The Urban Leisure & Tourism Lab Rotterdam is part of the research line New Urban Tourism. At the head of this research line is lector Ko Koens. On a regular basis, scientific publications will appear on this website of Ko Koens and colleague researchers who contribute to the research line New Urban Tourism.
In the publication: ”Serious gaming to stimulate participatory urban tourism planning”, Ko Koens, Jeroen Klijs, Jessika Weber-Sabil, Frans Melissen Lidija Lalicic and Igor Mayer analyse how a serious game approach can support a participatory planning process by bringing stakeholders together to discuss interventions that support the development of sustainable urban tourism.
New Urban Tourism
Within New Urban Tourism, part of the Creative Business research group, we focus on tourism as an integral part of the urban environment. Tourists literally walk among locals and use the same facilities. In other words, they cannot be considered a separate entity. But how do these large groups of visitors affect cities and neighbourhoods? And can we find a way for tourism to benefit the city? For instance, can we design activities in such a way that they engender new local business, make places more liveable and make locals prouder of their neighbourhoods? What can we learn about this from studies carried out in other cities abroad? We take a holistic approach to tourism, combining an international frame of mind with a local approach. In our lab environments, in association with stakeholders, we design interventions designed to help us gain a better understanding of underlying processes in major cities and their surroundings and ultimately to improve these regions.
