Current Issues in Tourism: Tour guiding 1.01 (2 cr)

Evaluation scale

Approved/Rejected

Objective

Students will get acquainted with a selected current issue in tourism.

Execution methods

Participating the informed lecture, course or other event (visiting lecturers on campus or online).

Accomplishment methods

Participating the informed lecture or other event and writing an essay OR completing an online course, with course specific requirements.

Content

Current Issues in Tourism is a course module covering several different possibilities to gain ECTS. Courses are either face-to-face courses at the University of Lapland (registration in Peppi) or independent online courses (registration on the course website). Assignments for different courses vary and are informed in course descriptions. Also lectures (or seminar presentations, events e.g.) are held either at the university or online. Assignment for lectures is always the same: pre-reading, attending the lecture and writing a minimum three-page-long essay based on the lecture and relevant scientific literature. Detailed essay instructions are emailed by the responsible teacher in English and in Finnish.
Different possibilities are announced via email during fall and spring.

Some events are not always directly linked to tourism, but closely related, and you can emphasize tourism in your own essay.
If the emailed information is in English, the event will be in English, if the information is in Finnish, it will be in Finnish only. Submissions of assignments can be done in either language.

Assessment criteria, approved/failed

Fail: Performance is highly deficient or erroneous. The work may be based on misunderstandings.

Pass: Performance corresponds to the assignment, manifesting comprehension and a skill to analyse and argument..

Further information

The course starts off with covering the basics of tour guiding, then moving on to preparation of guiding materials, storytelling and new IT support available for tour guiding. The course combines knowledge from a broad spectrum of scientific disciplines. It aims to historicize theoretical debates with socio-cultural contextualisation when it comes to the question of how people want to spend their free time. In the first part of the course the theoretical framework of tour guiding is set. Giving students the information to why the tour guiding is important within the context in tourism, what are the trends and the challenges of this type of tourism. The second part of the course will focus on tour guides as important stakeholders within tourism. Knowledge, skills, and abilities of tour guides are very important for quality as well as the safe and secure implementation of a tour.

Students can gain 1–2 ects with lecture attendance, pre-readings and optionally writing a reflective essay, as instructed by the responsible teacher.


Teacher Mitja Gorenak