Tourism Shaping Places: Mobilities and Tourism destination evolution

About the hosts

GRATET – Research Group on Socio Spatial Analysis and Tourism Studies

 

The research group on socio-spatial analysis and tourism studies (Grup de Recerca d'Anàlisi Territorial i Estudis Turístics – GRATET) at the Department of Geography in the Faculty of Tourism and Geography at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili is a consolidated research group supported by the Generalitat de Catalunya (the Catalan Government) under the contract number 2009 SGR 744. The group’s research activities are centred on the spatial analysis of social and economic development processes and impacts of tourism. It is led by DR Salvador Anton Clavé (salvador.anton@urv.cat) and members are currently working on the major MOVETUR project (CSO2014-51785-R) funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (http://www.urv.cat/dgeo/gratet/en_index.html).

 

IGU Commission on Tourism, Leisure and Global Change

 

The Commission for the Geography of Tourism, Leisure and Global Change is a specialty group within the International Geographical Union (IGU). The Commission’s specific objective is to examine the geographical nature of tourism, leisure and global change. Tourism and leisure are seen as deeply geographical phenomena that do no happen in a socio-spatial vacuum. They are understood as social and cultural activities occurring in space and time. Therefore, tourism and leisure are placed within wider societal contexts and human mobilities at local, regional, national and global scales. The current processes of globalization or global change in tourism and leisure geographies affecting communities and environments in different places are not seen as one dimensional but as interactional; globalisation and related mobilities in tourism and leisure are also mediated by local and regional factors creating unique outcomes in different places.

 

The commission applies a truly global perspective highlighting development in different parts of the world and through that acknowledging tourism as a formative cause for societal and environmental change in an increasingly interconnected world. For achieving this, the commission conducts comparative research, contributes and organizes scientific conferences, and supports publications for the dissemination of geographical knowledge.