Abstract
Spain is one of the most popular tourism destinations in the world, and one of the top ten countries in terms of tourism contribution to its economy. As tourism is causing a gravely negative impact on the environment, universities play a key role in raising student awareness and reducing the damaging consequences of said tourism. Connections between sustainability and tourism studies have received little attention in higher education. The lecturing staff and student bodies from universities were interviewed with the aim of finding out what motivates academics to develop conductors and indicators that raise environmental awareness within under-graduate Tourism degrees. Results show a different perspective on teaching sustainability within the tourism curricula at public and private universities. According to the participants, motivation and training lecturers have been the two main drivers. Results can be applied to other Tourism degrees in order to overcome the common barriers that these studies have to face to introduce sustainability in the tourism curricula.
Highlights
Pedro Cuesta-ValiñoIn the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, most research focused on the medical and health aspects of the pandemic [1], but immediately raised concerns about the social, economic, and environmental aspects of this health crisis and how it could affect sustainable development
The jobs generated in the hospitality sector are mostly seasonal and not qualified; usually the job creation is prioritized in exchange for collateral damage to natural resources and local community welfare [32]
From a descriptive perspective, we highlight that 90% of the participants agreed to highlight barriers to teach sustainability as a way to express their worries about the current Spanish academic regulatory system
Summary
In the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, most research focused on the medical and health aspects of the pandemic [1], but immediately raised concerns about the social, economic, and environmental aspects of this health crisis and how it could affect sustainable development. The environmental effects of the measures adopted by governments against the pandemic have had an impact on the environment. From the point of view of economic repercussions, this pandemic is unprecedented, given its evolution from an initial health crisis to a humanitarian and development crisis on a global scale. Both the health and economic effects are pushing large sections of society into poverty in many parts of the world. As we pointed out in our article published in this magazine last February, the consequences of the pandemic outbreak have led to negative growth of the Gross Domestic
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