On Thursday 11 December, the public event Possibilities for Regenerative Tourism took place at Pakhuis de Zwijger. The gathering was part of a multi-day programme on regenerative tourism within the European ConnAct project, a collaboration between Pakhuis de Zwijger, the Municipality of Amsterdam and Inholland University of Applied Sciences. Researchers, students, policymakers and professionals came together to explore how tourism can contribute to urban liveability, wellbeing and social cohesion.

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Regenerative tourism: a different way of thinking and working

Central to the evening was the question of what regenerative tourism means in practice. Rather than a fixed definition, it was discussed as a different way of thinking and working: place-based, long-term, and rooted in close relationships with local communities and ecosystems. Regeneration was framed as a process that grows through hyper-local, small-scale experiments, in which learning, testing and co-creating with residents help build lasting value for place.

From theory to practice: pioneers and policy

Roos Gerritsma (Urban Leisure & Tourism Lab) reflected on regenerative thinking inspired by living systems and demonstrated how this approach is embedded in applied research and education. Anouschka Trauschke highlighted the role of regenerative pioneers in Amsterdam and the wider Metropolitan Region, where small-scale initiatives show how tourism can contribute to local value creation.

Concrete examples, including neighbourhood initiatives, locally rooted food projects and Buurthotel, illustrated how tourism can strengthen neighbourhood identity and social connection. The role of policy was also addressed, with the Municipality of Amsterdam emphasising the importance of trust and societal value over quick or easily measurable returns.

Regeneration also requires inner change

The evening also featured a short embodied intervention by researcher Jimena Diamint. Through a guided mindfulness exercise, participants were invited to reflect not only cognitively, but also physically and emotionally on their relationship to tourism, place and one another. This intervention explicitly connected regenerative tourism to inner change and shifts in mindset.

Learning and designing in the city

Students from the Urban Leisure & Tourism Lab presented projects from Amsterdam Noord, including a successful night market at Buikslotermeerplein, where local makers, projections and neighbourhood-based interventions were used to strengthen social connection, safety and pride of place.

Part of a multi-day programme

The event at Pakhuis de Zwijger was part of a broader programme. It followed a session at the Urban Leisure & Tourism Lab, presented by lab coach Zac Woolfitt, and was preceded by the Regenerative Tourism Hack: a mini-hackathon at Inholland University of Applied Sciences, organised and facilitated by ENSUT project manager Luca von Prittwitz and Jimena Diamint. During this session, students, researchers, professionals and EU partners explored how AI can contribute to a regenerative and inclusive visitor economy, and where alternatives are needed that place human connection, creativity and democratic values at the centre.

Regenerative tourism as a shared exploration

The evening demonstrated that regenerative tourism is not a buzzword, but a shared exploration that grows at the intersection of research, education, policy and practice.

More information and a recording of the event are available on the Pakhuis de Zwijger website.

Society faces major challenges such as poverty, housing, and climate change, to name just a few. To help countries worldwide address these issues sustainably, the United Nations formulated seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015. Within ARC Research Center – the research center of the Creative Business domain at Inholland University of Applied Sciences – Philippa Collin conducted research on how to bring these goals to life. Her conviction: “Collaboration is the foundation for getting started on the SDGs. It is our task to teach students the language to talk about collaboration.”

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At the end of August, Philippa stepped down from her work at Inholland to enjoy early retirement. In recent years, she worked on projects focused on personal development in relation to sustainable change. She explored the question: how do you encourage students to actively contribute to a more sustainable world? Her research led to several meaningful projects, including two international collaborations: Games for Goals and the ESC-IDG Hub. In both projects, collaboration was central – not only as a means, but also as a goal in itself.

Games for Goals

In the Games for Goals project, four European universities of applied sciences from the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, and Portugal worked together with three NGOs to develop educational games designed to introduce primary school pupils to the SDG’s.

The collaboration took place through annual ‘mobilities’: intensive project weeks in which international student teams co-designed a game around a sustainability issue. In total, they developed three games , now translated into five languages and made freely available, along with an accompanying methodology on quality sustainability education.

An achievement to be proud of, but according to Philippa, the process was just as valuable as the product. “Students learned to collaborate in an international context, to uncover implicit cultural values, and to engage with different perspectives on learning, teaching, and motivation. Some partners from other countries, for example, viewed students primarily as producers of a final result, while at Inholland we aim to create space for personal growth and to nurture intrinsic motivation.”

These conversations about values led to something essential: “Students learned to reflect together, to align, and to make differences explicit and discussable. They learned to truly listen, to let go of assumptions, and to create something new together. They developed a shared working culture and a common language. That experience is at least as valuable as the game they created.”

ESC-IDG Hub

Many students – and lecturers as well – feel overwhelmed by the scale of societal issues such as climate change, social inequality, and the transition to a circular economy. They want to make a difference but often don’t know where to begin.

To address this, the IDG Hub was founded in collaboration with the Expertise Network for Systemic Co-Design: an interactive meeting space where research is conducted into people’s concerns and motivations for action. At the same time, the hub is a place where societal transitions and sustainability issues are addressed collectively and systemically, grounded in the Inner Development Goals (IDG’s).

Together with colleagues, Philippa developed a practical training program for students to explore these inner skills. The training consisted of a short introduction, followed by interactive exercises and reflection moments. The design was accessible, but the effect profound. “Students recognized themselves in the themes. They interacted with each other more openly, felt more connected to themselves, to others, and to the world around them. This created trust and a sense of agency.”

The ESC-IDG Hub applies a dynamic approach with the student at the centre. “The gap between knowing and doing is large. The IDGs help students bridge that gap, starting with themselves”, Philippa explains. “It’s not about knowing more, but about getting to know yourself better so that you dare to take action – based on your own values, within your own discipline.”

Collaboration as a force for change

What connects both projects is the understanding that sustainable collaboration does not emerge automatically. It requires awareness, language, practice, and the courage to move forward – even step by step. “By guiding students in their personal development and taking them seriously as partners in the learning process, we create space for genuine collaboration. And that collaboration is essential for sustainable development and for creating a world we want to live in”, says Philippa.

What happens when students from different countries meet in a virtual world to learn, create, and explore together? Students from Inholland University of Applied Sciences (Urban Leisure & Tourism Lab Amsterdam) and the Latvian Academy of Culture found out during ‘Creativity Connected’, an international education project where virtual reality (VR), creativity, and collaboration came together.

For two weeks, Dutch and Latvian students worked together on an international assignment in virtual reality. Not in a physical classroom, but in a shared digital environment designed as a virtual playground. Through avatars in platforms like VRChat, they explored what a creative space of the future, the year 2050, could look like. The assignment challenged them to think beyond borders and co-create new forms of creativity.

Collaborating across borders
The project took place within a COIL framework (Collaborative Online International Learning). Its goal was to enable international cooperation without the need for travel, while exploring how VR can support intercultural communication, artistic expression, and innovative education.

“VR not only made it possible to work together remotely”, says Farah, a Tourism Management student at Inholland. “It also gave me the freedom to experiment and express myself in a different way.”

The project was initiated by Kasia Głowicka, researcher at Inholland’s Authentic Leadership research group en developer of the creativity curriculum (Comenius Senior Fellow, 2023). For this project she developed a specific series of sessions in VR. She collaborated with her Inholland colleague Esther Bouw (lectorate Design Thinking), Ieva Zemīte (Latvian Academy of Culture), and Avinash Changa (WeMakeVR).

Supported by a VIS innovation grant from the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, the project bridged education and industry. Avinash brought in his expertise in immersive storytelling, which inspired students to explore VR as a sensory, poetic, and expressive medium.

Immersive creativity
The results were both creative and culturally rich. One team designed a virtual “gallery walk” where you begin with antic art collection and follow up to the modern Dutch dance club. Another team build a story-telling theater about the future of art classroom with hollograpic decore. One group even presented an immersive poem in which floating words, sound, and movement blended into a live VR performance.

But the most valuable outcome was the experience itself. Students learned to collaborate in an international context, developed both digital and social skills, and grew in self-confidence. “I was hesitant at first,” one participant shared, “but presenting as an avatar soon felt liberating.”

The sense of connection between students was strong. Many kept in touch after the project, and some collaborations even turned into friendships.

The future of learning
“Connected Creativity in VR” shows how technology, creativity, and international collaboration can reinforce one another. By literally stepping outside their own reality, students discovered new ways of thinking, working, and creating. A project that not only anticipates the education of tomorrow – but already offers a glimpse of it.

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First experiences in the virtual space

During the initial VR onboarding session, students from Inholland and QUT met in small international teams for an interactive introduction. They used immersive VR technology—a virtual environment that, through VR headsets, makes users feel truly present and together in a shared digital space. In the second session, they worked on learning assignments from the Creative Business program in The Hague, using two key methods:

• The Co-Design Canvas, developed by Wina Smeenk, Professor of Societal Impact Design at Inholland.
• Playing personas, a method that helps bring target audiences to life through role-play, as described in the Co-Design book by Jeremy Kerr, Associate Professor of Visual Communication at QUT's School of Design.

Australian students used avatars and the playing personas method to reflect on various concepts developed by Inholland students. This enabled them to provide constructive, embodied feedback to improve the concepts and prototypes. Simultaneously, the research explores how co-design in VR can foster empathy and connection through immersive and embodied experiences.

Jeremy Kerr: “We are exploring how co-design can take place in new ways using the latest technology. Rather than relying solely on Zoom, Teams, and virtual whiteboards to collaborate across borders, we’re looking at embodied co-design in specially designed virtual spaces. This is a whole new way to experience creative collaboration.”

How dit the project begin?

The project emerged from a partnership between Inholland, QUT, and the EdTech-team, enabled by a VIS grant awarded after a successful pilot in July 2024. The project has since been further developed and is now being tested in practice with students.

For many students, this is their first time collaborating in a VR environment. They gain firsthand experience of working in virtual teams, developing cross-cultural communication skills, digital literacy, and in-depth knowledge of co-design methods.

Project leader Claudia Mayer, lecturer Creative Business and researcher at Societal Impact Design within the ARC Research Center, emphasizes: “This immersive form of co-design offers students a unique learning experience. They develop not only technical and content-specific skills but also learn to collaborate with people from around the world.”

Next Steps

Now that the VR sessions are complete, a feedback session was held to exchange experiences and perspectives. The group will also co-author an article about this innovative approach to education and collaboration. Early feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.

Wina Smeenk, Professor of Societal Impact Design, concludes: “Through this research, we’re gaining valuable insights into how VR experiences can support cross-border co-design. We saw that students truly felt like they were working together. In their gestures, we observed early signs of empathy—for example, when an Australian avatar of a 12-year-old girl was comforted with a gentle pat on the head by a Dutch student. We’re also learning more about integrating VR technology into education and research.”

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