Glocal Education

noneSince 1999 the Marine Science Group, (www.marinesciengroup.org), research team of the University of Bologna, involves citizens and tourists in the collection of data for scientific research, through a Recreational Citizen Science approach. So far our idea of recreational research has seen the participation of tens of thousands of people in environmental monitoring projects. Glocal Education project, recently developed by our research group, draws on these experiences to develop a participation method based on the recreational aspect of tourism. The result is to actively influence the level of environmental awareness of the tourists involved in the project. Goals: • create a training program aimed to increase environmental education in tourists who visit different geographical areas during their vacations; • study the effects of environmental education programs on tourists’ environmental awareness, on their attitude (short-term) and their behavior (long-term) towards the environment; • evaluate tourists’ appreciation for the educational program and whether this affects the level of customer loyalty towards the brand hosting the research project Approach: The “Glocal” approach is based on the most recent academic subject of Ecological-Economics, which highlights how environmental ecology is strictly dependent on a correct management of resources, and vice versa. It is aimed to develop a deeper scientific understanding of the complex link between human and natural systems, and efficiently allocate scarce resources, including “natural” and “social” capital. This approach contemplates a training course for tourists, custom made for each destination and each environment. A Local approach, extendable to a Global scale. The results of this study will allow us to measure the responsible behavior of tourists towards natural resources over time and to create guidelines and protocols for the implementation of programs for the development of eco-sustainable tourism activity. The results will be communicated both to the scientific community, through publication in international journals, and to tourism industry operators during dedicated events such as BIT– International Travel Exhibition and TTG-Travel Experience.noneGoffredo S.Goffredo S