Bridging Disciplinary Divides through Computational Social Sciences and Transdisciplinarity in Tourism Education in Higher Educational Institutions: An Austrian Case Study

Thomas J. Lampoltshammer (), Stefanie Wallinger and Johannes Scholz
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Thomas J. Lampoltshammer: Department for E-Governance and Administration, University for Continuing Education Krems, 3500 Krems, Austria
Stefanie Wallinger: Department of Business and Tourism, Salzburg University of Applied Sciences, 5412 Puch/Salzburg, Austria
Johannes Scholz: Research Group Geoinformation, Institute of Geodesy, Graz University of Technology, 8010 Graz, Austria

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 10, 1-16

Abstract: Grand societal issues such as climate change and technological disruption challenge all industry sectors, including tourism. To cope with these challenges, new sustainable business models that not only rely on data-driven technologies but also require new ways of collaboration beyond disciplines and sectors by facilitating the overall conception of transdisciplinarity are essential. One potential way to combine all these requirements is computational social sciences. As a discipline-crossing approach, it should be anchored within tourism education to train the future workforce and experts necessary to realize the needed transformation. Thus, this study explores the status quo of tourism curricula in higher educational institutions in Austria through the lens of computational social sciences. In doing so, a set of core modules of computational social sciences content was developed as an analytical framework. The results show that there is still a significant gap between the demands of the tourism industry and the offered educational programs in Austria. The article concludes with insights on how to close the existing gap and some suggestions for possible foundational steps to support the transformation.

Keywords: computational social science; transdisciplinarity; tourism studies; education; HEI; digitalization; digital transformation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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