The Project Consortium consists of eight partners out of six different countries: Austria, Germany, Italy, Slovenia, Romania and Poland. The project partners combine science and practice: not only universities, but also Innsbruck Tourism as a Destination Management Organization (DMO) and experts in the field of sustainability in practice (EURAC and TourCert) are part of the ETSM2023 Consortium.
Eurac Research
Center of Advanced Studies of Eurac Research
Eurac Research is a private research institution based in Bolzano (Italy), that is conducting research on a wide variety of fields. The Center for Advanced Studies carries out interdisciplinary research on different social, economic and political topics. The team combines expertise from political science, sociology, economics, socio-economics and philosophy. It consists of both specialists and generalists working closely together to inform and provide food for thought - in critical exchange and with different scientific methods.
Sustainable tourism has been one of the center’s main fields of research. Besides several scientific publications on tourism, the team elaborated the scientific basis of the provincial program for the touristic development of South Tyrol for the year 2030. Furthermore, the center is part of the INSTO-network of sustainable tourism observatories of the UNWTO and monitors the economic, social and ecological effects of tourism in South Tyrol (STOST).
Harald Pechlaner
Head of Center, management and coordination of WP 3
Measuring the development of sustainability is of central importance in tourism. Those who want to make decisions need to know what they are dealing with.
Harald Pechlaner is the Head of the Center for Advanced Studies at Eurac Research and holds the chair of Tourism at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt. His research area concerns the sustainable destination development and selected questions about Global Governance combined with economics and politics. Since 2014 he is Adjunct Research Professor at Curtin University (Perth, Australia) and President of AIEST, a tourism experts’ association based in the St. Gallen University. Furthermore, Pechlaner is leading the Competence Center for Tourism in Berlin as Scientific Director and he is a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts.
Christoph Kircher
Research in the field sustainable tourism is critical to ensuring that the tourism industry can continue to thrive while also minimizing its negative impact on the environment, society, and culture.
Christoph Kircher is a sociologist with a focus on economic sociology and social science methods and epistemology. In his position as a post-doctoral researcher at the Center for Advances Studies at Eurac Research, he works on issues regarding socio-ecological transformation and sustainability.
Valentin Wallnöfer
Junior researcher, survey and empirical analysis, elaboration of thematic groups of SMTEs
Fostering more sustainable practices in tourism enterprises is an important step towards a socio-ecological transformation.
Valentin Wallnöfer is a junior researcher at the Center for Advances Studies of Eurac Research. He has a background in tourism management and human geography and his main research interests include topics concerning sustainability and transformation. Besides the ETSM project, he is also working on the Sustainable Tourism Observatory of South Tyrol (STOST), that monitors the effects of tourism in the region.
Marlies Blaas
Administrative personnel, controlling and financial administration
Having an academic background in tourism, I am very interested in the topic of the project. Therefore, I am happy to be part of it.
Marlies Blaas is one of the team assistants of the Center for Advanced Studies of Eurac Research. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Tourism Management of the Free University of Bolzano and has supported and worked within several projects in the field and therefore supports the team of Eurac Research regarding controlling and administration.
