Research in the field of tourism

Jamk University of Applied Sciences aims to advance the responsibility and sustainability in the field of tourism by producing new information based on empirical research, helping the organizations in the field make better decisions and development plans based on data and knowledge. The research also factors into the development of higher education on the field. Here at Jamk, our research and education work in tandem, and our students have a chance to participate in research.

The main focus points of research in the field of tourism are responsibility and sustainability, digitalization, customer experience and creative approach, as well as work and career in the field. The research includes topics such as travel destination development, locality, travel types, leadership, sustainable food systems, values and attitudes, and virtual technology and cyber security. 

Central Finland is a part of Visit Finland's Sustainable Travel Finland programme, which aims to develop the responsibility in tourism in the region. Jamk research supports companies in the field in bettering their sustainability and responsibility practices. The Value and MaVaN -projects, for example, are focused on this - Value in developing the possibilities in volunteering tourism and MaVaN in mapping the thoughts travelers have about acting responsibly in nature.

Jamk coordinates the International Centre for Responsible Tourism (ICRT) Network in Finland. Read more about the ICRT Network.

Experts of the tourism research

Francesca has a B.SC. and a M.Sc. in Environmental and Land Planning Engineering (Politecnico di Milano, Italy), as well as a PhD in Geography (University of Turku, Finland). Her research has always focused on sustainability, first with a stronger focus on environmental issues, then with a wider scope, including all aspects encompassing food sustainability. Most recently, she has focused on pedagogical approaches for teaching food sustainability in the context of higher education, finding ways to foster empathy and include perspectives of all food system agents.

Mari is a tourism geographer and cultural anthropologist specialising in socio-cultural and environmental sustainability and the impacts of tourism. Social innovations are of particular interest. Mari's key interests are ethnographic research at local level and design research. During leisure time, Mari is most likely found in forest tracks or preparing dinners for people close to her.

Anne's research interests are widely related to sustainability and responsibility themes, tourism, and higher education pedagogy. Her enthusiasm for responsibility comes from the multidisciplinary environmental ecology studies at the University of Helsinki. She has defended her doctoral dissertation at the University of Oulu on the thematics of sustainable tourism. In her current position, she feels finds it particularly meaningful to combine the aforementioned themes and promote the effectiveness of research work by parallel teaching, research, and project work. Anne is currently studying, for example, the careers of those working in the tourism sector and the meaningfulness of the work. In her leisure time, Anne enjoys handicrafts, gardening, and spending time in the summer cottage.

Minna's research areas combine entrepreneurship and tourism. She has defended her doctoral dissertation on the preparation for a generation change in family entrepreneurship. Since 1997, she has been involved in the interfaces of the entrepreneurship education field, as well as research, and follows the directions from the board role of the association (YKTS) in question. In her work as the principal lecturer of entrepreneurship, she studies and applies entrepreneurship as a phenomenon and a pedagogy. She also conducts tourism research together with the students and interprets research data in the teaching of tourism and the development of tourism companies. Her latest specialisation areas are responsible tourism destinations and responsibility actions in tourism business.