Tourism Impacts on Society

Tourism affects a wide range of stakeholders, including residents, workers, businesses, and visitors. The ideal interventions in tourism destinations—often complex to design and implement—are those that simultaneously improve the quality of life for local communities, enhance the visitor experience, and foster better working conditions for individuals and businesses involved in tourism. 

Interventions may involve changes to the physical environment, such as the creation of new attractions, infrastructure, or facilities, as well as the redevelopment of existing ones. They can also be of a different nature, such as communication, storytelling, and events; legal measures (such as regulations and guidelines); financial incentives (such as pricing strategies, taxes, and subsidies); and smart (IT) solutions. 

Through all these interventions, tourism can be organised in such a way that societal impacts are optimised. For example, by sharing benefits and costs more equitably between different stakeholders, by creating (more) meaningful interactions between tourists and residents, by spreading visitors over time and space, or by making people aware of the impacts they have on others. 

Informed by research findings, we collaborate with and provide guidance to stakeholders, including government agencies, societal organisations, and business representatives, as they consider interventions. We also help measure the societal impacts of tourism and monitor the effects of interventions. 

We are committed to meaningful collaborations, both within our institute and beyond, working closely with practitioners, students, and researchers from diverse fields and institutions.  

The members of our cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary research group are: 

• Professor Jeroen Klijs 
• Ondrej Mitas 
• Rami Isaac 
• Jeroen Nawijn 
• Simone Moretti 
• Jelena Farkić 
• Tomas Mainil 
• Ellen de Groot 
• Manuela Gutberlet  
• Lotte Kuijstermans 

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