B5134 - TOURISM GEOGRAPHY

Learning outcomes

The course aims to illustrate and discuss the territorial phenomena of tourism linked to political, economic, and cultural transformations in the international and regional context, in the light of the sustainable development paradigm and with particular attention to active territorial processes and the role that tourism can play for local development. At the end of the course, the student will be able to analyze and interpret the evolution of tourism phenomena, their spatial and systemic nature (e.g. tourism clusters and local systems of tourism supply), and the territorial development policies of the leisure sector at the local, regional, transnational, and supranational scales (EU, UNESCO, CoE, UNWTO). Particular attention will be paid to the capability of students in analyzing cultural tourism based products and in designing projects aiming at local development and regional tourism promotion in a transnational perspective.

Course contents

Lecture's contents will cover (but will not be limited to) the following topics:

1) Introducing the Tourism-Geography nexus

2) Introducing the Sustainable development paradigm in a tourism perspective

3) Space, place and culture in tourism

4) Defining and measuring the tourism industry: tourism, leisure and recreation 

5) Tourism typologies

6) A matter of scale: global issues in local contexts 

7) Tourism destinations, dealing with complexity

8) Tourism policy: case studies and international approaches

9) Stakeholders and power in tourism development

10) System thinking in tourism, analytical tools

11) Understanding the tourism impacts on societies and environments

12) Tourism development and planning issues

13) A bit of history in tourism studies: modeling a complex phenomenon

14) Current issues in tourism:

- tourism and climate change

- from overtourism to no tourism

- stereotypes, images, imaginaries and representations

During the teaching semester a field visit with related fieldwork activities will be organized.

Readings/Bibliography

Assigned readings, power point presentations and other teaching materials will be made available throughout the course through Virtuale Moodle Platform.

Suggested readings and useful references:

Julie Wilson & Dieter K. Müller (ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Tourism Geographies (2nd edition), New York, Routledge, 2025.

Teaching methods

Teaching methods include traditional lectures, assigned readings and exercises to be discussed during classes, seminars and a fieldwork. Students will be actively involved in debates on current topics in tourism, with the aim of developing critical thinking thanks to controlled discussions during classes.

Assessment methods

Students attending lectures:

During lectures, students will be asked to complete two to three short assignments. The assignments will be graded. The grade obtained through the assignments will weight up to 10% of the final grade. The grades obtained with the assignments will be valid only for the first exam sessione (June and July 2026).

The exam will be in written and analogical form (paper and pen) with three open questions to be answered in 75 minutes time. Each answer will be graded following the scoring method described below. The final mark will be the weighted average of the final exam (90%) and the evaluation of the assignments (10%).

Non attending students:

Non attending students will be evaluated 100% on the final exam.

Marks

The maximum possible score is 30 cum laude. The minimum score to pass the exam is 18.

The grade is graduated as follows:

<18 failed
18-23 sufficient
24-27 good
28-30 very good
30 e lode excellent

If the exam's mark is higher than 18/30, students can refuse it only once.

Registration for the exam is compulsory, and students have to register through AlmaEsami [https://almaesami.unibo.it/almaesami/welcome.htm] .

Teaching tools

Teaching materials will be made available on Virtuale

Office hours

See the website of Alessia Mariotti