Which impacts does tourism have on the social, cultural, environmental, and spatial characteristics of an area? How do tourists influence and are influenced by places and cultures?
How can tourism geography with its long tradition in researching human's activities, behaviors, and impacts in place, time, and space help in understanding the challenges that contemporary tourism is facing? You will tackle these questions and study the interactions between tourists, visitors, local communities, and the natural, and build environment in detail in the Tourism Geography and Planning track.
Tourism is a global phenomenon with important regional and local impacts. Due to the large number of tourist trips and the possible economic influences, tourism development is often seen by policy makers as an important strategy for regional development. As COVID-19 has shown, tourism is a fragile phenomenon: it can suddenly come to a grinding halt leaving communities that rely on tourism without means to sustain their livelihood. Moreover, before COVID-19, tourism had reached a level that threatened that same heritage (both human and natural) on which it depends.
The Tourism Geography and Planning track offers critical insights into the role of the tourism sector in such liveability and identity questions. It offers international, place-based, critical, and research-oriented approaches. In line with the teaching and research philosophy at RUG/Campus Fryslân, the track’s approach to tourism is transdisciplinary involving disciplines such as history, anthropology, psychology, spatial planning, and hospitality studies in the curriculum and a dialogue with global and local actors in (sustainable) tourism development.
Through these theoretical perspectives you will develop the capacity to understand, analyse, and evaluate complex problems related to (sustainable) tourism development and planning.
You will follow the Master track Tourism Geography and Planning in Leeuwarden (RUG/Campus Fryslân).
Read moreThe programme stands on the intersection of different geographical specializations
What attracted me to the Master Tourism Geography and Planning is how it stands on the intersection of different geographical specializations. By highlighting the links between tourism, cultures and planning in a globally connected world and exploring relevant tourism themes such as heritage, landscapes and cross-border cooperation you become a tourism professional with the capabilities to approach tourism from various perspectives.
I specifically liked how you l earn to bring together the various geographical viewpoints on tourism from a theoretical perspective whilst not ignoring how theoretical concepts are used by organizing company visits, excursions and guest lectures.
Joost Blaakmeer, the Netherlands
