Tourism Studies conducts extensive and thorough efforts to collaborate with the surrounding community.

Visiting researchers

Foreign researchers are regular visitors. For example, we have recently welcomed visiting researchers from universities in Manchester, Split, Primorska, Manchester, Tartu and the Balearic Islands. Our staff also regularly visit other universities for research reasons; recent visits include universities in Bremen, Stenden, Split, Tallinn, Primorska, Mariehamn, Utena and Manchester.

Industry council

The subject’s industry council was founded in 2002. Two ordinary meetings are held informally every year with the council’s ten external members, two or three academic representatives from Södertörn University and one student representative. The purpose is that:

• external members will provide information about current issues in business and the public sector,
• staff in Tourism Studies will provide information about education, research and third stream activities,
• students will be helped onto the labour market through labour market days, placements, etc.
• ideas and proposals will be made for contract education and research projects
• discussions will be made about contributions by external members for courses, research conferences, etc., for the university.

Contact list for companies and organisations

Since our degree programme was founded in 1999, we have developed contacts with around 60 strategically important tourism companies and organisations, called the TOG group in Tourism Studies. There is a contact list that the subject’s staff have access to. We use it for finding placements, subjects for degree essays, study visits, research funding, visiting lecturers, etc.

Alumni group

Our alumni group, TurismAlumnGrupp (TAG), is used to link the labour market to education, to provide support for current students and to see the process of lifelong learning.

Contract education and research

For several years, the subject has offered contract education and research projects in the Stockholm region. For example, we have held around ten different five-week courses for higher vocational education in Sweden over the last decade, as well as a study of rural visitor destination development for Huddinge Municipality in 2013.

Labour market day - TURNET

Tourism Studies has arranged an annual labour market day, TURNET, since 2009. It is for tourism companies and organisations, tourism students and the subject’s staff. There are specialist lectures from labour market specialists, exhibitions, alumni presentations, lectures on tourism students’ work and social end to the day.