PhD Courses in Denmark

Welcome to Tourism Impacts: Transformative Powers and Potential

The PhD course is organised as part of the 33rd Nordic Symposium on Tourism and Hospitality Research by Aalborg University in conjunction with symposium hosts CRT.

Time and place

The course takes place at CRT in Hasle, Bornholm, Denmark. The course begins Monday 15 September 9:00 and ends Wednesday 17 September at noon – after which participants are encouraged to join the 33rd Symposium in order to continue discussions about tourism, societal impact and transformative potentials.

Course organisers and lecturers

The course is organised by Associate Professor Laura James and Professor Henrik Halkier, AAU, and Senior Researcher Andreas Skriver Hansen. Guest lecturers are Professor Greg Richards, University of Tilburg, The Netherlands, and Associate Professor Kristina Nilsson Lindstrøm, Stavanger University, Norway.

Course format

The course combines keynote speeches, exploring a local case with practitioners and stakeholders, and presentation/discussion of PhD projects with a particular focus on transformation and impact. Workshops are designed to be interactive and encourage a high level of participant engagement, and all participants will be expected to discuss the compulsory readings in relation to concrete examples from their own and the work of other participants presented during the workshop. Each participant is required to submit a paper (5-10 pages) four weeks after the course outlining the implications of the course for their continued work on their PhD project. Completion of the course equals 3 ECTS.

Signing up

When you apply to participate in the course you will be asked to upload a short CV and an abstract (400-600 words) about your PhD research. Abstracts will be circulated to all participants prior to the course. Please sign up to the course through PhD Moodle no later than 23 May 2025 – you will be notified about the result no later than 30 May 2025. If you have any questions about the course, please contact Laura James (leja@ikl.aau.dk) or Henrik Halkier (halkier@ikl.aau.dk).

Practicalities

The course is free of charge. Rooms will be prebooked at nearby Hotel Kysten, and participants must individually book directly with the hotel, quoting AAU PhD course in their booking. Joint dinners will be organised for interested participants Monday evening (at the hotel) and Tuesday evening (at local restaurant), please book on or both meals if you wish to participate by emailing Andreas Skriver Hansen on Andreas.skriver.hansen@crt.dk.

Course description

The impact of tourism has been central for public debates about overtourism and sustainability in recent years, and these concerns are also increasingly reflected in scholarly efforts, including many PhD projects. Research into the negative and positive impacts of tourism as a social activity is being conducted under numerous headings –e.g. regenerative tourism, mindful tourism, etc. – and this course will tap into this field of academic endeavour. The course focuses on the keywords ‘impacts’ and ‘transformation’ in two, often connected, ways:

• in relation to regeneration of places that frame and contain touristic activities and experiences, with a focus on how tourism can push development in new and strategic directions that correspond with and support local development visions and ambitions
• as a process of personal learning and development when traveling and experiencing places as a tourist, with a focus on co-creating engaging, memorable and eye-opening experiences that potentially can change mindsets and behavior

The aim of the course is to strengthen the participants’ knowledge about key perspectives and theories about the transformative potentials of tourism as a social activity, and the methods through which the impact of touristic practices can be illuminated.

The theme is important both in tourism research and, indeed, for local communities and tourist destinations, where tourism is often used as a means to work towards sustainable goals and outcomes by regenerating, revitalizing, and re-strategizing the communities. To succeed with this, rethinking of actions and practices in all sectors and industries in society, including tourism, is required in order to ensure that outcomes are not only sustainable in the broadest sense of the word, but also are experienced as desirable and beneficial from the perspective of both visitors and local citizens.

 Situating the course on Bornholm is an extra bonus because the development of creative tourism (such as gastronomy and craft) on the island can be used as an example of both types of transformational impact, including planning and execution considerations related to diverse tourism experiences. The students will both meet and discuss with local stakeholders and tourism professionals, and course outcomes therefore also include inspiration through best practice examples taken from local creative tourism actors and initiatives.

Preliminary programme

Organizer:

Associate professor Laura James, Department of Culture and Learning, RECAST 

Professor Henrik Halkier, Department of Culture and Learning, RECAST

The course is organised on behalf of Turismeforskere i Danmark (TID) and Nordic Society for Tourism and Hospitality Research (NORTHORS) at CRT Centre for Regional and Tourism Research (see ‘other comments’ below). Local co-organiser: Senior researcher Andreas Skriver Hansen, CRT Centre for Regional and Tourism Research, Hasle, Bornholm.

ECTS:
3

Time:
15-17 September, 2025

Zip code:
3790

City:
Hasle, Bornholm

Number of seats:
15

Deadline for enrolment:
23 May 2025, please note you must at the same time upload your CV and an abstract of your PhD-project.
 

Mandatory literature

Axelsson, A., & Hansen, A. S. (2022). Citizen science as a tourist attraction. In Tourism, Knowledge and Learning (pp. 92-112). London: Routledge.

Bellato, L., & Pollock, A. (2023). Regenerative tourism: a state-of-the-art review. Tourism Geographies, 1- 10.

Bellato, L., Frantzeskaki, N., & Nigaard, C. A. (2023). Regenerative tourism: A conceptual framework leveraging theory and practice. Tourism Geographies, 25(4), 1026-1046.

Bertella, G. (2023). Telling the Story of a Sustainable Business Model in Arctic Luxury Food Tourism. Journal of Gastronomy and Tourism, 7(3), 135-147.

Broegaard, R. B. (2022). Rural destination development contributions by outdoor tourism actors: A Bornholm case study. Tourism Geographies, 24(4-5), 794-814.

Halkier, H., & James, L. (2022). Learning, adaptation and resilience: The rise and fall of local food networks in Denmark. Journal of Rural Studies, 95, 294-301.

Hansen, A. S. (2024). Bridging tourism and energy industry development in coastal-marine peripheries – the case of Bornholm, Denmark. Tourism in Marine Environments

James, L., Halkier, H., Sanz-Ibáñez, C., & Wilson, J. (2023). Advancing evolutionary economic geographies of tourism: trigger events, transformative moments and destination path shaping. Tourism Geographies, 1- 14.

Lindström, K. N. (2020). Ambivalence in the evolution of a community-based tourism sharing concept: a public governance approach. Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism, 20(3), 302-315.

Lindström, K. N. (2024). Introducing meta-governance as a sustainability tool in popular culture tourism regional development. Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism, 1-11.

Lundberg, C., & Lindström, K. N. (2020). Sustainable Management of Popular Culture Tourism Destinations: A Critical Evaluation of the Twilight Saga Servicescapes. Sustainability, 12(12), 5177.

Manniche, J., Larsen, K. T., & Broegaard, R. B. (2021). The circular economy in tourism: transition perspectives for business and research. Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism, 21(3), 247-264.

Scherf, K. (Ed.). (2021). Creative Tourism in Smaller Communities. Place, Culture and Local Representation. Calgary, N. G., & Stern, M. (2019). Transformative tourism organizations and glocalization. Annals of Tourism Research, 76, 91-104.

Therkelsen, A., James, L., & Halkier, H. (2021). Sustainable Development Goals in Branding: Developing a Research Agenda. In D. Medway, G. Warnaby, & J. Byrom (Eds.), A Research Agenda for Place Branding (pp. 151-162). London: Edward Elgar.

Important information concerning PhD courses: 

There is a no-show fee of DKK 3,000 for each course where the student does not show up. Cancellations are accepted no later than 2 weeks before the start of the course. Registered illness is of course an acceptable reason for not showing up on those days. Furthermore, all courses open for registration approximately four months before start of the course.

We cannot ensure any seats before the deadline for enrolment, all participants will be informed after the deadline, approximately 3 weeks before the start of the course.

For inquiries regarding registration, cancellation or waiting list, please contact the PhD administration at aauphd@adm.aau.dk When contacting us please state the course title and course period. Thank you.