In this subject, the key contents of the most advanced contemporary research in tourism analysis and, more specifically, the planning and management of tourism as an activity that generates challenges and opportunities will be discussed. The course will provide students with the conceptual and methodological tools necessary for the analysis and planning of tourist activity in diverse environments, providing a vision from the complementarity and development of multifunctional territories.

The subject has an applied nature and is guided by the challenge learning methodology: it involves facing real and complex problems identified by the different actors in the territory to carry out an adequate diagnosis and point out possible solutions to the problems detected. Challenge-based learning is today a widely recognized methodology that allows not only dealing with real case studies, but also inserting the student into environments in which they can develop their professional career in the future. It is also a good opportunity to integrate and experiment with the knowledge and methods acquired in other subjects of the Master. For this reason, the central axis is the realization of a project that we call Troncal and that is done in coordination with two more subjects: Territorial and Urban Planning and City and Metropolitan Spaces.

We understand core as carrying out a practical exercise, consisting of the recognition and identification of the urban, social and environmental characteristics of a territory in order to implement projects and proposals that resolve the identified challenges.

For the 2024-25 academic year, the title of the core is Tourism and socio-territorial challenges: Planning and management of inland tourism in the Vinalopó corridor (Alicante). This territory, without an administrative delimitation, responds to a natural region such as the Vinalopó valley, where we find several municipalities (Villena, Elda, Pretel, Sax, Biar, etc.), more or less integrated into tourist dynamics, but with a long history of adaptation and development of adaptation and reconversion strategies.

The challenge posed will be, based on the identification of specific problems expressed by local actors, to select, define and develop, collaboratively, possible alternatives specified in proposals and projects. You will work in small groups, each of them will delve into a thematic aspect. The results will be presented to local officials and other actors in society.