Maher, P., Niska M. (2019). Arctic Tourism in Times of Change – seasonality. TemaNord 2019:528.

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Guest Post Life-long Learning Nordic Tourism Tourism Tourism Education Tourism Employment University of Turku

Lifelong learning in tourism and hospitality: Questions of inclusion

Guest post by Timo Halttunen, Head of Unit at Brahea Centre, Areal Research and Development, at the University of Turku, Finland.

Lifelong learning is customary concept to many of us working in research, development and innovation. The idea of learning taking place at any given moment is a positive one, adding a sense of progress and hope to the narratives of competence development. To accompany this positive notion of learning extending from the early steps of childhood to those of the elderly, another concept has been introduced to describe the spread of learning: learning in education, at work and during the leisure time. Hence, the concept of lifewide learning draws our attention to the contextual characteristics and circumstances where learning happens. However, does learning happen that easily, and do people from all walks of life have equal opportunities for learning?

In this short article, I draw attention to the circumstances and conditions that affect participation in lifelong learning. My focus is in the tourism sector and the kind of jobs available in the sector.

What do the numbers say?

According to statistics, work in tourism is low-paid, occupied by women, working in short-term contracts. From the perspective of employers, employee turnover is a challenge: there is a constant need to recruit workers for the next season, as those who occupied those positions have found employment in other service sector jobs. The ideas of lifelong and lifewide learning seem to resonate poorly to these circumstances described above. In contrast to these challenges, tourism sector beholds also positive perspectives for employment. Tourism offers jobs for people with migrant background, and international workers. Some of the jobs do not require lengthy training and can be obtained by people with learning from experience.

Picture 1: Employment in tourism industries, 2017. Source: ec.europa.eu/Eurostat

In the European Union, employment in tourism counts for 9 % of employment in the business sector. Respectively, in the Nordic countries, tourism forms 6-10 % of business sector jobs. As displayed in the statistics, Greece and Cyprus stand out with exceptionally high percentages (20-26%) of employment in tourism industries. In contrast, Czechia, Slovakia and Poland count only from 4 to 6 percentages.

Picture 2: Employment in tourism industries in the EU in 2020, % Source: ec.europa.eu/eurostat

When looking at the kind of work available, we notice that in comparison to other service sector jobs work in tourism is defined by part-time work, temporary contracts and shorter average seniority. Hence, tourism gives opportunities for the young, those with lower education background, and for the foreign citizens. With this knowledge in mind, opportunities to attain education while working in tourism sector seem less compared to the kind of jobs with full time and long-term contracts. Education is an investment, and even Nordic countries offer free of charge education to their citizens, participation in education at a personal level comes with costs, and those are often related to not being able to work while studying, thus not being able to make the ends meet financially.

Picture 3: Adult participation in learning (last 4 weeks), 2020: Source: ec.europa.eu/eurostat

According to statistics, all Nordic countries have a high rate of participation in education when compared to the EU average. However, when looking deeper into the statistics of how people from different social categories participate in education, we find out that the low-skilled and part-time workers participate less in education than the high skilled and in full-time or permanent work.

Picture 4: Participation in job-related training by group, OECD average. Source: Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC) (2012, 2015), http://www.oecd.org/skills/piaac/.

According to the OECD, workers with less attachment to the labour market have more trouble accessing education). At the same time, recent megatrends such as automatization and digitalization are predicted to cause rise in non-standard work and a reduction in job stability. (OECD, 2019).

Lifelong learning in tourism: Possibilities?

Coming back to the question of lifelong and lifewide learning, what can education providers do in making learning affordances available for people in tourism sector? Looking at the kind of education we provide, the new perspectives of micro credentials and digital open badges may hold a promise of change for the industry. Micro-credentials are shorter and smaller modules or courses of study, offering a more flexible and targeted way of professional development. By splitting studies into smaller modules, educators can make their offering more in line with the social conditions and circumstances of adult learners – in short, making it possible to participate in lifelong learning. Furthermore, with these bite-sized portions of training, workers in tourism sector may not only partake in education while at work, but also attain in education during the low season, preparing them for improved work conditions and contracts for the coming high season.

Timo Halttunen, Head of Brahea Development Services at University of Turku

References

Eurostat (2020): European Union Labour force survey. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/-/ddn-20210702-1. Retrieved 11 May 2022.

Eurostat (2022): The EU tourism labour market in 2020. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/-/edn-20190306-1. Retrieved 11 May 2022.

Eurostat (2020): Tourism vital to employment in several Member states. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/-/ddn-20200415-1. Retrieved 11 May 2022.

OECD (2019), OECD Employment Outlook 2019: The Future of Work, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/9ee00155-en.