Advancing Tourism Pedagogy in Times of Transformation

Tourism balances its economic benefits with various environmental and sociocultural impacts, making education in this field crucial for sustainable development. The wake of the COVID-19 pandemic has intensified calls for an overhaul of tourism education to better prepare future professionals to act as agents of change amidst global challenges.

This Research Topic investigates the array of pedagogical approaches used to impart knowledge on sustainable, responsible, and regenerative tourism, focusing on experiential and place-based learning integrated with new technologies such as digital, eLearning, and generative AI methods. Furthermore, it addresses the imperative of strengthening community-industry ties and tackling social justice issues in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
This Research Topic aims to elucidate innovative educational practices that have evolved or been introduced in tourism teaching and learning, particularly in response to recent global changes. The focus is on showcasing how alterations in the pedagogical landscape—spurred by the pandemic and shifting societal expectations—have fostered new ways of learning about sustainable tourism. It seeks to highlight empirical studies that explore the scholarship of teaching and learning in this field, emphasizing the transformative shifts that have occurred since 2020.

To deepen our understanding of effective educational approaches in the context of contemporary tourism challenges, we invite contributions that include, but are not limited to, the following themes:

• Digital pedagogy
• Online learning
• Place-based or place-responsive teaching
• Experiential education
• Mixed-modal teaching (using AR, VR, or XR)
• Transformative pedagogies
• Indigenous and decolonial methodologies and worldviews
• Climate change education and its integration into tourism studies
• Culturally and socially appropriate pedagogies (beyond Indigenous and decolonial methodologies)

Both empirical submissions and theoretical or philosophical explorations are encouraged, aiming to enrich the discourse on pedagogical advancement in sustainable, responsible, and regenerative tourism education.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Community Case Study
• Curriculum, Instruction, and Pedagogy
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Community Case Study
• Curriculum, Instruction, and Pedagogy
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Policy Brief
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: sustainability, tourism, education, innovation, inclusion, transformation, pedagogy

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.