The Futouris Scientific Advisory Board
How do we ensure the quality of our projects?
As an industry initiative for sustainability, we want to ensure a high standard of sustainability in our projects, keep the sustainability debate up to date and recognize innovations in this area. Leading international scientists have agreed to support Futouris and its member companies in this – as consultants and partners, but also as critics and challengers!
Together with the scientific advisory board, project standards for Futouris projects have been developed, sustainability indicators defined and an accreditation process established. Each project application is reviewed, evaluated and, if necessary, further developed by two members of the advisory board on the basis of the sustainability indicators. This procedure enables a continuous comparison of the project standards with the latest research findings and ensures the long-term safeguarding and qualification of Futouris’ sustainability claim. The following international scientists from various disciplines are involved in the Futouris Scientific Advisory Board on a voluntary basis and ensure that the latest results of tourism research are always up to date and intensively discussed:
Prof. Dr. Julia E. Beelitz
University of Applied Sciences KemptenAfter international (D/NZ/UK) studies in business administration, sociology and geography, Prof. Dr. Julia E. Beelitz (née Peters) has been working in tourism studies and research since 2007. In 2015, she accepted an appointment at the University of Applied Sciences Kempten. As Professor of Sustainability and International Management, she focuses on issues of sustainable mass tourism, the analysis of globally relevant niche segments and the field of tourism philosophy. She is a member of the scientific advisory boards of Futouris and forum anders reisen e.V. and is active in the German Society for Tourism Research (DGT e.V.) as well as in the tourism research working group of the German Geographical Society. As co-editor of the Journal of Tourism Studies, as a jury member (e.g. EcoTrophea, fairwärts) and through her involvement in cooperative digital educational programs (e.g. lecture series, media appearances), she is intensively committed to the transfer of education between science and practice.
Prof. Dr. Dagmar Lund-Durlacher
Eberswalde University for Sustainable DevelopmentProf. Dr. Dagmar Lund-Durlacher is a full professor at the Institute for Tourism and Service Management at the Modul University of Vienna. She has been researching, teaching and publishing in the field of sustainable tourism for many years. In recent years, she has shifted her focus from traditional consumer behavior research and marketing to the topics of CSR, climate change, mobility and transformation processes in tourism. She is active in numerous international scientific networks and as a scientific and technical consultant for national and international organizations. Dagmar has been involved in a number of publicly funded projects in the context of sustainability in tourism.
Prof. Dr. Christian Baumgartner
University of Applied Sciences GraubündenProf. (FH) Dr. Christian Baumgartner is a landscape ecologist and founder of response & ability. Previously, as founder of respect – Institute for Integrative Tourism and Development, he worked for 20 years in the international NGO sector. In addition to his work as a professor for sustainable tourism and international development at the University of Applied Sciences Graubünden, he teaches business ethics in Austria and regularly teaches in an international context (China, Azerbaijan, etc.). He is also a member of numerous national and international advisory bodies in tourism. Christian Baumgartner specializes in the development and implementation of projects in sustainable tourism and sustainable regional development and has accompanied numerous development projects in Europe and Southeast Asia. He is currently very involved in sustainable tourism development on the Danube and in the Balkans as well as in the Caucasus (e.g. Georgia) and Central Asia (e.g. Kyrgyzstan).
Prof. Dr. Jürgen Schmude
Ludwig-Maximilians-University MunichProf. Dr. Jürgen Schmude teaches Economic Geography and Tourism Research at the Department of Geography at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München since 2008. He is also Director of the Department of Geography. Prof. Dr. Schmude teaches economic geography in the Bachelor’s, Master’s and teacher training programs in Munich. As a member of the SOCRATES exchange program, he also teaches once a year in Lecce (Italy). In his research activities, Prof. Dr. Schmude focuses on tourism research, sustainability and CSR as well as the geography of France. His main research interests are economic disparities in general and the effects of global change and climate change on tourism. He has been President of the German Society for Tourism Research (DGT) since November 2015.
Prof. Dr. Jürg Stettler
Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and ArtsProf. Dr. Jürg Stettler is Head of the Institute of Tourism Economics ITW and Vice Director and Head of Research at the Lucerne School of Business. The Institute deals with all relevant issues relating to the management and control of tourist destinations and the mobility of people, particularly in the areas of public transport, leisure and tourism. Another focus is on sustainable development in tourism. Jürg Stettler’s thematic focus is on destination management, sustainable development in tourism and the economic impact, sustainability and legacy of major sporting events. He has also been working intensively on the topic of overtourism for several years.
Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Strasdas
Emeritus Eberswalde University of Applied SciencesProf. Dr. Wolfgang Strasdas studied landscape planning with a focus on tourism in Hanover and Seattle and has been a professor at the Department of Sustainable Economics at Eberswalde University of Applied Sciences since 2002, where he heads the Master’s degree course in Sustainable Tourism Management and the Research Centre for Sustainable Tourism (ZENAT). In 2001, he completed his doctorate on the subject of ecotourism in Mexico and Belize. His current work focuses on protected area management, tourism in developing countries, corporate social responsibility and certification in tourism as well as climate protection and adaptation to climate change. In addition to Futouris, Wolfgang Strasdas is a member of the scientific advisory board of forum anders reisen, the certification council of TourCert, the German National Committee for UNESCO Geoparks and the jury for the Fahrtziel Natur Award of Deutsche Bahn and leading German environmental organizations. He represents Eberswalde University in the BEST Education Network and in the European TRIANGLE network for sustainable tourism.
Prof. Dr. Harald Zeiss
Harz University of Applied SciencesProf. Dr. Harald Zeiss studied business administration in Nuremberg, political science in Strasbourg and earned an MBA in the USA. In 2005, Prof. Dr. Zeiss moved to the tour operator TUI Deutschland in Hanover. He worked there for eleven years in various areas of responsibility, including quality management, product development and purchasing. From 2010 to 2016, he was Head of Environmental and Sustainability Management at TUI.
Harald Zeiss has been a professor at the Harz University of Applied Sciences in Wernigerode since 2011, specializing in sustainability and international tourism. In addition to research and teaching, he has been responsible for the International Tourism Studies (ITS) course since 2012 and was Dean of Studies in the Department of Economics from 2018 to 2022.
Zeiss was Chairman of the Board of the Futouris sustainability initiative from 2017 to 2022. Zeiss also volunteers as Chairman of the Sustainability Committee at the German Travel Association (DRV) and is Chairman of the Environmental Advisory Board of the Saxony-Anhalt Tourism Association (LTV). He is also Director of the Institute for Tourism Research at Harz University of Applied Sciences (ITF). In 2020, he was elected to the Advisory Board of the German National Tourist Board (GNTB).
Dr. Nicole Häusler
Eberswalde University for Sustainable DevelopmentDr. Nicole Häusler has been working for over 25 years as a consultant and trainer for sustainable tourism with a regional focus on Asia. Her areas of expertise are destination management, change management, tourism and culture, qualitative methods in tourism research and tourism in development cooperation. At the Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development, she works as an honorary professor in the field of culture and sustainable development and as a substitute for the Chair of Destination Management. Prior to her longer stay abroad on sustainable tourism development in Myanmar, Nicole Häusler was already a member of the Futouris Scientific Advisory Board from 2011 to 2013.
Prof. Dr. Kerstin Heuwinkel
Saarland university of applied sciences for technology and economicsProf. Dr. Kerstin Heuwinkel has been Professor of International Tourism Management at htw saar since 2005 with a focus on tourism sociology. Her current research focuses on responsible tourism with a focus on gender equality and community-based tourism. In addition, she develops teaching and learning methods for tourism science education. Her interdisciplinary background, in particular the combination of sociology and information science, forms the basis for her research. Kerstin Heuwinkel is the author of numerous academic publications, such as her book Tourism Sociology, which won the ITB BookAward. She regularly gives lectures at conferences and is a member of the German Society for Tourism Research (DGT e.V.) and the Tourism Research Working Group of the German Society for Geography.
From 2002 to 2005, Kerstin Heuwinkel headed a working group at the Fraunhofer Institute for Software and Systems Engineering and received her doctorate from Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf in 2004. She studied sociology, information science and political science in Düsseldorf and Barcelona.
Curious about the projects we implement?
Discover the exciting projects that Futouris is implementing together with its members and with the support of the Scientific Advisory Board.