Factual description
The tourism program, 180 credits, contains several learning outcomes in the curriculum that deal with complex systems. In one of the courses, Sustainable Destination and the Impact on the Local Community, 7.5 ECTS, the intended learning outcomes are:
After completing the course, the student must
Knowledge and understanding
- Be able to explain how tourism in society can be analysed and interpreted from a multidisciplinary holistic perspective, e.g. communicative, organizational, social, spatial and experiential
- Be able to identify urban and rural sites potentially suitable for tourism, and explain how tourism is planned in an integrated way with general community planning
Skills and abilities
- Be able to examine the cultural history, natural conditions and social situation of a local destination from a sustainable perspective
Judgement and approach
- Have the ability to critically examine, question and evaluate the impact of tourism on the local community and how it is justified, studying both permanent and temporary tourism from a sustainable perspective
- Be able to critically examine and question the importance of and interest in tourism by different stakeholders (e.g. the perceptions of residents and tourists of each other)
The course deals with the geographical, social, economic and environmental consequences of tourism at the local level from a sustainable societal perspective. It begins with the impact of tourism on local communities, including the spatial and social consequences of tourism. This is done from the perspective of the differences between large-scale and small-scale tourism, but also from the perspective of tourism as a driver of employment and economic development at regional and local levels. The impact of tourism on natural and cultural environments is also discussed. How can tourism be environmentally adapted? Finally, it looks at how the sustainable perspective affects and is motivated in tourist destinations with different conditions. The course includes a group assignment in which students are asked to write a report on a destination in Sweden or abroad, preferably a municipality or part of a municipality, showing how a population group feels about an issue important to the course, e.g. conflict between public rights, landowners and tourism entrepreneurs, sustainability shortcomings in package travel, etc. This is done through a survey with at least 30 respondents. The second examination consists of homework questions that students answer individually with the help of the course literature and lectures on tourism planning.
Relevance in complex systems
The course includes discussions on how different systems interact. Students will be able to critically examine, question and evaluate the impact of tourism on the local community where tourism is studied from a sustainable perspective.
