SPOT. Sustainable Spatial Planning of Tourism Destinations

12/02/2025

Help shape the future of higher education in rural development and planning!

We are gathering insights from
🌱 students,
🌱 academics, and
🌱 practitioners in rural development and planning
to understand the need for integrating green and just transitions into higher education for rural development and planning. If you belong to one of these groups, we invite you to take a few minutes to complete our short questionnaire: ✅ https://forms.gle/hEt17eFKR7EX8a5HA ✅

Your input will contribute to designing future educational initiatives within a consortium of: Uniwersytet Łódzki (Poland), Politecnico di Torino (Italy), Politécnico de Leiria (Portugal), Universitetet i Innlandet (Norway), and Lietuvos socialinių mokslų centras (Lithuania) - most of them are known from the SPOT. Sustainable Spatial Planning of Tourism Destinations.

Your voice matters - thank you for your time and participation! 🙌

Dear Participant, This questionnaire aims to gather the views of students, academics, and practitioners in rural development and planning. The purpose is to identify and understand the need for higher education integration in green and just rural development and planning. If you belong to any of the...

02/02/2024

Exciting News! On February 1, 2024, the European Commission unveiled the publication "Building hope: Europe's solidarity with Ukraine." 🇺🇦🇵🇱🇪🇺 This compilation showcases 15 impactful Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps projects committed to aiding those affected by the war in Ukraine. Proudly, the SPOT project has been recognized as an exemplary practice!

In response to the influx of refugees from Ukraine, the SPOT project, in collaboration with partners Wydział Nauk Geograficznych Uniwersytet Łódzki, OpenStreetMap Polska, Polskie Towarzystwo Geograficzne, SoftwareMill, and Lodz.Travel, organized the MapoFaktura 2022 event. The objective? To evaluate Lodz’s region's capacity to temporarily host migrants using tourism facilities. The project empowered future tourism professionals with spatial data analysis and crisis management skills. It tackled geopolitical and socio-economic challenges, taking into account local needs and infrastructure accessibility.

The territorial capacity to host migrants in the region of Lodz was thoroughly examined, considering the needs of local populations and the communication accessibility of discussed infrastructure. These remarkable achievements were recently showcased during the GeoNight international initiative.

Education, training, youth, and sport have the power to transform lives. In the face of the ongoing war and displacement in Ukraine, the European Commission has set up projects that facilitate support to Ukraine as a top priority. Through the Erasmus+ and the European Solidarity Corps programmes, we...

13/12/2023

Do you know how tourism can help to achieve the European Green Deal goals? The answer can be easily found in 20 thematic EU project. All of them were reviewed and presented in CredinGreen by Erasmus+ policy paper. Don’t hesitate to download and read the report. Mind about pages 92-93. Project SPOT. Sustainable Spatial Planning of Tourism Destinations is there!

Michael Schwaiger in editor’s note wrote that "education and learning are the most important factors if we want to achieve the green transition at all, therefore, we focus on information and knowledge transfer as well as on the acquisition of green skills". As the community of the project we do share these core values. And we hope to contribute to that with every next project or action.

The European Network for the Transfer and Exploitation of EU Project ResultsSince 2005, E.N.T.E.R. has brought together organisations from across Europe in successful EU project work.Join our network by registering your organisation and your projects.

26/09/2023

Last days are full of great news. Experience and contacts from the SPOT project resulted in two brand new projects:

✅ Politecnico di Torino (DIST - Dip. Interateneo di Scienze, Progetto e Politiche del Territorio) and University of Lodz (Wydział Nauk Geograficznych Uniwersytet Łódzki) are going to cooperate with University of Thessaly (Πανεπιστήμιο Θεσσαλίας) - leader of the consortium, Varna University of Management, and The Hellenic Association of Urban and Regional Planners. We will work together within the framework of DEMO4PPL project (Digital Education Modules 4 Participatory Planning) granted by Erasmus+. See the results here: https://www.iky.gr/el/iky-rss/item/4241.

✅ Also, team of University of Lodz (Wydział Nauk Geograficznych Uniwersytet Łódzki) together with ReasonFieldLab have successfully applied for a support of Polish National Centre for Research and Development (Narodowe Centrum Badań i Rozwoju). The aim of the project GeoAI is to develop tools based on Machine Learning algorithms that enable automatic detection of topographic objects. See the results here: https://www.gov.pl/web/ncbr/infostrateg-v---wyniki-oceny-merytorycznej-wnioskow-zlozonych-w-konkursie.

Ready to work❗

18/09/2023

The module about sustainable spatial planning of tourism destinations has already been published on the course platform of the Baltic University Programme. Enjoy open lectures and supplementary materials for students and teachers. The module was prepared by Katarzyna Leśniewska-Napierała and Tomasz Napierała (both affiliated to the Faculty of Geographical Sciences at University of Lodz / Wydział Nauk Geograficznych Uniwersytet Łódzki).

All participants will have the opportunity to learn about various issues of spatial planning in tourism destinations, e.g., seasonality, overtourism, gentrification, tourist ghettos, tourism hypertrophy. The module consists of the following lectures:
✅ Sustainable tourism versus sustainable spatial planning;
✅ Challenges of sustainable spatial planning in tourism destinations;
✅ Policy tools and decision support tools of sustainable spatial planning of tourism destinations;
✅ Going back/forward to rurality: Case of tourism in Bełchatów industrial district.

Module about sustainable spatial planning of tourism destinations is available now on the BUP course platform.

06/09/2023

The SPOT project's team had an opportunity to participate in 6th International Conference on Events ICE2023 Making Waves in Events and present some results of the SPOT project.

The main question was how educational events might stimulate development of sustainable tourism. Understanding of local communities is substantial when prioritising sustainable development goals. Thus, education becomes a focal point of future tourism.

Many thanks to the organisers - Szkoła Główna Turystyki i Hotelarstwa Vistula and chairperson of the conference - Krzysztof Celuch. For more details about the presentation - just click the link below!

See the SPOT project's presentation at ICE2023 conference: educational events within the SPOT project's framework.

30/08/2023

Have you already planned anything between 19th and 20th of October 2023? Not? Good... Still you have some time to write and submit extended abstract and register for the outsanding PhD conference

🟨 PEOPLE
🟨 CITY
🟨 TRANSPORT

The conference is organised by PhD candidates at Fakulta architektury ČVUT v Praze, and focused on all disciplines connecting human, urban, and transportation topics. The event will be quite informal and free of charge. However, the conference will have its proceedings and will be indexed in Scopus. The event will take place both in person and online.

For more, visit the conference website! 👇👇👇

PCT Conference 2023

21/07/2023

On July 29, 2023 we are going to celebrate 6️⃣0️⃣0️⃣th anniversary of granting city rights to the city of Lodz. of Lodz is the gift of the Polish community of the SPOT project to the city of Łódź: its inhabitants and visitors. of Lodz is the result of 4th edition of MapoFaktura event held on April 14, 2023, during GeoNight.

Greetings to students and all partners: Faculty of Geographical Sciences UniLodz (Wydział Nauk Geograficznych Uniwersytet Łódzki), Tourism Geography Commission of the Polish Geographical Society (Komisja Geografii Turyzmu PTG, Polskie Towarzystwo Geograficzne), OpenStreetMap Polska, Łódzka Organizacja Turystyczna / Lodz Tourism Organization and TomTom.

On July 29, 2023 we are celebrating 600th birthday of Lodz. GastroMap of Lodz is the gift of the SPOT project to the city.

18/07/2023

Don't miss the BUP Symposium 2023. This outstanding event is organised by Baltic University Programme and will be held 7-8 November online. Submissions of abstracts and presentations for the Symposium closes 31 July 2023.

The main themes of BUP Symposiums are:
✅ Climate Change
✅ Energy Systems
✅ Sustainable Societies
✅ Sustainable Water Resources
✅ Urban-Rural Development
✅ Sustainable Mobility
✅ Circular Economy
✅ Sustainable Tourism 💚💚💚
✅ Education for Sustainable Development
✅ Sustainable Food Systems

BUP Symposium 2023

15/07/2023

Today we had a chance to contribute as a SPOT team to post-congress tour at AESOP 2023 Annual Congress: Integrated Planning In a World Of Turbulence This year the event was held in Łódź. But the tour was to Bełchatów industrial district, our case study area in the SPOT project.

We were here to discuss all issues related to just green transition at the very local context, and to better understand how triggering moments - top-down initiatives at national or international level, might impact local developmental paths.

Even though it was so hot today, we could spend outstanding time together.

05/06/2023

This is the time to share our achievements and outputs!

On Friday, June 2, 2023, Tomasz Napierała presented educational achievements and experiences of the project SPOT, during the educational session of the Congress of Polish Geography. The goal of the presentation was to assess the potentials of intensive study programmes for the future development of geographical, tourism, and spatial planning education.

The presentation was prepared by Tomasz Napierała and Katarzyna Leśniewska-Napierała (Wydział Nauk Geograficznych Uniwersytet Łódzki, Turystyka i Rekreacja Geo UniLodz, Gospodarka Przestrzenna - Planowanie Przestrzenne Izsipp UniLodz).

Many thanks to the organisers and partners of the Congress of Polish Geography for the opportunity to share our outputs and experiences: Wydział Geografii Społeczno-Ekonomicznej i Gospodarki Przestrzennej UAM, Wydział Nauk Geograficznych i Geologicznych UAM w Poznaniu, Polskie Towarzystwo Geograficzne, Oddział Poznański Polskiego Towarzystwa Geograficznego, Komitet Nauk Geograficznych Polska Akademia Nauk.

Intensive study programmes - the future of education - presented by Tomasz Napierała during the Congress of Polish Geography.

02/04/2023

Do you remember held in Łódź at the Faculty of Geographical Sciences UniLodz (Wydział Nauk Geograficznych Uniwersytet Łódzki) and contributed by the project SPOT? This year, the International Tourism Congress will be organised by the School of Public Management, Communication and Tourism at Instituto Politécnico de Bragança. You are more than welcome!

The main theme of the ITC2023 - 'The Image and Sustainability of Tourism Destinations' - will be an opportunity for academics, master and doctoral students to present and discuss national and international experiences on sustainability and development of tourism destinations.

Hope to see you all in Mirandela, in Portugal this Autumn!

ITC2023 - XV International Tourism Congress will be held in Mirandela (Portugal), from the 23th to 25th November 2023.