The Multidimensional Tourism Institute (MTI), University of Lapland, together with Tourism Education Futures Initiative (TEFI) is proud to organize the first TEFI conference held in Finland. The conference will take place at Pyhä during June 3-6, 2018 with a theme ”Knowing with nature – The future of tourism education in the Anthropocene”.
Growth in international tourism contributes to, and is shaped by, ongoing climate and environmental change. This contribution is visible especially in the Arctic, known for its natural phenomenon, silence and pureness.
Tourism education, and the knowledge that is produced within the tourism curricula, can, to a certain extent, be held accountable for the conflicting and fragile relationship between tourism and the Earth systems. On one hand, tourism programs tend to emphasise the management and domination of nature for the sake of hedonistic tourist experiences. On the other hand, the search for sustainable ways on developing tourism has contributed to maintaining the artificial division between culture and nature, human and environment. Hence, it is timely to discuss the ways in which tourism education might reproduce a kind of knowledge that remains disconnected from the more-than-human world.
The task for tourism educators in the Anthropocene is no longer to promote knowledge that contributes to minimising the impact of tourism on the natural environment. Rather, our task ahead is to support students in developing knowledge that is based on more sensitive entanglements between the Earth systems and humanity.
Conference webpage: www.ulapland.fi/tefi
TEFI: webpage: http://tourismeducationfutures.org/
Further information:
Rantala Outi, Associate professor
outi.rantala(at)ulapland.fi
040 484 4202
García-Rosell José-Carlos, University lecturer
Jose-Carlos.Garcia-Rosell(at)ulapland.fi
040 484 4190