Tourism Geography
A.Y. 2025/2026
Learning objectives
The course will analyse tourism forms and practices as they have evolved over time and space. It will examine the actors operating in the tourism sector, the areas impacted by tourism, the representations and narratives put in place, the local development processes started, the forms of cooperation in the sector as well as the problems connected to tourism practices. Therefore, the course aims to highlight all the environmental, cultural, political, social and territorial mechanisms within communities that travel, and in the territories that welcome travellers. A special focus will be provided on the Italian tourism system, which is one of the most consolidated and diversified in the contemporary global scene.
Expected learning outcomes
By the end of the course, students will be able to understand the main contemporary tourism systems within the broader context of involved businesses, cultural and socio-economic contexts, as well as today's tourism and leisure practices. These systems will be analysed by students not only in their traditional and consolidated dimensions, but also in responsible, ethical, critical, solidarity-based and sustainable ones. The Italian case study will allow for an in-depth analysis of some peculiar tourism forms and practices on a national and regional scale.
Lesson period: First semester
Assessment methods: Esame
Assessment result: voto verbalizzato in trentesimi
Single course
This course can be attended as a single course.
Course syllabus and organization
Single session
Responsible
Lesson period
First semester
Course syllabus
Tourism Geography studies the dynamics and transformations of tourist territories as spaces not only organized, but also perceived and experienced by tourists and the communities that host them. The course aims to highlight the environmental, cultural, political, economic, technological, and social dynamics linked to tourism phenomena, from a critical and sustainable territorial perspective. The course will present the main contemporary tourism systems within the broader context of globalization and current socio-economic and geopolitical relations. During the lectures, reflections will also be proposed on the different modes of tourist exploration: from classical ones to more intimate ones, which touch the chords of emotional geography. Tourism systems will therefore be analyzed not only in their traditional and consolidated dimensions but also in their responsible, ethical, critical, subjective, and sustainable ones. Specific insights will be dedicated to the study of the geography of innovation applied to tourism development, the political dimension in territorial planning in the tourism sector, and the development of contextual reading and multisensory exploration skills. The content presented will thus concern tourism and its spatiotemporal evolutions, the dynamics of the actors involved, the impacts of the phenomenon at various territorial scales, tourist representations, and forms of cooperation, mediation, and conflict related to the touristification of territories.
Prerequisites for admission
Knowledge of the basic concepts of human and regional geography.
Teaching methods
Lectures to prioritize logical-conceptual learning; participatory lectures supported by images, photographs, cartographic and para-cartographic representations to reinforce visual and iconographic learning; dialogic lectures held by the professors; possible field trips aimed at reading the transformations of the landscape and territory linked to tourism development.
Teaching Resources
EXAM PROGRAM FOR ATTENDING STUDENTS TAKING THE 9 CFU EXAM
Unit A:
- notes taken during lectures and slides provided by the professor;
- study of the text: Gavinelli D. and Zanolin G. (2019), Geografia del turismo contemporaneo. Pratiche, narrazioni e luoghi, Rome, Carocci.
Unit B:
- notes taken during lectures and slides provided by the professor;
- study of the text: Morazzoni M. and Zavettieri G. G. (2023), Geografia, nuove tecnologie e turismo, Rome, Carocci.
Unit C:
- notes taken during lectures and slides provided by the professor;
- development of an authentic task or a problem-situation, coordinated by the professor (more information will be provided by the professor during the course).
EXAM PROGRAM FOR NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS TAKING THE 9 CFU EXAM
Unit A:
- study of the text: Bagnoli L. (2022), Manuale di geografia del turismo. Dal Grand Tour al Covid. Fifth edition, Turin, UTET.
- study of the text: Gavinelli D. and Zanolin G. (2019), Geografia del turismo contemporaneo. Pratiche, narrazioni e luoghi, Rome, Carocci.
Unit B:
- study of the text: Morazzoni M. and Zavettieri G. G. (2023), Geografia, nuove tecnologie e turismo, Rome, Carocci.
Unit C:
- study of one text chosen from the following:
Bozzato S., a cura di (2021), Turismo comunità territory. Frontiere di sostenibilità, Mimesis, Milan-Udine.
Di Napoli M. (2016), Gli occhiali del turista. Geografia di una società in movimento, CLUEB, Bologna.
Mangano S. (2018), I territori culturali in Italia. Geografia e valorizzazione turistica, Carocci, Rome.
Muti G. (2015), Il lago di Como. Turismo, territorio, immagine, UNICOPLI, Milan.
Rabbiosi C. (2018), Il territorio messo in scena: turismo, consumi, luoghi, Mimesis, Milan-Udine.
Rodolphe C. (2019), Turismo di massa e usura del mondo, Elèuthera, Milan.
Unit A:
- notes taken during lectures and slides provided by the professor;
- study of the text: Gavinelli D. and Zanolin G. (2019), Geografia del turismo contemporaneo. Pratiche, narrazioni e luoghi, Rome, Carocci.
Unit B:
- notes taken during lectures and slides provided by the professor;
- study of the text: Morazzoni M. and Zavettieri G. G. (2023), Geografia, nuove tecnologie e turismo, Rome, Carocci.
Unit C:
- notes taken during lectures and slides provided by the professor;
- development of an authentic task or a problem-situation, coordinated by the professor (more information will be provided by the professor during the course).
EXAM PROGRAM FOR NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS TAKING THE 9 CFU EXAM
Unit A:
- study of the text: Bagnoli L. (2022), Manuale di geografia del turismo. Dal Grand Tour al Covid. Fifth edition, Turin, UTET.
- study of the text: Gavinelli D. and Zanolin G. (2019), Geografia del turismo contemporaneo. Pratiche, narrazioni e luoghi, Rome, Carocci.
Unit B:
- study of the text: Morazzoni M. and Zavettieri G. G. (2023), Geografia, nuove tecnologie e turismo, Rome, Carocci.
Unit C:
- study of one text chosen from the following:
Bozzato S., a cura di (2021), Turismo comunità territory. Frontiere di sostenibilità, Mimesis, Milan-Udine.
Di Napoli M. (2016), Gli occhiali del turista. Geografia di una società in movimento, CLUEB, Bologna.
Mangano S. (2018), I territori culturali in Italia. Geografia e valorizzazione turistica, Carocci, Rome.
Muti G. (2015), Il lago di Como. Turismo, territorio, immagine, UNICOPLI, Milan.
Rabbiosi C. (2018), Il territorio messo in scena: turismo, consumi, luoghi, Mimesis, Milan-Udine.
Rodolphe C. (2019), Turismo di massa e usura del mondo, Elèuthera, Milan.
Assessment methods and Criteria
The exam for students consists of an oral interview on the topics covered in the program, aimed at verifying knowledge of the main themes of Tourism Geography. In particular, students must demonstrate that they have achieved knowledge and understanding useful for interpreting the main contemporary tourism processes from a territorial perspective and at different scales. Students must also be able to use the basic disciplinary language.
The exam program is valid for one academic year from the end of the lectures.
The exam program is valid for one academic year from the end of the lectures.
M-GGR/01 - GEOGRAPHY - University credits: 9
Lessons: 60 hours
Professors:
Baiocchetti Giovanni, Rocca Lorena
Professor(s)