Semester Flourishing Destinations successfully launched
Week 1 saw the start of Flourishing Destinations: a newly developed 3rd-year Tourism Management semester. In this semester, students write a vision, define a strategy and then develop concrete products to turn an existing area into a Flourishing Destination.
A Flourishing Destination is a destination where it is good to live, work and visit for everyone and everything. The ambition moves beyond sustainability and restoration, and towards regeneration. Its characteristics are inclusiveness, balance and adaptability
It is a new concept that requires a different 'mind-set': cooperation is more important than competition, essence is more important than efficiency and humans are part of the living system rather than superior to it. A regenerative destination creates a positive impact, rather than mitigating a negative impact, and with its functioning makes a destination increasingly rich and diverse. A visitor is temporarily part of the destination and contributes to its enrichment; he or she, preferably, leaves the destination in a more beautiful state than the state in which he or she found it.
We know regeneration from ecosystems in nature and its intelligence acquired over 3.8 million years. We use that knowledge and see natural systems as a best practice. An ecosystem is rich, diverse and in balance. Everything in the system counts and interacts, has its own importance and an essential common interest. It evolves and thus knows how to adapt to changing conditions.
Climate Game
On Friday 13 September, a Climate Game took place in cooperation with Firm of the Future. This game captured the core of the semester in 1 assignment, namely the development of the climate-neutral Quagga Island. Quagga Island is the game for experiencing and living the climate law, in which you not only find the (climate) challenges, but also the solutions.
At the climate tables, you get to work on CO2 reduction, energy transition, circular economy and employment in one of five roles (population, government, tourism, industry and suppliers). Finding the right balance between the linear and circular economy. The different stakeholders, the importance of cooperation, the importance of setting goals, making choices, looking for own interest and common interest... in short, everything that matters in a flourishing destination played a role in this game in whether it was successful.
The students engaged in the game with great ambition. The two winning groups (a Dutch-speaking and an English-speaking team) managed to design Quagga in such a way that the island would be climate-neutral by 2023; a common interest in which the stakeholders also saw their individual wishes fulfilled.