Class Participation                  15%

Class participation will be assessed on the degree of participation of students in each class session. This involves daily interaction with the reading material, active participation in class discussions, and occasional quizzes on reading material.

Student led discussion            20%

Each student will be responsible for guiding a class discussion related to a specific academic article that deals with an aspect of Italian or Roman tourism dynamics. The reading of an academic article is a very involved process in which you will be asked to reflect on the methodology, the findings and developing a list of key terms that define the context of the article.

Rome Landscape Assessment 15%

Following our fieldtrips to the Forum and Colosseum, you will be asked to present an analysis of this slice of the Roman tourism landscape, offering reflections and analysis, as well as quantitative data to complement your observations. The assessment will be presented in class and will require extracurricular reading that informs the analysis you present in class.

Final Project                            30%

The final project will focus on a particular aspect of global, Italian or Roman tourism. You will be responsible for compiling quantitative and qualitative data and will produce a Story Map that includes textual analysis, photographic, geographic analysis, and data visualizations.

Oral Exam                               20%

The Oral Exam will cover the entirety of the course and will last between 30-40 minutes. This will be a chance for you to express your knowledge of Global and Italian tourism systems, reflect upon the course content and think through the ways in which contemporary tourism responds to and transforms the world.

Grade A characteristics:

Superior work directly addresses the question or problem raised; provides a coherent argument displaying an extensive knowledge of relevant information; demonstrates the ability to critically evaluate concepts and theory; and has an element of originality. There is clear evidence of a significant amount of reading.

Grade B characteristics:

Good work is highly competent; directly addresses the question or problem raised; demonstrates some ability to critically evaluate theory and concepts and relate them to practice; and discussions reflect the student’s own arguments and are not simply a repetition of standard lecture and reference material. The work provides evidence of reading beyond the required assignments.

Grade C characteristics:

Satisfactory work provides answers that are clear but limited, reflecting the information offered in the lectures and reference readings only; it may have some significant structural flaw, absence of information or research background, or too casual and imprecise a treatment, or contain only a minimum of interpretation.

Grade D characteristics:

Poor work lacks a coherent grasp of the material; fails to support its argument with sufficient evidence; indicates a hasty or unconsidered preparation, and/or fails to fulfil the assignment in some way; omits important information; includes irrelevant points.

Grade F characteristics:

Failure work fails to show any knowledge or understanding of the issues raised in the question; most of the material in the answer is irrelevant.

Grade scale [Please include this. This scale follows standard university policy]

Class participation will be assessed on the degree of participation of students in each class session. This involves daily interaction with the reading material, active participation in class discussions, and occasional quizzes on reading material.

It is expected that students will attend all class sessions. If students anticipate an absence, please email the professor at least 24 hours ahead of time.

Course Schedule

Week 1: Introduction to Tourism Studies

·      January 22 – Introduction

·      January 24 – Hospitality 3.0, reading and discussion

Week 2: Global Tourism, Local Places

·      January 27 – Hospitality 3.0, reading and discussion

·      January 29 – Hospitality 3.0, pathways towards a viable tourism future?

o   Lynch, P., J. G. Molz, A. McIntosh, P. Lugosi, and C. Lashley. 2021. Theorizing hospitality: A reprise. Hospitality & Society 11 (3):249–270

Week 3: The development of mass tourism

·      February 3 – Data dive on the condition of global tourism in the 21st Century

o   Students will need to find data sources on the global and Italian tourism flows in order to have a data-driven discussion of the conditions that structure the modern condition.

·      February 5 – The emergence of mass tourism in Italy in historical and contemporary contexts. Student led discussion 1

o   Butcher, J. 2020. Constructing mass tourism. International Journal of Cultural Studies 23 (6):898–915.

Week 4: Development of mass tourism

·      February 10 – Student led discussion 2

o   From Pure City to Mass Tourism: Studies of Italian Urban Space in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. Journal of Urban History 37 (5):810–813.

·      February 12  – Student led discussion 3

o   Iaquinto, B. L., J. M. Cheer, M. Roelofsen, C. Minca, C.-E. Ong, C. Wong, D. Lapointe, M. Qu, A. McCormick, and C.-C. T. Lin. 2024. Coercive geographies: Biopower, spatial politics, and the tourist. Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space 42 (2):149–170.

Week 5: Contemporary Italian Tourism Flows

·      February 17 – Student led discussion 4

o   Gemmiti, R. 2019. Neoliberal Rome—The Role of Tourism. Social Sciences 8 (6):196.

·      February 19 –  Student led discussion 5

o   Guarini, M. R., A. Segura-de-la-Cal, F. Sica, and Y. Núñez-Guerrero. 2025. Heritage Value and Short-Term Rentals: Spatial Dynamics of Airbnb Prices in Rome. Land 15 (1):77.

Week 6: Reading urban and touristic landscapes

·      February 24 – Forum Fieldtrip

o   Reading -Watkin, D. J. 2009. The Roman Forum. Cambridge (Mass.): Harvard University Press.

·      February 26 – Colosseum Fieldtrip

o   Reading - Hopkins, K., and M. Beard eds. 2005. The Colosseum. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard Univ. Press.

Week 7:

·      March 3 – Landscape assessment report

·      March 5 – Framing Research Questions and Data Gathering

Week 8: Spring Break

Week 9: Conceptualizing tourism

·      March 17 – Conceptualizing tourism flows, circulations, accumulations

Reading: Gaffney, C. 2022. Flows, circulations, accumulations: Theorizing mega events. In Mega Events, Urban Transformations and Social Citizenship, eds. F. Bignami, N. Cuppini, and N. Hanakata, 23–35. Abingdon: Routledge.

·      March 19 – Local perceptions of tourism

o   Research Question Draft Due

Podcast: The Death of Venice, Petra Reski. End of Tourism Podcast with Chris Christou. https://www.theendoftourism.com/episodes/the-death-of-venice-petra-reski-venice

Week 10: Quantitative Research in Travel and Tourism

·      March 24: Developing Viable Research Questions

o   Class Exercise in Research Question Formulation

·      March 26: Gaffney in Neuchatêl – film analysis: The Last Tourist

Week 11: Global Tourism Dynamics

·      March 31: Overtourism – The Global Tourism Risk Index

o   Reading: Gaffney, et al., “Building a Global Tourism Risk Index”

·      April 2: Overtourism – Measurements, standards and the death of ESG

o   Final draft of Research Question Due

Week 12: Italian (Over)Tourism Dynamics

·      April 7 – Tourism Management

Readings: Horowitz, J. 2020. Venice Glimpses a Future with Fewer Tourists, and Likes What It Sees. The New York Times 3 June.

Hunt, E. 2017. ‘Tourism kills neighbourhoods’: how do we save cities from the city break? The Guardian 4 August.

Povoledo, E., and A. Grassani. 2024. What Happens When a Happening Place Becomes Too Hot. The New York Times 9 May.

·      April 9 – Managing tourism flows

o   Guest speaker, Stefania Escobar

Week 13: Research Workshops

·      April 14 - Peer feedback and discussion

·      April 16 - Workshop on data analysis and visualization

Week 14: Research Workshop

·      April 21 – Data visualization workshop part two

·      April 23  – Student presentations

Week 15:

·      April 28 – Student presentations      

·      April 30 – Conclusion
May 4-8 – Final exam (oral)