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We would like to keep you informed about our assignments and instruments to stimulate your own commitment to sustainable urban tourism. As soon as projects begin to take shape, they are highlighted on this page.

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BLOG Co-design as disruptive innovation at Amsterdam City Labs: locating the lived experiences of addressing overtourism through stakeholder engagement with citizens and policymakers TBC

Co-design as disruptive innovation at Amsterdam City Labs: locating the lived experiences of addressing overtourism through stakeholder engagement with citizens and policymakers TBC

Last month saw Prof. Guido Stompff and me and take the train through the Alps for the latest consortium meeting on the SMARTDEST project in Torino, Italy. Bringing together partners from across Europe and the Mediterranean for the first time since the project began in early 2020.  The meeting was an opportunity to compare progress in the City Labs phase of each case study – which includes the establishment of a set of field labs to support citizen engagement, and co-design of service innovation and policy solutions. One of the concluding stages of the research process, City Labs invites identified stakeholders in each city to take part in a participatory process, "aiming at elaborating solutions in the face of social exclusionary processes produced by tourism motilities, scaling up small-scale coping tactics to social and policy innovation" (SMARTDEST, 2022). Centering the lived experience of citizens allows for the collective imagination of, "models that are inclusive, gendered, just, and accomplish a shift towards cities that are more socially resilient in the face of the interventions of tourism mobilities". Each case study has shaped their own engagement process for SMARTDEST - situating the discussion in the local context - ensuring that policies and propositions are bottom-up, human-centred solutions could be sustainable and produce shared value for the whole destination ecosystem.  
Blog Citizen engagement in policymaking for urban tourism and the spectre of participation fatigue

Citizen engagement in policymaking for urban tourism and the spectre of participation fatigue

Last month we had the first big in person brainstorm of ENSUT: Expertise Network Sustainable Urban Tourism.  we brought a number of academics and policymakers together to come to the subthemes and a research agenda for this network.  Focusing on how to develop partnerships for applied knowledge and collaboration,  Peggy Van Schijndel, head of the knowledge centre Creative Business was joined by Professor Ko Koens, who presented a holistic research agenda in response to NBTC's Pespectief 2030, and other developments in the sustainable tourism sector following the challenges of the pandemic (NBTC, 2021). ENSUT Program Manager Iris Kerst spoke of the prosed network structure, and the ecosystem we are building through our living labs in Rotterdam and Amsterdam.  
CRISP Now online: a collection of inspiring European heritage projects undertaken during the pandemic

Now online: a collection of inspiring European heritage projects undertaken during the pandemic

Six European heritage partners are proud to present the CRISP website: a collection of heritage best practices developed during the COVID-19 pandemic. CRISP (Research on Creative, Innovative and Sustainable Practices to get adults back in contact with heritage) is an EU funded project. Partners from five European countries have selected and described 61 pioneering heritage projects for the benefit of heritage institutions, stakeholders, and enthusiasts. With this compilation of (socially) innovative heritage cases, we aim to enrich existing heritage programming, inspire new ones and strengthening networks within and outside of the heritage field.
SmartDest EU grant helps Amsterdam research into liveable city

EU grant helps Amsterdam research into liveable city

How can major European cities remain open to the growing flow of visitors while taking into account the living needs of their inhabitants? The SMARTDEST project is looking for answers to this question. The Creative Business research group of Inholland University of Applied Sciences has received more than € 250,000 in funding to contribute to this European research. The Urban Leisure & Tourism  Lab is at the forefront of this project.