Course Topics
The course deals with theoretical concepts as well as scientific frameworks and methods for analysing, evaluating and managing current tourism trends. The following list of topics is indicative. Further relevant topics can be added ( until the start of the course). Frameworks of regenerative and transformative tourism; Lifestyle entrepreneurship; Network analytical frameworks in tourism; Artificial Intelligence in tourism exemplified with Artificial Neural Networks; Destination image & segmentation; Asymmetric effects of guest satisfaction; Tourism benchmarking; the Ethics of tourism sustainabiltiy; Climate change and tourism. The frameworks, methods and theories discussed are critically reflected upon and their limitations are highlighted. Notably, the course also adresses practical tourism perspectives through the elaboration of case studies with the industry. By so doing, mobility trends, demographic trends and labour market trends (shortages, grievances and justice issues) as well as the usage of artificial intelligence methods in tourism will be covered.

Teaching format
Lectures in the form of classroom teaching, exercises on academic papers and case studies and presentations

Educational objectives
INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOMES (ILO) ILO 1: KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING ILO 1.1 The student acquires specific competences and skills to deal with management issues from the perspective of the management of tourism enterprises, the development and promotion of tourism destinations as well as the planning and management of integrated tourism systems and individual services in strategic, organisational and administrative terms with an international and intercultural perspective. ILO 1.2 The student acquires the ability to identify and analyse the environmental and social problems induced by tourism and to understand their interdependencies and contexts by applying theories and methods and developing explanatory approaches. ILO 2: ABILITY TO APPLY KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING ILO 2.1 The student acquires the ability to understand and analyse the problems characteristic of the tourism sector by applying theories and models and using suitable instruments for the management of tourism enterprises. ILO 2.2 The student acquires the ability to apply models to analyse the tourism market. ILO 2.3 The student acquires mastery of the management of human resources and the ability to prioritise corporate culture. ILO 2.4 The contextual, multidisciplinary approach enables students to consider operational, sectoral, economic and social requirements and environmental problems in decision-making processes in a holistic manner. ILO 2.5 Areas of knowledge application encompass both micro, meso and macro levels, and include the acquisition of skills that are in demand in both policy advice and strategy development in companies. ILO 2.6 In addition, there are skills that have their foundation in behavioural economics, decision theory and consumer behaviour research, skills that are particularly important in empirical analysis as well as in ex-ante forecasts and scenarios in the context of future-oriented issues. ILO 2.7 The skills developed can be applied in regional, national and international contexts. ILO 2.8 The development and promotion of competences also includes the ability to present complex, socially relevant issues and results in a precise and coherent manner, but in an understandable way and in a target group-oriented way. ILO 3: AUTONOMY OF JUDGEMENT ILO 3.1 Acquire the ability to compare empirical models and findings in the study of tourism companies, associations, consortia and destinations. ILO 4: COMMUNICOATION SKILLS ILO 4.1 The graduate of the Master's programme will be able to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, the specific contents of the individual areas and to assess the effects of his/her communication by using different specialist languages, depending on the recipient and the communicative and didactic intentions involved. Written and oral skills are developed in particular in those educational activities that serve to prepare the Master's thesis, in the discussion of business cases and in the interactive lectures, which include group discussions and a comparison of individual analyses. ILO 5: LEARNING ABILITY ILO 5.1 Identify thematic links and establish relationships between different cases and contexts of analysis. ILO 5.2 Systematically present a new problem and generate appropriate taxonomies. ILO 5.3 Develop general models based on the phenomena analysed.

Additional educational objectives and learning outcomes
The aim of the course is to provide students with concepts, models and techniques to analyse economic and non-economic factors necessary to identify, understand and evaluate current trends and issues affecting the tourism sector. The course applies management and marketing theories with the aim to evaluate complex business problems and to formulate sustainable strategies for tourism businesses and destinations to face contemporary issues and take advantage of the latest trends. Knowledge and understanding: • of concepts, models and techniques to exploit market opportunities in tourism according to latest trends • of current trends and issues in the development of sustainable tourism • of current and new formats relevant for sustainable competitiveness of tourism businesses and destinations Applying knowledge and understanding: • Ability to recognize the major current issues and latest trends shaping the tourism sector. • Ability to apply theories and models to formulate strategies for tourism businesses and destinations to face current issues and take advantage of the latest trends. • Ability to recognize and apply effective strategies, tools and practices to establish collaboration among tourism stakeholders for the development of smart tourism. Making judgments: • Acquire the ability to gather and interpret relevant data to forecast change in the global tourism environment and to make judgments for successful strategies • Making judgments on the competitiveness of tourism destinations and firms in a dynamic environment • Have the ability to integrate knowledge and handle complexity for formulating decisions about the impact of global environmental and digital factors on the international tourism market and the market opportunities that may arise. Communication skills: • Communication skills to present in a consistent and convincing way the development of competitive and sustainable strategies for tourism firms and destinations • Communicate information, ideas, problems and solutions related to the identification and exploitation of market opportunities in tourism. Learning skills: • Ability to establish interdisciplinary understanding and links among the heterogeneous required readings about management and marketing trends and issues in an autonomous and independent way • Ability to apply a historical approach to contextualize, interpret and forecast the (future) evolution of the tourism landscape.

Assessment
Option 1: One presentation (50%); final written exam (50%). The presentation requires students to work in groups to work on a chosen case study both in theoretical and methodological terms. Beside the presentation, students are required to submit a printed copy of the slides with comments in a report format. The final written exam consists of open questions and one essay-type question. These questions aim to evaluate the students’ understanding of theoretical concepts and their ability to use and critically reflect these concepts for analysing and explaining current issues and trends in tourism management. All ILOs are assessed (ILO 1-5) The final written exam will last 90 minutes. Option 2: Final written exam (100%). The final written exam consists of open questions and one essay-type question. These questions aim to evaluate the students’ understanding of theoretical concepts and their ability to use and critically reflect these concepts for analysing and explaining current issues and trends in tourism management. All ILOs are assessed (ILO 1-5) The final written exam will last 120 minutes

Evaluation criteria
Assessment criteria applied: - Knowledge and understanding of texts (20%) - Ability to make connections between texts (5%) - Ability to apply knowledge (20%) - Independent judgment and critical thinking (30%) - Transfer of acquired knowledge to practical contexts (25%)

Required readings

Fuchs, M. & Pikkemaat, B. (2004). Destination Image Analysis: A Cross-Cultural Segmentation Approach. Tourism: State of the Art II, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK, June 27-30 2004, pp. 127-148.

Fuchs, M. & Weiermair, K. (2004): Destination Benchmarking - An Indicator-System's Potential for Exploring Guest Satisfaction. Journal of Travel Research, 42 (3): 212-225

Fuchs, M. (2004): Strategy Development in Tourism Destinations: A Data Envelopment Analysis Approach. Poznan Economics Review, 4 (1): 52-73.

Höpken, W. & Fuchs, M. (2022). Business Intelligence in Tourism, in Z. Xiang et al. (eds.), Handbook of e-Tourism, Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022, 497-524.

Fuchs, M., Höpken, W. & Lexhagen, M. (2014). Big Data Analytics for Knowledge Generation in Tourism Destinations – A Case from Sweden, Journal of Destination Marketing and Management, 3(4):198-209.

Fuchs, M., Eberle, T. & Höpken, W. (2025). Google Maps data for Tourism Real-time Monitoring and Analytics: The case of Cultural Tourism, Sweden, Stylos, N. & Zwiegelaar J. (eds.) Big Data Marketing and Management in Tourism and Hospitality, Edward Elgar Publishing (146–167)

Gretzel, U., Fuchs, M., et al. (2020). E-tourism beyond COVID-19: A call for transformative research. Information Technology & Tourism, 22, 187–203

Akhoundoghli, M & Boluk, K (2025). An examination of Degrowth Frameworks: Localizing, Socializing and Regenerative Tourism, Tourism Analysis, 30(1) 23-43.

Fuchs, M. (2023). A Post-Cartesian Economic and Buddhist view on tourism, Annals of Tourism Research, 103, 688, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2023.103688

Ghoshal S (2005) Bad management theories are destroying good management practices. Academy of Management Learning Education 4(1):75–91

Dierksmeier C, Pirson M (2010) The modern corporation and the idea of freedom. Philosophy & Management 9(3):5–25

Tomassini, L., Baggio, R., Cavagnaro, E., Farsari, I., Fuchs, M., & Sørensen, F. (2024) Circular economy in tourism and hospitality: A micro-meso-macro framework for inter-disciplinary research, Tourism & Hospitality Research, 25(4), 718-725.  

Supplementary readings

Peters, A., Fredman, P. & Fuchs, M. (2026). The Tourism Biodiversity Knowledge System: An Interdisciplinary and Integrative Review, Tourism Recreation Research, (Open access), https://doi.org/10.1080/02508281.2025.2611769  

Regitz, D., Höpken, W. & Fuchs, M. (2026) User-Generated Content for Identifying KANO Product Quality Features: A Fine-Grained Topic Detection and Sentiment Analysis Approach, Journal of Information Technology & Tourism, (Open access), 28(20) https://doi.org/10.1007/s40558-025-00354-y

Slevitch, L. (2024). Kano Model Categorization Methods:

Typology and Systematic Critical Overview for Hospitality and Tourism. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 1-31.

Fuchs M., Sigala M. (2022) Strategic use of information technologies in tourism: A review and critique. In: Xiang Z., Fuchs M., et al. (eds) Handbook of e-Tourism. Springer, Cham., 1109-1145,

Höpken, W., Eberle, T., Fuchs, M., Lexhagen, M. (2019). Google Trends Data for analysing tourists’ online search behaviour and improving demand forecasting, Journal of Information Technology and Tourism, 21:45–62

Höpken, W., Wang, Z., Schwarzenbacher, S. & Fuchs, M. (2026). Comparison of Tourists’ Perceptions and Destinations’ Self-Presentation through Instagram Posts: A Convolutional Neural Network-based Image Recognition Approach Journal of Information Technology & Tourism, (Open access), 28(16) https://doi.org/10.1007/s40558-025-00355-x

Law, R., Lin, J., Ye, H. & Fong, D. (2024) AI research in hospitality: a state-of-the-art review. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 36(6) 2049–2068.

Eber, Z. F., Baggio, R. & Fuchs, M. (2018). Network analysis of a multi destination region: The case of Halland, South Sweden, Journal of Information Technology & Tourism, 20, 181-189.

Kronenberg, K. & Fuchs, M. (2021). Aligning Tourism's Socio-Economic Impact with the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. Tourism Management Perspectives, 39, 1-12.

Minett D, Yaman R & Denizci B (2009) Leadership styles and ethical decision-making in hospitality management, International Journal of Hospitality Management, 28, 486-493

Fuchs, M., Fossgard, K., Stensland, S. & Chekalina, T. (2021). Innovation and creativity in nature-based tourism: A critical reflection and assessment, In V. Haukeland, & P. Fredman (Eds.) Nordic Perspectives on Nature-based Tourism, (pp. 175-193), Edward Elgar.

Fuchs, M. & Kronenberg, K. (2025). Assessing Cultural Tourism’s and Creative Sectors’ Contribution to build a Circular Economy, Salvador, E. & Pappalepore, I. (eds.). Responsible Consumption and Production in the Cultural and Creative Industries, Routledge, New York, pp. 75-93.

Higgins-Desbiolles, F. (2024) The end of tourism? Journal of Tourism Futures, 10 (3): 476–485.

Bellato, L. & Pollock, A. (2023). Regenerative tourism: a state-of-the-art review, Tourism Geographies, 27(3-4), 558-567

Sun, YY., et al. (2024) Drivers of global tourism carbon emissions. Nat Commun 15, 10384

 

Further information
Teaching materials, such as PowerPoint slides, required readings and further readings can be found in the Reserve Collection