KIEM hbo proposal honoured & a commentary on post COVID-19 tourism & hospitality published
  • publication: 7 May 2020


Our Project Circular Hospitality in Friesland got funded by KIEM hbo. Dr Lucia Tomassini and Prof. Elena Cavagnaro are ready to explore the implications of Circular Economy in Hospitality with 5 industry partners and Circulair Friesland.

The KIEM hbo project proposal presented by Dr. Lucia Tomassini & Prof. Elena Cavagnaro was approved and honoured as officially commmunicate on 7th of April 2020.

Project Leader: Dr. Lucia Tomassini

Project proposal: KIEM.VRIJ.04.163

Length of the project: 12 months

Partners: 5 Friesland hoteliers / restaurateurs & Circulair Friesland

Project Title: Circular Economy in hospitality: building a networked learning community committed to develop further knowledge on the application of circular economy in the hospitality industry

Executive Summary: Circular Economy is a novel disruptive paradigm redefining sustainability in the hospitality industry and addressing the environmental challenges set by this fast-growing impactful industry. To address these challenges, the creation of further knowledge on circular economy and its applications in the hospitality sector is fundamental, together with providing hoteliers and restaurateurs with proper skills and knowhow to tackle such challenges. Drawing on a on going pilot project on Circular Economy in Hotels in Amsterdam, the Friesland hospitality sector and the Professorship of Sustainability in Hospitality and Tourism at NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences have set out to develop an innovative learning experimental environment in which Friesland hoteliers and restaurateurs can develop further knowledge and identify - together with students, researchers, and experts – possible key actions and strategies to implement regenerative circular processes of material up-cycling. To which extent this learning community of the Northern Netherlands contributes to develop wider knowledge on circular economy in hospitality and to identify, implement, and test innovative regenerative circular actions will be evaluated.

 

 

 

 

 

The project activities will start soon and will contribute to build novel knowledge in Circular Economy in Hospitality. We hope the project will play a pivotal role in such a crucial moment for the hospitality sector getting ready to re-open adapting to the new rules and restrictions linked to COVID-19.

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Published on 'Tourism Geographies' a contribution written by Dr. Lucia Tomassini & Prof. Elena Cavagnaro to prompt the debate on the positive transformations we may experience on Hospitality & Tourism after 2020.

Yesterday was published online the commentary written by Dr. Lucia Tomassini & Prof. Elena Cavagnaro for the Special Issue of Tourism Geographies: "Reset: Visions of Travel & Tourism ?after the Global COVID-19 Transformation of 2020"

Commentary title: The novel spaces and power-geometries in tourism and hospitality after 2020 will belong to the ‘local’

Abstract: The global crisis we have experienced due to the COVID-19 pan- demic emergency challenges our perception of the global and local context in which we live, travel, and work. This crisis has spread novel uncertainties and fears about the future of our world, but at the same time, it has also set the ground to rethink the future scenario of tourism and hospitality to bring about a potentially positive transformation after 2020. Such a scenario can be understood in light of the work of Doreen Massey and the piv- otal theorisations on ‘space’ and ‘power-geometry’ she presented in her book For Space (2005). Massey conceives space as the product of multiple relations, networks, connections, as the dimension of multiplicity, the result of an ongoing making pro- cess, and in a mutually constitutive relationship with power. Interweaving Massey’s theorisations with a critical examination of the neoliberal capitalism approach to the conceptualization of space, the COVID-19 global crisis prompts us to rethink the space inside and outside of tourism and hospitality by re-focusing on the local dimension of our space as the only guarantee of our own wellbeing, safety, and security. While the global dimension seems more broken than ever, the urgency of belonging to the local is more and more evident. Hence, we propose a critical reflection on the implications of such a scenario in the space of tourism and hospitality, foreseeing a potentially positive trans- formation in terms of activation of local relations, networks, connections, and multiplicities able to open up such space to multiple novel functions designed not just for tourists and travel- ers but also for citizens.

The link to our paper: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14616688.2020.1757747?journalCode=rtxg20

The link to the call:
https://www.tgjournal.com/covid-19.html

 

 

 

 

 

As academic researchers and professionals of the tourism and hospitality industry we are keen to the support the re-start of this sector, being confident that the COVID-19 global criris will prompt also novel positive transformations.