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Research in tourism in the age of crisis
is issue of Poznań University of Economics Review is dedicated to economic
and social problems related to tourism. e collected papers under the general ti-
tle “Research in Tourism in the Age of Crisis” are written by foreign authors, four
of them are members of the Tourist Research Centre and also researchers from the
Department of Tourism at the Poznań University of Economics. It is worth men-
tioning that the current issue follows two earlier issues (no. 2 and 3) of the Poznań
University of Economics Review 2012 that were devoted to the global nancial crisis
which changed the perception of the modern world economy including the tour-
ism industry, as well as research in tourism.
Referring to the 40th anniversary of the Department of Tourism David Airey
shares his re ections on scienti c research and education in tourism paying par-
ticular attention to new trends. He believes that in this age of crisis “governments
prompted by the massive growth of higher education and by the tightening of pub-
lic budgets have sought to reduce the funding for universities”.
Grzegorz Gołembski discusses tourism research and education in Poland with a
focus on the science and education drivers contributing to the development of tour-
ism. e economic and demographic crisis has particularly stressed errors stemming
from the uncritical use of the quantitative approach in tourism research and education.
e economic crisis has highlighted the role of consumer surplus and the macro
valuation of tourism projects, which is discussed by Norbert Vanhove. He concen-
trates on nding an answer to the question: how should non-priced services be val-
ued? e author considers ve topics: nature of investment appraisal, externalities
in tourism, identi cation of cost and bene t items, consumer surplus of non-priced
tourism resources and social cost versus economic impact analysis.
Consumer surplus is related to investments into tourist projects. e problem
of investment is touched upon by Łukasz Nawrot. His paper concentrates on the
renewable energy sources (RES) market in the modern economy with particular
regard to investment processes. Despite the economic crisis changes in renewable
energy markets are so dynamic that just in Poland RES investment levels are esti-
mated to amount to €27 billion by 2020. Naturally, capital transfer and innovation
di usion will be channelled into the tourism industry. However, these processes are
not properly recognised which stresses the need for research in that area.
Investment results in a rise in wealth, which is one of the ve factors that are
considered to be a prerequisite for tourism. e factors (assets, amenities and ac-
cessibility on the part of a potential destination and ability and motivation to travel
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on the demand side) are discussed by Martin Lohmann and Henrike Beer. ey
present empirical evidence based on large sample population surveys in Germany
which illustrate the strong in uence of these ve factors. e result of the analysis is
a model which is helpful in providing a basic understanding of the tourism system.
Amenities are one of the ve factors mentioned above and depend on the tour-
ism enterprises found in a tourist destination. In order to be able to deal success-
fully with the challenges of increased competition, the tourism enterprises have to
take measures to acquire adequate human resources. e role of human resources
in creating a competitive advantage of business entities is discussed by Marlena
Bednarska, Marcin Olszewski and Dawid Szutowski. e aim of their paper is to
create a conceptual model explaining relations between the quality of work life and
the competitive potential in the tourism industry.
Human capital is the foundation for building a regional innovation system in
which culture plays a crucial role. erefore, Anna Bialk-Wolf, Harald Pechlaner
and Christian Nordhorn believe that culture, creativity and regionalism seem to al-
low tourism to cope better with the troubles of our times. e aim of their paper
is to contribute a better understanding of the ways culture and creativity in uence
the building of a regional innovation system.
e economic development results in an increase in expectations and demands
on the part of customers, who become the so called prosuments. ey are more ac-
tive and interested in new forms of products. e problem is illustrated empirically
by Agnieszka Niezgoda, who presents the results of direct interviews with repre-
sentatives of various company types (tour operators, agents, airlines).
A further issue of Poznań University of Economics Review is published on the
occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Department of Tourism in Poznan University
of Economics. We do not believe this to be an opportunity to celebrate but we think
it is worthwhile writing a couple of words about one of Poland’s leading research
and didactic centres that deals with economic problems related to tourism.
e Department was created in 1973. Since then it has been well managed and has
had a consistent HR policy. For the last 40 years it has been run by only two people:
Professor R. Gałecki (between 1973 and 1999) and since then by the author of these
words. Over the years over 1,200 people have completed their master’s degrees, 27
of the people who have been supervised by Professors Gałecki and Gołembski have
obtained doctorate degrees in economic sciences, of whom ve have become pro-
fessors of economic sciences (A. Rapacz, K. Rogoziński, G. Gołembski, St. Bosiacki,
A. Niezgoda). Currently, the Department has eight full-time members and two full-
time doctoral students. e average age of its members is under 37.
Work of the Department’s researchers currently concentrates on regional prob-
lems, companies and relatively new research issues concerning innovation and RES.
e wide range of regional research includes sustained development issues in the
context of regional development, methods of isolating tourist destinations, impact
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of an urban area on innovativeness, productivity of the tourist sector and an inte-
grated system of quality management in a region. What should also be stressed is
the research analysing conditions of cooperation in a tourist region, competitive-
ness of a region as a result of globalisation processes and the role that the public
sector plays in stimulating investment processes in tourist areas. Research at com-
pany level is concerned with the methodology of evaluating the quality of services
in the hotel industry, risk management and methods of risk control, entrepreneur-
ship in the Polish tourist sector, shaping a global product in a hotel and methods of
measuring the e ectiveness of tourist companies. Research activity on the part of
the Department’s members is re ected in the research grants that they have been
awarded in recent years. Between 2010 and 2012 the following Polish National
Science Centre grants were completed: “Knowledge Management in the Process of
Quality-based Competition in the Hotel Industry” (M. Olszewski) and “Conditions
of Competition for Tourist Development of a Region” (K. Czernek). A grant was
also rewarded by the City Hall of Poznan – “Measuring and Conditions of Tourist
Function Development in a City. Case Study – Poznan” by Gołembski et al.).
Currently, our researchers are working thanks to three grants nanced by the Polish
National Science Centre on: “Tourist Function in the Internationalisation of Cities”
(P. Zmyślony), “Determinants of ability to absorb innovations in the tourism indus-
try in relation to renewable energy” (Ł. Nawrot et al.) and “Quality of work life in
competitive potential development in the tourism industry” (M. Bednarska et al.).
Special attention should be paid to our research and didactic cooperation with
foreign scienti c centres and our members’ participation in renowned interna-
tional conferences. What must be mentioned is our long-term cooperation in
the area of research with the University of Innsbruck (Department of Strategic
Management, Marketing and Tourism) since 2005, in which virtually all our re-
searchers have taken part. Between 2005 and 2009 two projects were carried out:
“Entrepreneurship in Tourism. A Comparative Study of Austria and Poland” and
“Destination Rejuvenation Strategies – Policies and Measures”. Student exchange pro-
grammes for one semester are run jointly with the Catholic University of Eichstätt-
Ingolstadtin Bavaria. Research into health resorts is conducted with the Széchenyi
IstvánUniversityinGyőr, Hungary. Joint research, discussions about various meth-
odologies and workshops during which research results can be presented enable
our members to gain experience in international contact. is is re ected in their
participation in international organisations and their ability to present the results of
their work during numerous international conferences. e Chair of the Department
has participated in the International Association of Scienti c Experts inTourism
Congresses (Cha Am – ailand, Hangzhou – China, Marrakesh, Athens, Macao).
He is a Tourist Research Centre member and has participated in meetings in Bruges,
Tours, Bolzano, Kiel, Poznan, Vienna, Bodrum, Bern and Athens. Justyna Majewska
is also a member of the elite TRC (which has only 30 members from the so-called
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“old” European Union). Many of our researchers attend important international
conferences (Calcutta – Ł. Nawrot, Brunico, Bournemouth, Sankt Petersburg - P.
Zmyślony, Rijeka – A. Niezgoda) and participate in fellowships or scienti c pro-
grammes in renowned scienti c centres.
In recent years the Department has initiated and held important national and in-
ternational scienti c events. is resulted in the concept of organising meetings for
researchers and practitioners in the tourist industry under the name of the Tourist
Expert Committee. Our Department hosted the rst Committee in 2003, which was
called “Directions of Scienti c Research Development in the Area of Tourism in the
Context of Poland’s Membership in the EU”, the third Committee in 2006, which was
titled “Tourism in the Subjective and Spatial Approach – Human-Space-Enterprise”,
and the fourth Committee in 2008 – “Tourism as a Factor Determining a Growth
in the Competitiveness of Regions in the Era of Globalisation”. We have also started
Poland’s Conferences of Tourism Institutes and Departments in state run universi-
ties. In 2014 we are organising the fourth conference titled “Challenges in Tourism
in the Contemporary World”, which will give researchers from the best universities
in Poland an opportunity to integrate. e Department also had the honour of or-
ganising the 44th TRC meeting in Poznan in 2009, which was a European forum of
scienti c thought exchange.
e Department of Tourism in the Poznan University of Economics is Poland’s
leading didactic centre which inspires new forms of teaching and elds of study.
e university’s graduates boast excellent theoretical knowledge and practical skills
that they can use in the labour market. As early as 1992 the Department started a
two-cycle study programme with three-year Bachelor’s degree courses in the Hotel
Industry School (Wyższa Szkoła Hotelarska) and two-year Master’s degree courses.
Such a system was introduced in Polish education only 15 years later.
In 2011 a two-cycle eld of study called Tourism Industry was introduced and
supervised by the Department, which was new in Poland. It is still the only eld
of study to be taken up for a Master’s degree course. Setting up this eld of study
resulted from the need to ensure the best possible conditions in which a wide and
deep knowledge of the tourism economy could be promoted. It combines mac-
roeconomic and global dimensions with the knowledge of microeconomics and
management. Now the eld of study is taken up by over 250 people and despite
the demographic crisis every year several candidates apply for each place. e eld
of study was deemed worthy of being subsidised from the European Social Fund
Called “Human Resources for the Economy”. e project has set up the following
study “Creating and Implementing the Field of Study Called Tourism Economy”. As
a result the Department received funds to promote the new eld of study, develop
an electronic centre for supporting tourist education, purchase books and journals,
conduct a students’ scholarly association and – what is worth stressing – organise
lectures by researchers dealing with economic and social aspects of tourism. Since
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2011 lectures have been given by Professor Norbert Vanhove, Catholic University
of Leuven, Professor Peter Keller, the chair of AIEST at the University of Lausanne,
Professor Harald Pechlaner from the European Academy of Bozen and Professor
David Airey from the University of Surrey.
As for teaching, the Department pays particular attention to students having
hands-on experience of the economy. Outstanding practitioners regularly con-
duct classes in English according to the relevant curricula. is is illustrated by our
long-term cooperation with Owen Easteal, manager of hotels in Germany (lec-
tures in Tourism Management, Personal Policy in Tourism). Classes have been run
by directors of the Sheraton Hotels in Poznan and Sopot, the co-owner of the IBB
hotel chain and the director of the Accor board (lectures in Hospitality Industry
Management, Business of Tourism).
Intensive scienti c research activities are conducted by the Student Centre for
Research in Tourism, “Explorers”. Recently (in 2012 and 2013) the Centre has
implemented four research projects, including information and communication
technologies and their use in tourist information or visitor centres. e students
have written four papers later published by the Poznan and Wroclaw Universities
of Economics publishing houses and organised ve seminars attended by tourism
economy practitioners and experts. ey have presented the results of their research
during three national conferences. We predict that our students will soon go inter-
national with their research activities.
e Department of Tourism’s mission is to closely cooperate with economic
practitioners at home and especially in Polish regions. is is manifested through
the Department creating a tourist development strategy. We have participated in
preparing guidelines for the inclusion of tourism in the National Development
Plan for the years 2007-3013 (at the national level). We have developed a sustained
tourism development programme for the Wielkopolski National Park and local ac-
tivity groups in the Voivodeship of Lubuskie. We have co-authored a tourism de-
velopment strategy for Poznan until 2030. We cooperate closely with practitioners
during forums of the Poznan Local Tourist Organisation [Poznan local DMO] and
Wielkopolska Tourist Organisation [Regional DMO – the Department is a member
of the organisation]. Numerous initiatives undertaken by the Department include
the realisation and implementation of the Poznan Tourist Barometer, the co-crea-
tion of the concept of an integrated tourism management system in Poznan, the re-
search into the e ectiveness of the “Half Price Poznan” project and into the MICE
market network. e Department also o ers consultancy in respect of methods of
examining tourist demand. As part of promoting business practice the Department
organises scienti c seminars during Poland’s biggest tourism fair – Tour Salon in
Poznan. In the recent years the Department has organised over 10 such meetings
called “Discussion Forums” devoted to, amongst other things, integrated tourism
management in regions, the possibilities of using tourism as a stimulant to the de-
velopment of countries and regions, conditions of foreign inbound tourism devel-
opment in Poland, and many other issues.
e importance of this cooperation for business practice can be illustrated by
distinctions that the Department has received over the last years:
e Honorary Award for achievements in tourism awarded by the Ministry of
Economy in 2003,
e Honorary Award for contributions to the advancement of the Voivodeship
of Wielkopolskie awarded by the Board of the Voivodeship of Wielkoposka in 2008.
A Certi cate of Appreciation for the idea and co-organisation of the four Tourism
Expert Committees awarded by the Council of the Polish Chamber of Tourism in
2008.
We hope you will enjoy reading this issue. We would like to thank all our review-
ers for their e orts to raise its quality and our authors for participating in the pro-
ject, which is so crucial during the Department’s anniversary.
Grzegorz Gołembski and Łukasz Nawrot
Editors of the volume
