Class Central is learner-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Wageningen University

Sustainable Tourism: Society & Environmental Aspects

Wageningen University via edX

Best Course of All Time
Go to class Write review

Overview

Tourism’s profound impact on the world
 Tourism continues to experiencing incredible growth. Of all the industries of major importance worldwide, Travel and Tourism directly contribute $1.4 trillion to the global economy and provides one out of ten jobs and that number is growing.

But tourism is more than just a powerful economic force. Tourist activities come with a host of social and environmental issues at tourism destinations. And return, tourism business itself is highly sensitive to global transformations such as changing consumer behaviour, economic developments, natural disaster, epidemics, or acts of terrorism. Tourism is in fact a complex phenomenon.

Introduction to tourism; an all-round perspective
Instead of taking on tourism education’s customary approach – that of growth driven, applied and hospitality management – join us to explore the tourism industry and build your own reflections. You'll be exposed to a variety of insights throughout the course. These include tourism's historical background and a variety of social science approaches will be looked at, with a special focus on the human geography of tourism. You will be exposed to the negative impacts on natural resources, the cultural heritage of host communities and climate change related issues, such as carbon emissions. Which role can sustainable tourism development play to address both the tourism associated economic benefits as well as the collateral costs for key stakeholders?

Based on weekly reflection exercises, you'll be challenged to form your own argument for a tourism development of your choice. You'll also help others by providing and receiving meaningful feedback on their critical reflections of tourism phenomena.

The effects of Corona virus on the tourism industry
There is no doubt that tourism has been greatly affected by the Covid 19 virus outbreak. With the upcoming attempt to rebound post-Corona, all players in the industry face a choice: will it be business as usual or do we re-invent toward more sustainable practices? But also, how has Corona effected tourists and their behaviour? We will discuss these and other highly relevant questions throughout our tourism courses.

For whom
Whether you are a business owner, work in tourism or an fervent traveller, join us for this MOOC for an science based understanding of what tourism does to our living environment, our behaviour and our cultural inheritance. Help drive sustainability in tourism. Subscribe now!

Professional Certificate Programme

This online course, ranked among the 10 best online courses in the world by Class Central, is part of the Professional Certificate Programme Tourism in Transition: Exploring a Sustainable Future, along with the MOOC Sustainable Tourism: Rethinking the Future, which was nominated for the annual edX® award in 2019 and the MOOC Tourism and Climate Change.

Syllabus

Module 1: Introduction & Overview
What is tourism, and how can you study it from a social sciences point of view?

Module 2: History of global tourism development
Where does tourism come from? We go back in time to understand where our contemporary tourism practices originate.

Module 3: Scientific approaches and systemic observations
What are typical social science approachesto tourism; including behavioral, cultural, and more critical observations? And to what kind of observations do these approaches lead?

Module 4: Key theories and global flows
Take notice of a set of typical theoretical concepts used in tourism studies, and become acquainted with how global tourism developments run parallel with rapidly developing flows of people, goods, technology, information,and capital.

Module 5: Environmental impacts of tourism
Take the main economic, socio-cultural, and environmental interactions and impacts generated by and in tourism.

Module 6: Synthesis and looking forward
Finalize your own argument related to a tourism development of your choice, and become familiar with the science of sustainable tourism.

Taught by

Arjaan Pellis and Jonas Skutka

Tags

Reviews

4.5 rating, based on 216 Class Central reviews

3.6 rating at edX based on 5 ratings

Start your review of Sustainable Tourism: Society & Environmental Aspects

  • Anonymous
    This is one of the best courses for the tourism field. This is one of the best courses for the tourism field. This is one of the best courses for the tourism field. This is one of the best courses for the tourism field. This is one of the best cour…
  • Anonymous
    The material is good and the case study assignment is also pretty well thought out. However, some of the tests are quite confusing, as there are many questions that are contradicting or have double negatives which might make it difficult for someone…
  • Anonymous
    My favourite part of this course was learning about the different approaches for tourism from economic to spatial behaviour of tourism which helped me significantly with my project and helped captured my audience. I particularly liked learning about the rapid advancements of tourism over time from people 80 years ago not being entitled to days off till more people having days off from work which has heavily contributed to the scale of tourism we see today. Bigger, faster modes of transport such as Rail, Air and Sea travel have heavily contributed to the way we travel nowadays
  • Anonymous
    I am very satisfied with the course Sustainable Tourism: Society and Environmental Aspects because I learned many new concepts related to tourism, including tourism and business, natural disasters, CO₂ emissions, and the social impacts of tourism.
  • Anonymous
    I found the course very interesting. I chose to do this course for my minor, because I didn't know much about sustainable tourism and it seemed very interesting. Also, I want to continue using this knowledge for my study Landscape Architecture. I ca…
  • Anonymous
    The course encouraged analytical thinking about power relations, inequality, sustainability, and governance within tourism development. Through case studies, academic literature, and group discussions, I developed the ability to assess tourism beyond economic benefits, focusing on social justice and community impacts. The interdisciplinary approach strengthened my academic writing and critical reflection skills. Overall, the course was well structured, intellectually engaging, and highly relevant for understanding contemporary tourism challenges in a global context.
  • Anonymous
    It felt amazing to work on this course at my own pace, freedom is good that tourist have but as students we also like our freedom. I want to thank the lecturer arjaan for his enthausiasm in the videos I got presented. The content was fairly easy, which on the one hand is nice because it means we as student can understand it. But on the other hand I would like some more dept in certain fields, examples isn't enough.
  • Anonymous
    Very helpful and informative course! The lecturers explain concepts clearly, and I love that the clips are all separate from each other so that students can study at their own pace. I took this course as an elective and it introduced me to many foreign topics that I had never thought about, despite being an avid traveller. Thank you!
  • Anonymous
    The Sustainable Tourism course was informative and interesting. I appreciated that sustainability was considered not only from an ecological perspective, but also from social and economic perspectives, such as cultural preservation and local communities. I found the discussion groups very valuable because you could hear different opinions and perspectives. This made the course interactive and helped me better understand the theory. It was a shame, however, that you are dependent on the input of other students, which was sometimes limited. Overall, the course gave me new insights into how tourism can be made more sustainable.
  • Anonymous
    The Sustainable Tourism course was very insightful and well-structured. I really liked how it combined theory with real-life examples, which made the content both practical and easy to understand. The modules covered important topics such as tourism development, authenticity, economic leakages, and the environmental impacts of tourism in a clear and engaging way. I also appreciated how the course encouraged critical thinking about the role of tourism in society and the environment. Overall, it was a very good course that gave me useful knowledge and tools for the future.
  • Anonymous
    I really enjoyed this course; it encouraged me to think about the various perspectives of tourism. This course challenges you to think without being difficult, the level of this course is perfect for someone like me who has no background in tourism.
  • Anonymous
    It's a really fun course, even for me as a landscape designer. I learned a lot about how tourism works. I can advise everybody to take this SPOC, and I guarantee that it will be enjoyable.
  • Anonymous
    This course gives the basis of Tourism and how it works and how it is related to the environmental aspects. Also the assigment is progressive and accessible to everybody even people who have never been to university.
  • Anonymous
    unfortunately it was meant for a large group to work on at once, so when doing it individually, you're lacking a lot of the feedback and discussion moments you'd otherwise have
  • Anonymous
    The lectures provided in this course were a lot of fun! And because they were short, they were easy to follow.
  • Anonymous
    I really liked this course! I think the medium of online learning was a great match for the workload and I liked that we got to choose our own topic to explore in more depth. Lastly I greatly appreciated the fun and creative videos, you could see th…
  • Anonymous
    I really enjoyed the course, as I think it is interesting and covers a lot of perspectives on tourism, but it is also approachable for people who don't have a background in this field.
  • Anonymous
    This is very good and informative course for every one who needs to improve their skills and knowledge in tourism industry it's very essential to learn this type of courses
  • Anonymous
    I found the course extremely interesting. I have learnt alot of things about factors effecting Tourism that i hadn't even realised especially for the need to preserve some environmental areas. I have discovered factors effecting the way we indulge i…
  • Anonymous
    It is useful for me and help me to My life and academic side the lessons and the expression of the topic and every part of the lessons explain very interesting subject
Go to class

Never Stop Learning.

Get personalized course recommendations, track subjects and courses with reminders, and more.

Sign up for free
Someone learning on their laptop while sitting on the floor.