XV International Tourism Congress – ITC2023

ITC2023 – XV International Tourism Congress will be held in Mirandela (Portugal), from the 23th to 25th November 2023. Let’s discuss The Image and Sustainability of Tourism Destinations.

For more visit the website of the ITC2023 or see the call for papers.

The International Tourism Congress (ITC) is the annual scientific
meeting of the Centre for Tourism Research, Development, and
Innovation (CiTUR). Last edition of ITC was held in Łódź (Poland) and contributed by the SPOT project. The XV ITC edition will be organized by the School of Public Management, Communication and Tourism, Polytechnic Institute of Bragança, located in Mirandela (Portugal), from the 23th to 25th November 2023.

Back to main theme of the congress The Image and Sustainability of Tourism Destinations the ITC2023 will be an opportunity for academics, master and doctoral students to present and discuss national and international experiences on sustainability and development of tourism destinations.

Travelers prioritize destinations and activities focused on environmental sustainability and local community investment, therefore, discussing sustainability and the image of tourism destinations will allow the discussion of the main topics of today’s tourism trends.

The ITC2023 will bring together researchers in the different fields of sustainability of travel and tourism and invites all public administration members, industry leaders, and professionals who want to learn more about the most recent trends in the field.

Lesson from Italian local seminar – Turin, September 23, 2022

See the summary of SPOT project’s contribution presented during Italian local seminar. On September 23, 2022, students participating in the SPOT project’s study visit to Italy had an outstanding opportunity to share their achievements with stakeholders of tourism development in the region we investigated – Langhe-Roero and Monferrato.

We agreed during Italian local seminar that the sustainable tourism is not a goal, it is a way we can achieve other goals like protection of environment, equity, economic development (not a growth), social inclusion, and diversity.

Students’ reports presented during Italian local seminar

Meet the locals involved in a discussion

Claudio Boasso is the President of Serralunga d’Alba Proloco. Proloco is municipal’s spin-off responsible for local development, including tourism. One of the recent concerns of this agent, especially in the recent years when the tourism fluxes have been increasing incrementally, is to make tourism development more sustainable.

Aldo Buzio is project manager of IdeAzione consultancy company, contribute to orient the development of tourism activities in the area by offering services for local spatial planning. The company is cooperating with LINKS Foundation. For now, the focus of the company is to deliver tourism strategies for both cities and regions.

Giulia Caffaro is co-founder and project manager of Dimora Design Farm finalized to enhance and regenerate boroughs and small realities through immersive spaces sustainable tourism experiences addressing local development, cultural sharing and social inclusion.

Giulia Cerrato is member of the Association Fuori Via that has the objective of promoting the culture of walking, slow travel in all facets, as well as sustainable tourism practices through study and research activities, cultural and artistic design and promotion.

Giulio Mondini is Chairman of the UNESCO Chair “New paradigms and instruments for bio-cultural landscape management” established at LINKS Foundation and the Scuola di Specializzazione Beni Architettonici e del Paesaggio of Politecnico di Torino. He is Full Professor of Economic Appraisal and Planning Evaluation at DIST Dipartment of Politecnico di Torino. He coordinates numerous researches on various topics such as city and territory, environment and landscape, innovation and development, architecture and heritage, infrastructure and transportation, integrated systems for security.

Sergio Moscone is Major of the Serralunga d’Alba.

Enrico Rivella is a specialist of the Institute of Agricultural Food Market Service for National Rural Network (ISMEA RRN) with expertise on the topic of sustainable tourism development in rural landscapes, with particular attention on landscape and environmental values.

Enrico Rivetto is a local owner of vineyard Rivetto, understanding his role through a rather innovative approach.

Silvia Soldano represents LINKS Foundation and was part of the technical advisory team preparing the application of the case study area to the UNESCO World Heritage Site list.

Marco Valle is a project manager in LINKS Foundation responsible for cultural heritage and regional-urban development.

Outstanding week in Italy. See the story map

Let’s go back to the outstanding week in Italy. See and enjoy the story map prepared by Marta Nalej from the University of Lodz.

The goal of the study visit in Turin (Italy) was to involve students in designing a spatial development strategy aiming at the sustainable territorial development of Langhe-Roero and Monferrato wine region.

The study visit to Italy was organized by the Interuniversity Department of Regional and Urban Studies and Planning (DIST). Researchers from Italian team conducted an initial enquiry on spatial planning challenges and opportunities of tourism development in Langhe-Roero and Monferrato, in Piedmont. Students were requested to prepare stakeholders analysis, SWOT analysis, and actionable policy recommendations, and present the results during local seminar organised on the last day of our stay in Turin.

The study visit to Italy was organized in the period between 19-23 of September, 2022. This story map presents this outstanding week in Italy day by day.

Report of ITC2022. International Tourism Congress

International Tourism Congress ITC2022 was organized by the Faculty of Geographical SciencesUniversity of Lodz (Poland) in cooperation with CiTUR Centre for Tourism Research, Development and Innovation. ITC2022 was also final event disseminating achievements of the SPOT project. The event was supported by the Lodz Tourism Organisation, the Baltic University Programme, and the Polish Geographical Society. We met both online and in person in Lodz on 16th to 19th of November, 2022.

Participants of ITC2022 were affiliated to institutions from all over the world, but mostly from Poland (the country where the congress was organised) and Portugal (the country of CiTUR – scientific centre owning the congress brand). Distance matters. Thus, Poles were eager to participate on-site rather than online, while people from other countries preferred to join ITC2022 online. 181 people participated in the congress in total, including 106 on-site participants, and 75 online.

Local organising committee, in cooperation with CiTUR ITC Board, decided to announce the call for sessions first, and then – call for abstracts. This allowed to select the most important topics to be discussed during ITC2022, and structure the discussion in consequence. Interestingly, some topics proposed by most influential researchers have not attracted the attention of a wider audience. On the one hand, broad discussion about sustainable development and tourism was identified as too general. On the other hand, deliberations on youth tourism and sustainability of air transportation were indicated as too narrow. Unfortunately, we were not able to discuss theoretical and methodological fundamentals of tourism research. Missing submissions related to this topic seem to be worrying. It must be emphasized that lack of discussion about the theoretical foundations of tourism research can lead to a significant deterioration its quality.

Discussions on recovering financial sustainability of tourism as well as experiential tourism were found as most popular. This confirms the strength of growth-oriented paradigm of tourism development. However, an increasing interest in environmental context of tourism (see discussion on climate challenges of tourism), as well as social one (see sessions devoted to the issues of accessible tourism and cultural tourism) is very promising. Thanks to the support of Baltic University Programme, the inspirational discussion on sustainable tourism in Baltic Sea Region was organised.

The special plenary session on sustainable spatial planning of tourism destinations was organised to disseminate the achievements of the Erasmus+ SPOT project. The research was conducted to investigate the spatial planning issues of tourism development in the following types of landscapes: vineyard, mountain, coastal, industrial, and rural. This allowed to identify spatial contexts of various factors deteriorating tourism sustainability, e.g. 1) seasonality of tourism, 2) dominance of supralocal structures over local ones, 3) dominance of neoliberal paradigm of growth in tourism destinations, and 4) leading role of tourism industry in tourism destinations over needs of local communities. Students were involved in the research process. And, as the result, the innovative method of “teaching by researching” was elaborated during the SPOT project, and discussed during ITC2022.

Photos of ITC2022. International Tourism Congress

ITC2022 Organisers:

ITC2022 Partners:

Multilanguage online session 4

Chair persons:

  • María Carmen López

Description:

Multilanguage Online Sessions are organised by CiTUR Centre for Tourism Research, Development and Innovation. If any questions, do not hesitate to approach chair persons directly by email: fperdig@ualg.pt or marialopez@estg.ipvc.pt.

Presentations:

  1. Talent management in the tourism and hospitality sector: A review of the literature (Vânia Costa, Andreia Moura, Maria do Rosário Mira, Raquel Pereira, Susana Silva, Goretti Silva) | Portuguese
  2. Wage inequalities in the tourism sector? An approach to the Cávado and Ave in Portugal’s Northern Region (Danielle Pimentel de Oliveira, Vânia Costa) | Spanish
  3. Destination image perception through cultural heritage: The case of Quito (Gabriela Alvarez, José-Luis Jimenez, Paulo Almeida) | Spanish
  4. Destination branding and post-COVID19 territorial-regional tourism development (Giovana Goretti Feijó de Almeida, Paulo Jorge dos Santos Almeida) | Portuguese
  5. Debate

Multilanguage online session 3

Chair persons:

  • Filipa Perdigão

Description:

Multilanguage Online Sessions are organised by CiTUR Centre for Tourism Research, Development and Innovation. If any questions, do not hesitate to approach chair persons directly by email: fperdig@ualg.pt or marialopez@estg.ipvc.pt.

Presentations:

  1. The contributions of creative tourism for regional tourism development (Ana Ferreira, Daniela Carina Ramos Amorim, José Luis Jiménez Caballero) | Portuguese
  2. Why participate in tourist routes? A Brazilian experience (Daniele Rodrigues, Amanda Souza, Ana Claudia Padilha, Erlaine Binotto, João Paulo Jorge, Dores Grechi) | Portuguese
  3. Rail tourism as an enabler of sustainable communities (SDG 11) and the reduction of inequalities (SDG10) (Eunice Duarte, José Carlos Barbosa, João Caldeira Heitor, Eunice Lopes) | Portuguese
  4. Measurement of the tourist experience: Óbidos medieval market event – Portugal (Ricardo Pedras Ribeiro, Maria Pilar Moreno Pacheco, António Sérgio Araújo de Almeida) | Portuguese
  5. Debate

Multilanguage online session 2

Chair persons:

  • María Carmen López

Description:

Multilanguage Online Sessions are organised by CiTUR Centre for Tourism Research, Development and Innovation. If any questions, do not hesitate to approach chair persons directly by email: fperdig@ualg.pt or marialopez@estg.ipvc.pt.

Presentations:

  1. Accessibility, mobility, and seniors’ satisfaction: lessons from a portfolio of events (António Almeida) | Portuguese
  2. Accessible, inclusive and adapted tourism in thermalism: Opportunities and challenges (Adriano Costa, Joaquim Antunes, Gonçalo Fernandes) | Portuguese
  3. Digitalization and innovation in tourism: A comparative study by generations (Diana Menezes, Bruno Sousa, Alexandra Malheiro) | Portuguese
  4. Certification of territorial heritage in olive tourism: A Brazilian case (Thais Simionato, Ana Claudia Padilha, Debora Hoff, Erlaine Binotto, João Paulo Jorge, Dores Grechi) | Portuguese
  5. Debate

16. Internet and communication technologies in tourism studies

Chair persons:

  • Maciej Adamiak | On-site
  • Tomasz Napierała | On-site

Description:

Visit ITC2022 sessions.

Presentations:

  1. GIS to support a more successful sustainable tourism indicator system? A theoretical, practical and a comparative analysis (Fiona McKenna, James Hanrahan) | On-site
  2. Visit Portugal during #COVID-19: Crisis communications and destination image repair (Mariana Casal-Ribeiro, Rita Peres, Inês Baovida-Portugal) | Online
  3. Urban cultural heritage in the digital space (Urszula Tłuczkiewicz, Patryk Brambert, Iwona Kiniorska) | Online
  4. Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the functioning of tourist short-term rental platforms in Polish cities (Karolina Kacprzak, Joanna Kowalczyk-Anioł, Ewa Szafrańska) | On-site
  5. Social media Flickr in tourism research: A content and bibliometric analysis (Márcio Martins, Estela Martins) | On-site
  6. Visitors’ intra-attraction space-time behaviour: A content and bibliometric analysis (Márcio Martins, Isabel Rodrigues, Elsa Esteves) | On-site
  7. Smart web platform for monitoring sustainable tourism (Candida Silva, Bruno Barbosa Sousa, Fernando Perna, Goretti Silva, Susana Lima, Aida Carvalho, Carlos Fernandes, Eugénia Devile, Gorete Dinis, Maria Alexandra Malheiro, Maria João Custódio, Maria López) | On-site

1B. Recovering tourism financial sustainability

Chair persons:

  • Luís Lima Santos | On-site
  • Conceição Gomes | Online

Description:

Visit ITC2022 sessions.

Presentations:

  1. The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the activities of tourism information centres. The case of Lithuania (Viktorija Baranauskiene, Gintare Pociute-Sereikiene, Edis Kriauciunas) | Online
  2. Restaurants’ solvency during COVID-19: The Portuguese case (Filipa Campos, Cátia Malheiros, Conceição Gomes, Luís Lima Santos) | Online
  3. Pricing in the restaurant industry: A bibliometric analysis (Cátia Malheiros, Filipa Campos, Conceição Gomes, Luís Lima Santos) | On-site
  4. The acceptance of active tourism companies to the introduction of an ecological tax in a nature tourism destination (Jorge Soares) | Online
  5. Lifestyle migrant entrepreneurism and the sustainable development of tourism and rural areas in the Algarve (Kate Torkington, Filipa Perdigão Ribeiro, Sandra Rebelo, Susana Conceição) | Online
  6. Sustainable tourism: A literature review (Isabel Loureiro, Vânia Costa, Alexandra Malheiro) | Online

6. Tourism and outdoor sports recreation

Chair persons:

  • Fernando Perna | On-site

Description:

Visit ITC2022 sessions. This session will NOT be available online.

Presentations:

  1. Contemporary problems and directions of development of ski resorts in Poland in the context of the idea of sustainable development (Kinga Krzesiwo) | On-site
  2. Overtourism and sustainability in Polish tourist areas: Causes – characteristics – social resonance (Piotr Majdak) | On-site
  3. Visiting destinations through motivation to participate in sport events: Post-pandemic changes and impacts on destination image (Fernando Perna, Maria João Custódio, Elsa Pereira) | On-site
  4. Environmentally friendly behaviors of bicycle tourists (Levent Soyalp) | On-site
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