In the ever-evolving field of tourism education, innovative approaches are essential to prepare students for the intricate challenges of sustainable tourism development, such as overconsumption of resources, excessive carbon emissions and geopolitical conflicts worldwide. From the social science perspective, tourism development is a multifaceted field requiring knowledge of different academic backgrounds (Darbellay & Stock, 2012; Jenkins & Schröder, 2013). These intertwined challenges have brought about difficulties in understanding tourism sustainability through traditional teaching and learning modes such as lecturing in class. This blog post reports on two interconnected projects that are aimed to address these challenges. 

Developing tourism planning games 

The first project embarked on creating two tourism planning games in urban and rural contexts using a design-thinking process that involved student engagement and knowledge transfer. Design thinking, known for its solution-focused methodology, is particularly effective in developing creative and impactful educational tools (Koh et al., 2015). By integrating student insights and feedback throughout the development process, the games were fine-tuned to meet educational needs for tourism education. For example, resources in the game were categorised into two resource types: renewable (such as capital, human resources and technology) and non-renewable (such as endangered species and water). These two types reflect the real-world circumstances of resource scarcity and diversity.

‘Tourism planning team-based games simulate real-world scenarios and challenge players to balance tourism development missions with sustainability goals.’

The primary objective of the games is to enhance players’ understanding of tourism development and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This is because SDGs represent core global issues that are essential for students nowadays to learn as global citizens and potential future leaders. The team-based games simulate real-world scenarios and challenge players to balance tourism development missions with sustainability goals. Players could refer to real-world circumstances for applying particular concepts and knowledge areas in tourism development and SDGs to the gameplay.

Evaluating pedagogical impact of the games 

Game-based learning has proved to be an innovative approach to SDG education (Andreoni & Richard, 2024; Réti et al., 2022). However, (to our best knowledge) a cross-territory, cross-institutional and cross-cultural comparison is under-researched in the area of game-based learning in SDG education. The second project, a pedagogical research study with its scope expanded to include students from both Hong Kong and Europe, aims to address this research gap by assessing students’ ability to apply the knowledge and skills gained from the games to real-world tourism planning scenarios, and whether there are differences in their sustainability competences before and after experiencing the games.

This study involved a total of more than 130 local and international students who participated in a physical or an online game workshop. Data were collected from a set of prescribed pre–post statements in a survey and a follow-up focus group discussion to offer an in-depth understanding of attributes related to student engagement in the game and its pedagogical effectiveness. Based on the preliminary findings, students reported an increase in their experienced scores in knowledge enrichment (from 4.58 to 5.66 on a 7-point scale), attitudinal change (from 5.83 to 6.13), and behavioural intention (from 5.12 to 5.75) related to sustainability in a tourism context, which is statistically significant verified by an independent-sample t-test of pre-group and post-group scores (p≤0.01). Evaluation of the gameplay experience was also generally positive (6.30 on a 7-point scale). 

Navigating the opportunities and complexities of researching game-based learning

The first project has provided a successful case of teaching-learning innovation and enhancement through intense engagement of student partners and players in the design thinking and game development process, while stimulating students’ interactive and foot-loose learning. The second project offered valuable insights into the impacts of the games in enhancing students’ competencies in sustainable tourism development. Collaboration and support from researchers specialising in pedagogic or educational research have proved to be beneficial in implementing the two projects.

References 

Andreoni, V., & Richard, A. (2024). Exploring the interconnected nature of the sustainable development goals: The 2030 SDGs Game as a pedagogical tool for interdisciplinary education. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 25(1), 21–42. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSHE-11-2022-0378

Darbellay, F., & Stock, M. (2012). Tourism as complex interdisciplinary research object. Annals of Tourism Research, 39(1), 441–458. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2011.07.002

Jenkins, I., & Schröder, R. (Eds.). (2013). Sustainability in tourism: A multidisciplinary approach. Springer Science & Business Media. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-8349-7043-5 

Koh, J. H. L., Chai, C. S., Wong, B., & Hong, H. Y. (2015). Design thinking for education: Conceptions and applications in teaching and learning. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-444-3 

Réti, M., Lippai, E., & Nemes, M. (2022). Gamification for sustainability: A possible renaissance of role-playing game mechanics in pedagogy. In P. Vare, N. Lausselet & M. Rieckmann (Eds.), Competences in education for sustainable development: Critical perspectives (pp. 159–165). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-91055-6_19