Data, time

Activity

17 September, Tuesday

13:00-18:00

Open Registration Desk

14:00-15:00

ITSA Board General meeting (closed)

18:00-19:30

Welcome Reception & Networking

18 September, Wednesday

08:30  

Open Registration Desk

09:00-09:30

Moderator of the day Prof. Andris Klepers, Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences, Latvia

Opening Ceremony:

Prof. Arnis Sauka PhD, Chairman of the Council, Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences, Latvia

Vanessa Gaitree Gowreesunkar, the ITSA-IJTC vice president and Katie Gezi, Taylor & Francis with a special announcement

Welcome Speech by the Latvian Congress Bureau

09:30-10:10

Keynote online #1 – Green brings green: The power of sustainable destination branding in urban marketing and development by Prof. Alastair M. Morrison, Research Professor, School of Management and Marketing, University of Greenwich, United Kingdom

10:10-10:50

Keynote #2 – Smart cities start with communities: urban commons and sense of place by Ilona Beliatskaya, Junior Research Fellow, Estonian Business School, Estonia

10:50-11:20

Coffee Break

11:20-13:00

 Parallel sessions I

Session 1A (Hybrid) (2) Management of resources within the framework of climate change, environment and responsible attitudes

Session 1B (4) Changes in traveller behaviour and consumption of tourism offers

Session chair: Alastair M. Morrison (online)

Session chair: Andris Klepers

A Comprehensive Study on the Role of Wellness Concepts in Urban Tourism and Leisure Behavior (#51) by Chih-Hui Huang, Yong He (online)

Exploring the Impact of Workforce Sustainability Attributes on Employees’ Intention to Stay in the Hospitality and Tourism Industry (#14) by Poerava Brodien Hapairai

Tourism Impacts Analysis – case study Azores destination (#6) by Claudia Faias, Claudia Seabra, Maria Batista, Ana Caldeira (online)

Gamification marketing in tourism (#9) by Paola Piccirillo

Barriers And Drivers for Being Sustainable: The Perspective of Latvian Tourism Organisations (#26) by Linda, Veliverronena, Ilze Grīnfelde, Aija van der Steina

Illuminating the Dark Spots of Social Media Storms in Tourism (#10) by Konstantinos N. Rigopoulos, Pernille Rydén, Konstantinos G. Kottikas, Efthymia Kottika, Ioannis G. Theodorakis, Vatroslav Skare, Muhammad Ismail Hossain

Recreation and tourism in promoting social inclusion. A reflection of documented theory. (#11) by Samkelisiwe Nkwanyana (online)

Repositioning Paradise:  Investigating the LGBTQIA+ Inclusion in the Sustainable Development of Tourism in Mauritius (#50) by Vanessa Gaitree Gowreesunkar

Clustering of small businesses to create resilience in tourism destinations (#13) by Jens Thraenhart 

The satisfaction of residents as a determining factor in the development of a sustainable tourism destination (#3) by Margrit Kärp, Kandela Õun, Tiina Viin 

13:00-14:00

Lunch

14:00-15:30

Parallel sessions II

Session 2A (Hybrid)

Session 2 B

10. Bottlenecks for the sustainable planning of tourism destinations

(6) Circularity & Global Green Deal applications for tourism systems

Session chair: Claudia Seabra (online)

Session chair: Ilona Beliatskaya

Social value creation in tourism: How far can tourism push? (#22) by Rui Augusto da Costa, Larissa F. L. Almeida, Adriana F. Chim-Miki, Filipa Brandão

A guide to Tourists’ Dietary Preferences and Requirements: Emerging Trends(#65) by Zohre Mohammadi, Abhishek Singh Bhati, Valeriya Radomskaya

Developing and validating a scale measuring socially sustainable tourist behaviour (#7) by Jiawei Li, Alastair M. Morrison, J. Andres Coca-Stefaniak

A dynamic panel model for the relationship between environmental pollution and international tourism: evidence from Baltic countries (#37) by Dzintra Atstāja, Edmira Cakrani

Key Priorities for South African Mothers During Family Vacations

(#42) by Rosa-Anne Naude’-Potgieter

Micromobility in tourism destinations (#58) by Māra Grīnberga – Šilaua

Protection of tourists during travel as a key aspect in the field of tourism (#48) by Liudmyla Prohoniuk

A shift to circular festival management- a literature review and Latvian practices (#66) by Marta Kontiņa, Dzintra Atstāja, Natālija Cudečka-Puriņa

Social responsibility of the tourism industry in Ukraine  (#49) by Nataliia Shyshpanova 

How to Finance Tourism and Recreation in National Parks: Systematic Review (#68) by Ilker Gül

15:30-15:50

Coffee Break

15:50-16:50

17:00-18:00

ITSA General Meeting – available to current ITSA members and those interested in becoming members

Young Scholars & Philip Pearce TRINERGY Program (ITSA-IJTC) lead by prof vice-chancellor of the University of Newcastle Australia Singapore campus Abhishek Bhati and Rajinder Kumar, Philip Pearce TRINERGY Program awardee

19:30-23:00

Networking Reception

19 September, Thursday

Field trips, including lunch, 1 snack break: 

09:00-15:00 

Tour A : Baltic Coastline Tour

09:00-17:00

Tour B : Valmiera

09:00-13:00

Tour C : Riga by Bike

20 September, Friday

09:00-09:40

Moderator of the day Prof. Andris Klepers, Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences, Latvia

Keynote online #3 – Cultural Sedimentation and Cultural Sustainability: From Place Writing to Destination Making by Prof. Tiger Bihu Wu, Professor & Director, The International Center for Recreation and Tourism Research, Peking University, China

09:40-11:10 

Parallel sessions III

Session 3A (Hybrid): (5)Digitalization & technological solutions for sustainable tourism services

Session 3B (1)Building smart urban tourism systems for a sustainable future

Session chair: Andris Klepers

Session chair: Vanessa Gaitree Gowreesunkar

The Role of Technology in Transformative Tourism Experience Design (#61) by Muhammad Khogali

Between City Development and Dark Heritage: Future Scenarios of Urban Tourism in Riga (#35) by Aija van der Steina, Maija Rozite

Blockchain-powered carbon tracking apps: A new frontier for low-carbon tourism (#15) by Abhishek Bhati, Valeriya Radomskaya, Vidit Jain, Shruti Deshpande

Cultural protest events: Art museums as a platform for social change (#53)by Rosa Anna Froio, Zohre Mohammadi

Tourist experiences in urban settings – developing a tool for the tourism product development of a city destination.(#27) by John Ebejer

Circularity of tourism system in policy planning documents and industry assessment reports (#1) by Agita Līviņa, Dace Dance

11:10-11:30

Coffee Break

11:30-13:00

Parallel sessions IV

Session 4A (Hybrid)  

(8)  Safety and security challenges and solutions for businesses and travellers

Session 4B

(11) Bottlenecks for the sustainable planning of tourism destinations

Session chair: Mahender Reddy Gavinolla 

Session chair: Andris Klepers

Guests’ readiness to embrace robots in 4- and 5-star hotels in South Africa (#18) by Whitney May, Nicolene Conradie, Ciné van Zyl (online)

Decision-Making Support in selecting small cities as Alternative tourism destinations: An Approach Based on the PROMETHEE Method (#21) by Ariana Almeida Gonzaga, Adriana Fumi Chim-Miki, Rui Augusto da Costa

Crime and urban tourism: a biblometric literature review (#2) by Andreia Pereira, Claudia Seabra

Identifying the drivers of a circular economy in tourism – a modified total interpretive structural modeling (m-TISM) approach (#23) by Mayank Pathak, Pinosh Kumar Hajoary, Manju Sangwan (online)

Tourism industry perspectives in disaster management planning: Cases from Indonesia and Japan (#25) by Devi Roza Krisnandhi Kausar, Agustan Agustan

Scoping the earliest signs of overtourism in the Baltic resorts (#56) by Antti Roose, Ain Hinsberg

Understanding changes in US market travel behavior towards Caribbean destinations (#33) by Michelle McLeod, Robertico Croes

Sense of place in film-tourism destination (#36) by Marit Piirman, Garri Raagmaa, Jarkko Saarinen

Agrotourism in Rural Himalayas: Challenges and Opportunities from the local perspective (#69) by Subhajit Deoghuria, Ansh Tandon, Prince Pandey, Vanessa Gowreesunkar  

13:00-13:15 

Voting for the best paper

13:15-14:15

Lunch break

14:15-15:15

 IJTC Information Meeting – available to potential authors, reviewers, board members, and others interested in the International Journal of Tourism Cities (lead by IJTC editorial team)

15:15-15:40 

Keynote #4    Safe and Secure Tourism: Perceptions, Priorities, Perspectives. Case Studies in Latvia by Zane Kudure, lecturer and Science secretary, Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences, Latvia

15:40-16:10

Invitation to up-coming ITSA conferences:

Ø  ITSA 2025 December. By Prafulla Y. Agnihotri, Professor, Director of Indian Institute of Management Sirmaur, India

Ø  ITSA 2026 biennial conference “Rejuvenating Cultural Heritage in an Artificial Intelligence Age “in Quanzhou, China. By Prof. Tiger Bihu Wu, Professor & Director, The International Center for Recreation and Tourism Research, Peking University, China (online)

Ø  Congress on Diversity and Sustainability: opportunities and threats in tourism (DSOTT’2025). By Claudia Seabra, University of Coimbra, Portugal (online)

Ø  2nd International Forum ”Sustainable development of tourism in Central Asia “challenges, opportunities, and prospects”, dedicated to the 90th anniversary of Al-Farabi Kazakh National University. By Gulbaram Kulakhmetova, PhD in Tourism, acting associate professor, Secretary of Scientific Council, Faculty of Geography and Environmental Sciences, Al Farabi Kazakh National University (TBC)

16:10-16:30 

Closing part & the Best Paper Award

16:30

Coffee break & Goodbye