Tourism can bring jobs, economic growth, and cultural exchange - but how do we understand whether residents truly and inherently benefit? Tourism evolves and weaves into everyday life in ways seen and unseen for people who call these destinations home. Have you ever thought about how tourism subtly shapes your community for the better? Perhaps a once-quiet park has been revitalised with better facilities, or new restaurants have opened, offering more dining options for visitors and residents alike. Maybe you have enjoyed a restored heritage site, or you feel a strong sense of community and pride - even if you have never consciously linked it to tourism. While public discourse often highlights challenges such as overcrowding, rising housing costs, and commercialisation, the positive, subjective and sometimes hidden, contributions of tourism are often overlooked.

Everyone wants to experience a beautiful environment, especially when they are on vacation. Some places are more beautiful than others, however, leading certain visually or culturally attractive areas to become overwhelmingly popular with tourists. When either the sheer physical number or the behaviour of tourists starts to damage physical surroundings or the routines of people going about their daily lives, people describe it with the now-trendy term ‘overtourism.’

Centres of Expertise (CoE) are public-private partnerships between universities of applied sciences and the professional field, with a distinct focus on societal challenges. Within these centres, investments are made in research, innovation, and lifelong learning. In the domain of leisure, tourism and hospitality, the Netherlands has one CoE: CELTH. This centre works with thematic research agendas under which projects are developed to address urgent issues in the domain. Bringing this knowledge back to the industry is an important task of CELTH, effectively building a bridge between science and industry. Events such as the Industry Day of the World Leisure Congress play a significant role in this knowledge dissemination. In this article, we will describe Dutch tourism policy, the role of CoEs and CELTH in it, CELTH's research agendas, practical implementation in projects, and how this knowledge is returned to the industry.

What does leisure mean in an age of planetary crisis? And how might it contribute to shaping a more sustainable future? These questions were at the heart of a lively conversation I recently hosted in my role as transversal professor of Sustainability Transitions at Breda University of Applied Sciences (BUas). I was joined by four BUas professors - Marcel Bastiaansen, Mata Haggis-Burridge, Jörn Fricke, and Jeroen Klijs - and two editors of UNCOVER magazine, Peter Horsten and Simon de Wijs. All are deeply engaged with the concept of leisure and its implications for society, the economy, and the planet. Together, we explored how leisure has shaped the world we live in today - sometimes for better, often for worse - and what role it could and should play in transitioning towards a more sustainable future. What emerged was a critical yet hopeful reflection on how we might reclaim leisure as a space for connection, creativity, and care, rather than a byproduct of consumption and productivity.

Edinburgh is synonymous with innovation and excellence and many aspiring actors and producers have cut their teeth in the city. Phoebe Waller-Bridge, the creator and star of ‘Fleabag’ and now the honorary president of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society premiered her one-woman play at the 2013 Fringe. The show earned her an Olivier Award nomination and was then adapted into a hit TV series for BBC 3/Amazon. Commenting on the Edinburgh Fringe, Waller-Bridge said that it is “at the beating heart” of the industry and in 2023 she launched a new £100k fund to support artists in bringing work to the festival. This is an excellent example of how the festival is intrinsically linked to and is a key part of the fabric of the city. So much so that its yearly cycle of activity means Edinburgh sees itself as a “festival city” (Ali-Knight, cited in Wade, 2020).

The hospitality industry plays an important role in broader societal and economic developments. How do we ensure that tourism in the Netherlands continues to have a positive impact? In this article, Yvonne Nassar, CEO of the Netherlands Board of Tourism & Conventions (NBTC), shares her vision of the impact of trends and developments within the hospitality industry.