Thesis nailing ceremony: Marije Poort
- Date
- 13 May 2026, 13:15–14:00
- Location
- Campus Gotland, Almedalen Library
- Type
- Academic ceremony
- Organiser
- Department of Women's and Children's Health, GRASS
- Contact person
- Marije Poort
You are warmly invited to attend Marije Poort's thesis nailing ceremony, when she will present her thesis titled
'Creating Moments in Between: Exploring regenerative tourism through a with and for research approach'.
Tourism happens all over the world, and is for many places of great economic importance. At the same time, tourism affects places negatively. It degrades natural environments, it contributes to climate change, and it creates large differences between poor and rich. Also on Gotland these negative impacts are felt. The tourism industry is a major user of water, while the island struggles with water shortages; some places on Gotland deal with overtourism in the summer times, with too many tourists visiting at the same time; the popularity of buying summerhouses has caused an increase of housing prices, and has created an insecure renting or ´secondary´ housing situation. In response to these problems, local inhabitants offer critique and voice their concerns. Destinations got a taste of how life could be without tourism during the Covid-19 pandemic. During these times of reflection and in response to the negative impacts, the calls for tourism transformation grew louder.
For this reason, Marije Poort´s research explored a different kind of tourism called regenerative tourism. She wanted to know what regenerative tourism could mean on Gotland, and how her research could help shaping this. For this reason, she facilitated workshops for local inhabitants and through creative activities enabled a dialogue about tourism on the island. Together, the group of local participants created a local meaning of regenerative tourism, which they translated into the concepts människonära, integrerande, mångfald, levande byggd and distribution. At the same time, Poort reflected on her research in order to understand how it created value for the local participants and how her research shaped the process. This in order to not only do research on how tourism is, but to explore how tourism could be and how research can create mutual benefit, value beyond profit and awareness of power.
Poort brings her research together in a conceptual model called Moments in Between. This model reflects the core aspect of regenerative tourism on Gotland, where inhabitants want meaningful encounters and affective relationships with visitors. The conceptual models also serves as a guidance for researchers and practitioners in navigating the complexities of fostering genuine, place-based regenerative tourism development.
Thesis nailing
The thesis nailing ceremony will take place on 13 May, 13:15-14:00, in the research gallery on the second floor of the Almedalen Library.
Everyone is welcome to attend.
Thesis defence
The thesis defence will take place on Thursday 21 May, in lecture hall E22 or via Zoom: https://uu-se.zoom.us/j/66825771975.