The aim of the “Sustainable Spatial Planning of Tourism Destinations (SPOT)” project is to develop an innovative teaching method of sustainable tourism planning in a master programme and implement the method at five educational organisations involved in the project by the end of the project. This goal is influenced by the wider context of development of the European idea of innovative, sustainable, and inclusive tourism planning. Thus, the following specific objectives should be defined: - Understanding main trends and challenges of tourism in Europe; this objective will result in a comparison of different contexts of tourism development in Europe (literature studies); - Facing the challenges of tourism planning through learning by doing on the spot; as the result of this objective solutions for problems and challenges of tourism planning diagnosed in particular locations will be delivered (study visits); - Disseminating results of joint initiatives for development of tourism planning and its teaching methods; this objective will result in the scientific, application, and educational contributions to tourism planning development (seminars and conferences); - Exchange of European best practices in the field of tourism planning; as the result of this objective a scientific publication (European handbook of tourism planning) and educational manual (Manual for the course on sustainable spatial planning of tourism destinations) will be prepared; both outputs will be included in the educational package offered to teachers and students participating in the sustainable tourism planning course; the handbook will disseminate teaching content, while the manual will describe innovative teaching method developed during the SPOT project. The SPOT project will be implemented by the consortium of educational and scientific institutions co-operating on a regular basis, representing various research, educational, cultural and geographical contexts. The final selection of project partners resulted from the interdisciplinary nature of education and research in the field of tourism planning and the diversity of tourist planning challenges and problems diagnosed in different locations. Tourism geography and spatial economy are the educational and research fields of the leading project institution – University of Lodz. Tourism economics and tourism management are the fields of contribution of Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences. Mersin University's input to the project is associated with tourism sciences and city planning. Tourism sciences is also the main axis of the contribution from the Polytechnic of Leiria. Architecture, territorial, urban and environmental planning, historic cities, and heritage management are the main scientific and educational interests of Politecnico di Torino. Finally, research projects carried out by Institute of Geography and Spatial Organisation of the Polish Academy of Science are focused on geography and spatial economy. Moreover, various geographical contexts represented by project partners refer to different ways of social and economic development, and different cultures: Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, and Turkish. The SPOT project will influence the following target groups and stakeholders in both long- and short-term perspectives: (1) tourism planning students, (2) academic teachers, (3) higher education institutions, and (4) tourism planning institutions. It is expected that European awareness of innovative, sustainable, and inclusive tourism planning will increase in long-term perspective. The ambition of the project consortium is to introduce the course and method concerning tourism planning as a significant part of this increase. Future tourism planners completing this course will use the project's outputs to implement their knowledge, skills, and competencies on innovative, sustainable, and inclusive tourism planning into planning practice. Thus, institutions of tourism planning and, indirectly, stakeholders of tourism development, will be influenced by this project's outputs in long-term perspective. During the project students’ competences, skills, and knowledge in the field of tourism planning are expected to increase. However, the implementation of an innovative method of sustainable tourism planning designed in the project is a promise of all partner institutions representing higher education sector. Moreover, dissemination of project outputs should make other higher education institutions attracted by the method mentioned above, as an increase in the attractiveness of the higher education curriculum in the field of tourism planning from the perspective of both students and employers is expected.
The main goal of the project was development of an innovative method of teaching sustainable spatial planning of tourism destinations in European higher education. The following specific objectives were defined: (1) understanding main trends and challenges of tourism development and spatial planning in Europe, (2), facing with challenges and issues of tourism spatial planning, (3) disseminating results of joint initiatives for teaching sustainable spatial planning of tourism destinations, and (4) exchanging best educational, scientific, and applicational practices in the field of sustainable spatial planning of European tourism destinations. Additional outputs are research and publication titled “Impact of Geographic Distribution of COVID-19 Cases on Hotels’ Performances: Case of Polish Cities”, as well as the action within the output O2 initiated by ULODZ. ULODZ agreed with Uppsala University leading Baltic University Programme (BUP) to deliver the self-administered massive online open course on sustainable tourism spatial planning.
Development of an innovative method of teaching sustainable spatial planning of tourism destinations in European higher education was the main goal of the project, and the main motivation of the people involved. Regarding the objective of the SPOT project we have decided to target three core groups: students, practitioners, and academic teachers and researchers. Following needs of mentioned target groups were identified before the application, and were prioritised during the SPOT project: (1) need for better understanding of sustainable tourism planning in various European social, cultural, legal, and spatial contexts - institutional perspective, (2) need for more efficient educational method of teaching sustainable tourism spatial planning, regarding skills and competencies strengthening job opportunities - students perspective, (3) need for educational method of teaching sustainable tourism planning, easier to be implemented, and easier to achieve learning outcomes - academic perspective.