On 17th – 19th September 2025 the Centre for Regional and Tourism Research (CRT) on the island of Bornholm will host the Nordic Symposium 2025 under the theme “The transformative power and potential of tourism”.

In conjunction with the Symposium, Aalborg University organises a PhD course whose aim is to strengthen the participants’ knowledge about key perspectives and theories about the transformative potentials of tourism as a social activity, and the methods through which the impact of touristic practices can be illuminated.

The impact of tourism has been central for public debates about overtourism and sustainability in recent years, and these concerns are also increasingly reflected in scholarly efforts, including many PhD projects. Research into the negative and positive impacts of tourism as a social activity is being conducted under numerous headings –e.g. regenerative tourism, mindful tourism, etc. – and this course will tap into this field of academic endeavor.

The course focuses on the keywords ‘impacts’ and ‘transformation’ in two, often connected, ways:

• in relation to regeneration of places that frame and contain touristic activities and experiences, with a focus on how tourism can push development in new and strategic directions that correspond with and support local development visions and ambitions
• as a process of personal learning and development when traveling and experiencing places as a tourist, with a focus on co-creating engaging, memorable and eye-opening experiences that potentially can change mindsets and behavior

The theme is important both in tourism research and, indeed, for local communities and tourist destinations, where tourism is often used as a means to work towards sustainable goals and outcomes by regenerating, revitalizing, and re-strategizing the communities. To succeed with this, rethinking of actions and practices in all sectors and industries in society, including tourism, is required in order to ensure that outcomes are not only sustainable in the broadest sense of the word, but also are experienced as desirable and beneficial from the perspective of both visitors and local citizens.

The course begins Monday 15 September 9:00 and ends Wednesday 17 September at noon,  after which participants are encouraged to join the 33rdSymposium in order to continue discussions about tourism, societal impact and transformative potentials.

Aalborg University is the coordinator of CROCUS project funded by the EU under the Horizon Europe programme, which participates in the Network of Common Interest of the SECreTour projects.

Follow SECreTour online also on the SECreTour project’s website.