Tourism and Experiences

Inspired by the outcomes of the CRC on Tourism and Experience we take the next step and form a Connected Community (CC) elevating a focus on research and learning, with a continued focus on tourism and experiences. We address the following major societal challenges in research, collaboration and education: Climate and environment, Health and well-being, Democracy and resilience, Digitalization, and Sourcing of Skilled Staff.  

We will combine teaching and research activities on different levels, both in applications for Horizon Europe, Erasmus+ projects and similar, and through joint supervision of students, student collaborations, etc.We will offer research-based learning workshops to the CC students, involving also businesses and public bodies, through participatory workshop techniques (e.g. design thinking, open space technology, etc.), to jointly co-create solutions to common challenges, linked to twin transition (uniting sustainability and digital transitions) in tourism. Workshops will also be useful to determine skill mismatch/learning needs across participants and provide ad hoc training to fill the knowledge gaps.

Community Members

Lead: Eva Maria Jernsand

Contact E-mail: eva.maria.jernsand@handels.gu.se

Eva Maria Jernsand, PhD, is a researcher and lecturer in marketing at University of Gothenburg, Sweden. She is the coordinator of a EUTOPIA community on tourism and experiences and affiliated with Centre for Tourism, a transdisciplinary research centre with over 20 years of tourism research.

Her research interests include sustainability, place branding, experiences, innovation, design, inclusion, and co-creation. She enjoys working in close collaboration with the public, private and idea-based sectors.

Eva Maria has published in journals such as Tourism Recreation Research and Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, books on tourism experience and community-based tourism management, and is the editor of a book on tourism, knowledge, and learning. She teaches master’s courses such as Marketing Case Analysis, Marketing in the Service Economy, and Blue Economy. 

Lead: Emma Björner

Contact E-mail: emma.bjorner@gu.se

Partner UNIVE: Chiara Rinaldi

Chiara Rinaldi, PhD, is a researcher at the Agrifood Management and Innovation Lab, Department of Management, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy. She joined Ca’ Foscari in 2021, after spending more than five years at the School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

Her research interests focus on sustainable place development and management strategies, such as place branding, place marketing and tourism in food, gastronomy, and wine sectors. More recently, her research explores twin transition in agrifood and tourism. She published several articles on these topics and presented her work at various international conferences.

Partner UBB: Monica Maria Coros

Partner NOVA: Ines Perez

Chief Executive Officer of NOVA Tourism & Hospitality Platform 
 

Inês Perez, alumni at NOVA SBE, since the beginning of her career has sought to combine management with the creation of impact on society through training and knowledge. Ines was part of the implementation of NOVA SBE’s first communication office, the launch and development of several advanced executive training courses customized to companies, coordinated the foundation, and launch of the first NOVA Sports club (NOVA FCT sports facilities) and it is today dedicated to the operational coordination of NOVA’s Tourism and Hospitality Platform. This platform goal is to create interdisciplinary solutions aimed at solving the challenges of the sector. 
 

In close collaboration with the 9 faculties of NOVA University, her expertise in project management within academia enables her to promote and manage projects synchronizing NOVA’s academic research and studies with the practical challenges faced by the market. She fosters collaboration among researchers, educators, and students, alongside institutions and corporations, to achieve this alignment and drive impactful solutions. 

Partner NOVA: Pedro Saraiva

Vice-rector of NOVA University Lisbon  
 

Graduated in Chemical Engineering from the University of Coimbra in 1987, and received his PhD in the same area from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA, in 1993.    

Professor at the Faculty of Sciences and Technology, University of Coimbra, has been a Full Professor since 2010. His activity includes areas such as management, quality, innovation, new product development and entrepreneurship. He was also Chairman of the Pedagogical Council of the Faculty of Sciences and Technology (1994 to 1996), Pro-Rector (2003 to 2004 and 2005 to 2007), and Vice-Rector of the University of Coimbra (2007 to 2009).    

Has developed research activities in different domains, with nearly 250 publications, more than 4500 citations and a h=38 index (Google Scholar).   

Member of Parliament elected by the District of Coimbra (2009-2012 and 2014-2015), he was President of the Commission for Coordination and Regional Development of the Centre of Portugal (2004-2005 and 2012-2014) and advisor to the Presidency of the Republic of Portugal for Higher Education (2006-2009). Between 2005 and 2009 he was also a BIOCANT Board Member.    

Author of several academic works, he is the holder of several international awards: Feigenbaum Award, given by the American Society for Quality (1999), Yoshio Kondo Award, by the International Academy for Quality (2019), and Medal Grant, by the American Society for Quality (2022).   

Vice-president and Trustee of the International Academy for Quality (2021-), Vice-President of the European Organization for Quality (2020-), he is also a Board Member of the American Society for Quality (2022-), and President of the Portuguese Association for Quality (2021-).  

Counselor of the Portuguese Charter of Engineers (2015-).   

President of the Supervisory Board of Bluepharma (2022) and Chairman of the Board of the General Assembly of LaserLeap (2017-).     

He is also founder of several institutions: Science Youth Association (1986), QUAL - Training and Services in Quality Management (1993), Necton - Portuguese Company for Marine Cultures and Microalgae (1997), PRODEQ-Association for the Development of Chemical Engineering (2001) and Smart Monitoring (2017).    

Coordinates the Organizational Innovation and Digital Transformation, the strategic platform Tourism and Hospitality, and the Consortium CAMPUS SUL (innovation and value creation) 

Partner UPF: Lluís Mas

Lluís Mas, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Department of Communication at Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona.
His main research interests are branding, particularly sound branding, advertising, and corporate communication and responsibility. Lluís has published papers in international journals such Journal of Product and Brand Management, American Behavioral Scientist, Corporate Reputation Review, or Health Communication. He gained a scholarship to be a visiting scholar in Texas Tech University (2017) and has edited the book Innovation in Advertising and Branding Communication (2020, Routledge). 

Partner UPF: José Fernández-Cavia

José Fernández-Cavia is an Associate Professor at the Department of Communication (Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain), where he teaches courses in advertising, branding and corporate communications. He is the Head of the research group “Communication, Advertising and Society” (CAS) and has been principal investigator (PI) for several research projects funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation.

His research interests focus on place branding theory and practice, as well as advertising and public relations. He also coordinates the Master of Arts in Communication Management at the Barcelona School of Management and has published extensively in academic journals such as Tourism Management, Tourism Management Perspectives, Journal of Vacation Marketing, Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, Public Relations Review, International Journal of Interactive Mobile Technologies and Profesional de la Información or Communication and Society. He is Associate Editor of the journal Communication and Society and a member of the International Place Branding Association.  

Department of Communication, 

Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain 

jose.fernandez@upf.edu 

Campus del Poblenou 

Roc Boronat, 138 

08018 Barcelona 

Spain 

Partner CYU: Vincent Marcilhac

Associate Professor in cultural geography of food at CY Cergy Paris University (France) 

Member of “Heritages” research laboratory (UMR 9022) 

Director of the Master in Restaurant and Hospitality Management at CY Cergy Paris University 

PhD at Sorbonne University for a thesis entitled French luxury food: history and geography of a singularity (2011) 

Partner CYU: Cécile Doustaly

Cécile DOUSTALY is Full Professor (Habilitation Thesis) in British Studies and Comparative Cultural Policies, Management and Mediation at Cergy Paris Université (CY), a member of the research centre UMR Héritages - Cultures/Créations/Patrimoines (CY/CNRS/Ministry for Culture) and Fellow, SCAPVC, University of Warwick, UK.

Using pluri-disciplinary methods, her research explores urban and cultural planning, policies, management and mediation, questioning how different cultures attempt to balance conservation and creation, democratization and local engagement; tourism, development and cooperation — notably in London and Paris, the UK and France — glocal museums, urban projects and events, Olympic Games, World Heritage, Cities of Culture (EXPER, HERITRISK, OCC, CIRPAT). She collaborates with ministries, local authorities, cultural institutions and international organizations.

Activities

EU funding

With Ca’Foscari as main applicant and UGOT, CY Cergy and NOVA as co-applicants, we applied for funding in September 2024 from the call HORIZON-EIE-2024-CONNECT-02-01: Expanding Academia-Enterprise Collaborations. The overarching objective of the project proposal is to develop context- and history-sensitive, inclusive and sustainable innovation ecosystem model(s) able to produce valuable and practical knowledge, tools and prototypes to equip European regions with the instruments to ignite place-based entrepreneurial ecosystem innovation.

Citizens Science Workshop

A Citizens Science Workshop will be organized for the Community on January 30, 2025. The workshop will be tailored to the topic of Tourism and related topics relevant for the Community.