From 6-9 November an international audience of academics specialising in tourism gathered for the International Tourism Conference in Dubrovnik, exploring 'Tourism in the VUCA World: Towards the Era of (Ir)Responsibility'.
VUCA (short for volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity) has become a trendy acronym in today’s business lingo. Beyond just being a simple acronym used by many contemporary organisations, VUCA has become a code for awareness, readiness, preparedness, anticipation, evolution, and intervention.

In this context, tourism as a historically-recognised volatile industry has many issues to address if it is to move towards a more sustainable future. Subjects of interest to the conference included artificial intelligence (AI) and automation, social innovation and new trends of responsible consumption, climate change, environmental-economic impacts, terrorism, (labour) mobility, urbanisation, immigration, globalisation, tourism governance, policy and leadership, gender equality, and more.

At this event, which aimed to take a multidisciplinary approach with the key goal of bridging the gap between tourism theory and practice, Prof Cooper delivered a key note presentation on 'Pleasures for Pleasure - Past, Present and Future'. 

He noted: "I spent a stormy and wet few days in Dubrovnik in November at the Dubrovnik International Tourism Conference organised by the Croatian Institute for Tourism. The conference attracted over 150 international delegates and it was a great learning experience."

Professor Christopher Cooper

Professor / School Of Events, Tourism And Hospitality Management

Chris Cooper is Professor in the School of Events, Tourism and Hospitality Management Leeds Beckett University in the UK. He gained his undergraduate degree and PhD in Geography from University College London.

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