Sustainable Tourism
Aims, objectives and learning outcomes
The main objective of the course is to provide students with an understanding of positive and negative impacts of tourism, tourism trends and the responsibility of different stakeholders in developing tourism sustainable.
Basic policies, principles and indicators will be used to make a brief assessment of potentials and barriers regarding sustainable tourism development in Sigri, a small fishing village on the island of Lesvos presently untouched by mass tourism.
The students will be assigned make their own observations and interviews, review the present situation and suggest a sustainable tourism strategy and development plan, including preconditions and implications, roles and responsibilities.
At the end of course students should:
- Be familiar with the present trends in tourism development
- Be aware of the negative and positive impacts of tourism
- Understand the overall concept of sustainable tourism, as well as related concepts
- Be familiar with basic principles and related indicators to measure performance
- Understand the role and responsibilities of different tourism stakeholders
- Recognize the different policy instruments optional to develop tourism sustainable
- Have access to operational tools and instruments available for practitioners
- Know about existing frameworks/schemes for sustainable tourism implementation
- Be familiar with different marketing options, certificates and eco-labelling programs
- Experience to design a sustainable tourism strategy and development plan
Coordinator: Mikael Backman
Duration: 2 credits
Ecosystem Management
This course aims at developing an in-depth understanding of the theory and application of ecosystem management, through field experience and lectures. It is intended to: (i) introduce students to integrated ecosystem and natural resources management; (ii) provide students with an overview of the environmental, social and economic principles that form the basis for ecosystem management; (iii) assist students develop the skills necessary to understand how general scientific principles are translated into management plans for ecological systems, and (iv) help students develop critical thinking and synthesis skills in order to evaluate the adequacy of existing ecosystem management plans and to assess the consequences of alternative policy scenarios. Full advantage is taken of the ample opportunities provided by the island of Lesvos to study ecosystem management in practice. Lesvos is an island with a long history of human habitation and impacts of human activities, a wealth of natural and semi-natural ecosystems and biodiversity, conflicting interests of land use and pressures on the environment which are representative of most regions in the south of Europe. Therefore, the purpose of this course is to assess the environment of Lesvos as an island region, because of its unique features that make it an excellent case study.
Learning outcomes
At the end of the course a successful student should be able to:
1. Understand and use basic concepts of ecosystem management theory
2. Understand the complexity and meaning of the Man/Nature interaction and how it evolved through time
3. Understand components of ecosystem structure and function on different scales
4. Handle and utilise available quantitative and qualitative data sets to identify critical elements, to reach conclusions and to make decisions for ecosystem management
Coordinator: Prof. C. P. Halvadakis
Credits: 6
