These include questions of risk and crisis management, the sustainable design of destinations with regard to people and the environment, and the management of visitor flows, as well as fundamental considerations of the resilience of entire regions. In addition, there are new tourism trends, such as Corona, arising from mobile working away from the traditional office. "Traditional vacation regions are currently establishing new segments for 'workation'. Trade fair and conference destinations could also benefit from combining a city tour with a work stay in the future," predicts Pechlaner. In general, tourism will continue to be an "elixir of life" for people, but with different signs. For a long time now, he says, there has been talk of "sense destinations" that offer guests not only rest and relaxation, but also a deeper contact with central questions of life. "Thereby the external purpose of the Nützlichkei is missing", instead the internal experience becomes the central component of the sense destination.
According to Pechlaner, the topic of leadership will therefore be even more central to the course of study than it has been up to now: "Leadership in university education means not concentrating exclusively on imparting specialist knowledge, but rather using the high level of methodological competence to conceive and initiate further developments together between teachers and learners, and thus to be part of them. It is necessary to be able to imagine future developments in order to show ways, strategies and implementation mechanisms of change." Therefore, disciplines such as psychology, sociology, cultural studies, computer science and selected natural sciences would find their way into the curricula even more in the future.
With the master's program "Tourism and Sustainable Regional Development - Management and Geography," KU offers one of the few university master's programs on tourism nationwide. It combines economics, business administration, economic geography and human geography, which works in the social sciences. This is a special feature in the field of tourism and regional development, both on a national and international level.
The curriculum includes the acquisition of basic planning skills, the teaching of basic knowledge and its specialization in economics, business administration and human/economic geography as well as the application in the field of tourism, spatial and regional development. In addition, there is a professional internship as well as practice-related courses. The modules of the second semester are offered in English at international partner universities. In addition, there is the possibility of a double degree with the universities Matej Bel in Banska Bystrica (Slovakia) and Oulu (Finland).
Interested students can still apply for the program until June 20. Further information on the application and the study program can be found at www.ku.de/tnr.