Tourism Business Environment and Experience Economy (5cr)

Objectives (course unit)

The course introduces the nature of tourism industry and its key actors. The focus is on the tourism demand and supply and the external tourism environment. The students familiarize themselves with the concept of experience economy and its’ principles within tourism business. Contemporary trends in tourism are introduced and discussed.

After completing the course, the students will be able to:

Understand the nature and the role of different sectors and actors within the tourism industry.
Become familiar with the tourism system and its external environment.
Know the concept and principles of experience economy within tourism business.
Take aspects of experience economy and trends in tourism into consideration when analyzing, developing and planning tourism.
Understand the importance of tourism planning and development.

Content (course unit)

What does the tourism industry consist of?
Why are both the private and public sector important in developing tourism?
What are the principles of experience economy?
What kinds of trends are visible in contemporary tourism?
What kinds of impacts do they have on tourism planning and development?

Exam schedules

Will be specified later

Assessment methods and criteria

Team working, field work, report and essay writing, Tabula discussion, exam. Understanding tourism business and experience economy, identifying characteristics and nature, applying academic material and reflecting it with experience enterprise -case selected.

Assessment scale

0-5

Teaching methods

Lectures, team working, Tabula, report and essay writing, practical examples and experimental cases, "learning by doing"

Learning materials

Welcome to the Experience Economy. Pine&Gilmore, 1998
Handbook on the Experience economy. Sundbo&Sorensen, 2013
Experience Economy as an Instrument to Create Economic Profitability. Lyck, 2010
Experience Economy Strategies: Adding Value to Small Rural Businessess, Fiore et al., 2007
Web sites are presented in Tabula course.

Student workload

Course is of 5 credits, it is 135h of work
Lectures and meetings: 12h
Team working: 70h
report writing: 53h

Content scheduling

Will be specified later

Completion alternatives

Must be discussed with teacher beforehand

Practical training and working life cooperation

Contacting the tourism companies

International connections

Possibility to select an international enterprise for the task, international student teams

Further information

Course is highly based on team working, but lectures are necessary to attend in order to pass the course

Assessment criteria - fail (0) (Not in use, Look at the Assessment criteria above)

No participation in team working or lectures. Student does not understand the concepts of experience economy and nature of tourism business, can not reflect theories in tasks. Student is not able to understand and apply material presented.

Assessment criteria - satisfactory (1-2) (Not in use, Look at the Assessment criteria above)

Student is partly understanding the concepts of experience economy and tourism business characteristics. Student is able to discuss, consider and apply only few characteristics/theries when conducting the tasks. Material presented for the tasks is only partly applied and understood.

Assessment criteria - good (3-4) (Not in use, Look at the Assessment criteria above)

Student understands the concepts of experience economy and tourism business. Student is able to consider, discuss and apply most of the significant characteristics and theories and presents examples. Material presented for the tasks is well applied.

Assessment criteria - excellent (5) (Not in use, Look at the Assessment criteria above)

Student implements thorough understanding of the experience economy and tourism business by applying, discussing and reflecting the ideas and characteristics by various examples and own, new ideas or perspectives. Material presented for the tasks is carefully applied.