Studiengang

Bachelor International Tourism Management (B.A.)

Wahlmodul
Prüfungsordnungen: ab WS 17/18 (BWL/TM/WiPsy/WiR/ITM/EI/EP),  ab WS 19/20 (ITM / MuT / GE)
Semester: 6

Wahlmodul Tourismus

Seminar

None

None

Context:

Tourism has been exposed to a range of different crises in the past, whose origins (political, medical, environmental, etc.) as well as impacts have varied widely in terms of total magnitude and geographic scale. Yet, global tourism as a system has been remarkably resilient to external shocks, and very few crises have led to a significant decline in international tourist arrival numbers. That said, at the local and regional level impacts of individual crises have often been dramatic, notably in destinations offering undifferentiated products such as 3S (sun, sand and sea), meaning that tourists and tour operators were able to easily switch to competitors.

The ongoing COVID-19 crisis, by contrast, has unprecedented impacts on tourism including at the global system level. Even countries that have managed to control the disease rather well have done so by closing borders and severely restricting international travel (although domestic tourism has, at least periodically and in some places, been less affected). While the pandemic is still evolving, its impacts and the road to recovery for the global tourism industry are still unclear. Some experts argue that the crisis can be a starting point to transform the tourism industry toward a more sustainable and ethical future; others see a quick recovery to pre-crisis tourist numbers as essential to save millions of (often family-owned and small-scale) businesses and the jobs and livelihoods they support, notably in developing countries.

Last, not least, other ongoing crises such as climate change and global biodiversity loss will most likely result in even more severe impacts than COVID-19, although the full consequences may only be seen after years or decades. It is thus clear that the tourism sector needs to become more resilient, although what exactly that means remains open to debate.

Learning outcomes / competencies:

This course is organized as a seminar with a focus on joint work and critical discussion of scenarios and case studies.

Students learn to critically engage with a still unfolding, cutting-edge subject, and based on this, to develop and discuss scenarios and management implications for the tourism sector and tourism stakeholders (companies, destinations, political decision-makers, etc.).

Preliminary topics:

• Tourism and global crises: historic overview
• Political crises and tourism
• Tourism as driver of global pandemics?
• COVID-19’s impacts on global tourist flows
• Impacts of COVID-19 on selected regions, countries and destinations
• Tourism and climate change
• Tourism and the biodiversity crisis

Etc.

Online conference tool (Zoom), presentations, literature review, case studies

Preliminary selection / more literature, notably journal articles and case studies, will be announced in the course.

Butcher, J. (2020). The war on tourism. Spiked-online. URL: https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/05/04/the-war-on-tourism/ (accessed 2021-02-08)

Cheer, J. M., & Lew, A. A. (Eds.). (2017). Tourism, resilience and sustainability: Adapting to social, political and economic change. Routledge.

Farzanegan, M. R., Gholipour, H. F., Feizi, M., Nunkoo, R., & Andargoli, A. E. (2020). International tourism and outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19): A 

cross-country analysis. Journal of Travel Research, advance online publication. doi: 10.1177/0047287520931593

Gössling, S., Scott, D., & Hall, C. M. (2020). Pandemics, tourism and global change: a rapid assessment of COVID-19. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 29(1), 1-20.

Higgins-Desbiolles, F. (2020). Socialising tourism for social and ecological justice after COVID-19. Tourism Geographies, 22(3), 610-623.

Ioannides, D., & Gyimothy, S. (2020). The COVID-19 crisis as an opportunity for escaping the unsustainable global tourism path. Tourism Geographies, 22(3), 624-632.

Lew, A. A., & Cheer, J. M. (Eds.). (2017). Tourism resilience and adaptation to environmental change: Definitions and frameworks. Routledge.

Lew, A. A., Cheer, J. M., Haywood, M., Brouder, P., & Salazar, N. B. (2020). Visions of travel and tourism after the global COVID-19 transformation of 2020. Tourism Geographies, 22(3), 455-466.

Lindsey, P., Allan, J., Brehony, P., Dickman, A., Robson, A., Begg, C., ... & Tyrrell, P. (2020). Conserving Africa’s wildlife and wildlands through the COVID-19 crisis and beyond. Nature ecology & evolution, 4(10), 1300-1310.

Newsome, D. (2020). The collapse of tourism and its impact on wildlife tourism destinations. Journal of Tourism Futures, advance online publication. doi: 10.1108/JTF-04-2020-0053

Prayag, G. (2020). Time for reset? COVID-19 and tourism resilience. Tourism Review International, 24(2-3), 179-184.

Qiu, R. T., Park, J., Li, S., & Song, H. (2020). Social costs of tourism during the COVID-19 pandemic. Annals of Tourism Research, 84, 102994.