The Leisure & Tourism Lab (ULTL), with locations in Amsterdam and Rotterdam, has been accepted as a member of the European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL). This makes them the first lab focused on tourism and leisure to be admitted to this network, a remarkable achievement! ENoLL is the international, non-profit, independent association of benchmarked Living Labs. Their objective is to foster the global development of Living Labs as open innovation ecosystems based on co-creation and cross border & cross-sectoral collaboration. In their assessment of the ULTL, ENoLL says: “ULTL shows a strong and inclusive governance model, engaging a wide range of stakeholders effectively. Also, a solid track record in running living lab projects, with a focus on urban leisure and tourism is presented and it demonstrates as well a clear interest in regional and international innovation. Their considerable experience in living lab operations is supported by compelling proof.

From the Creative Business Research Center, the Urban Leisure & Tourism Lab was the first to apply for accreditation by ENoLL with the aim of gaining experience with membership of the network: what can we contribute to the network and how does it benefit us? With this experience, we can see if it could also make sense for the other labs within our faculty to apply for membership.

Peggy van Schijndel, managing director of the Creative Business Research Center: "I am proud of the colleagues and partners who, for years, have allowed these living labs to become beautiful places for learning and development, of the students who, year after year, demonstrate their valuable contributions, and of the unique blend of expertise that we as Creative Business Research Center bring to the research in these living labs: in the field of systemic co-design as well as regenerative placemaking and sustainable tourism. The issues are big and complex, and we feel the urgency to contribute to them though practice-based research every day. I am confident that membership of ENoLL is going to help us grow to the next stage!"

As a student you want to take control and choose your own learning path. But to be able to do that, optimal student-oriented services are indispensable. That is why in this new episode of Creative Business on Tour we take a look behind the scenes of flexible education. We show how the Creative Business faculty gives substance to student-oriented services. And how students themselves make an important contribution to student-oriented education…

Curious about what is happening within our faculty? In four new episodes of Creative Business on Tour, colleagues and students take you on a tour through our faculty. Some places and initiatives you may know, others will be completely new to you. Hopefully this video series will give you an overview and information, but above all: inspiration!

Until the summer we publish a video every two weeks. This third episode focuses on student-oriented services. In Diemen, together with process coordinator Cath Kauffmann, we look “under the hood” of the Creative Business faculty. We also see the student panel in action and hear how active student participation leads to a better experience and greater satisfaction; for students and teachers.

The student panel (NL and EN) consists of 15 students. Every study program and every location of our faculty is represented, but more students are always welcome. Do you want to participate as a student or do you know a student who would like to participate? Or are you looking for more information about the student panel within the CRB faculty? Please contact Ellen Duit.

Would you like to know more about the scheduling program? Then please contact Cath Kauffmann.

Want to see the first episodes of Creative Business on Tour? Please watch here episode 1 (flexible education) and episode 2 (living labs).

'We wanted to hold this kick-off at the construction site of the future Sluisbuurt', explains Karel Koch, lab leader at the SLUISlab. The site is being readied for construction Amsterdam municipal engineering office and the construction company Dura Vermeer. Over the next ten years, these two partners will bear joint responsibility for the development of this new neighbourhood. 'Currently, we are hard at work preparing for the infrastructure', Karel says. 'While the site itself is not yet safe enough, we did manage to get permission to organise our kick-off week right next door at ‘Keet Zeeburgereiland.'

Nautilus
'The plan was to move our SLUISlab into a temporary location in the Sluisbuurt starting in September 2020', Karel continues. 'The idea was to have a temporary café as well, but the city has put those plans on hold for the time being. We did, however, find a place in a building in the adjacent neighbourhood, the Sportheldenbuurt: Nautilus. From now on, the SLUISlab researchers will be there every Thursday, together with CGI learning coordinator Esther Bouw and her students.'

Esther Bouw adds: 'Community surveys and trying out new things are important to the CGI students, and with an eye to doing those things right, we were very eager to visit the site itself!' Over the next twenty weeks, Esther will supervise an equal number of students as they explore multidisciplinary issues in connection with ‘placemaking’ for the Sluisbuurt. This involves experiential concepts of a temporary nature, aimed at making the public space attractive, in cooperation with neighbourhood residents. CGI students are enrolled in a wide range of study programmes at different Inholland locations. This group comes from the Leisure & Events Management, Nursing, Facility Management, Tourism Management (Dutch and English-taught) and Creative Business (Dutch and English) programmes.

‘Placemaking Picnic’
Over the course of the kick-off week, and under the supervision of artist Rob Voerman and industrial designer Davy Wouda, the students designed and built a podium and festival furniture. This offered a great way to get to know one another and to get started working together in teams straight away. Cris van Dijk, a Nursing student, had this to say about the experience: 'Just dive right in, that's what I learned during the week. We turned out to be better at working with our hands than we thought! When you combine your strengths, you can create something amazing from humble means.

The start signal for the CGI semester came Friday during the ‘Placemaking Picnic’ programme, in a presentation led by Karel Koch and Noor Mohamed, a Leisure & Events Management student.

Tour of the construction site
The programme also included a new construction quiz and a tour of the construction site. Merel de Boer and Myrthe Dortants from the Inholland team, who were tasked with preparations for the new construction in Amsterdam, ran a game to teach the students fun facts, such as that the silhouette of the Sluisbuurt was inspired by the Canadian city of Vancouver.

During the tour, Roelof Veen (environmental manager) and Roy Belmer (construction manager) from the City of Amsterdam explained that sand had been trucked in and spread over the site, creating a layer up to 5 metres deep in some places. This layer of sand ensures that, over time, the underlying soil will settle under the weight, becoming more compact and creating a stable underground that can support the infrastructure. To accommodate the building's foundation and other aspects, a portion of the deposited sand had to be excavated. This provided a sneak peek of the contour of the Inholland building – which is already clearly visible!

Visible in the community
Kim Hagenaar, coordinator of the SLUISlab, looks back at the event with satisfaction: 'The great thing is that here, through the SLUISlab, we're bringing together not only the new construction team of the Inholland Service Organisation, the CGI students and lecturers and colleagues from the Creative Business research group, but employees of the City of Amsterdam as well. By doing so, we're uniting placemaking, new construction and innovation with regard to learning and research. In Nautilus, we will also be working together with students, researchers, residents and partners from professional practice. This will make us quite literally visible in the community and make it easier for us to explore the possibilities for our students. Luckily, I'm seeing a great deal of flexibility and trust from all parties: we're diving right in!'

Students who took part in the Creative Growth Initiative (CGI) SLUIS Lab, the Creative Growth Experience (CGE) SLUIS Lab and the CGE ULT Lab minors delivered amazing, sustainable connective concepts, as shown by the various online final presentations. Many of the student teams focused on issues relating to the Sluis neighbourhood on Zeeburgereiland, to which Inholland University of Applied Sciences in Amsterdam/Diemen will relocate in a few years’ time.

Social function
Good access is extremely important not just for Inholland students and colleagues, for instance, but also for neighbourhood residents and businesses planning to set up operations in the new district. It all starts with a ferry that will provide a temporary connection between the Eastern Harbour Docklands and Zeeburgereiland. The municipality of Amsterdam is already studying the possibilities for installing a temporary ferry line and the related infrastructure measures and products. But how great would it be if the ferry had a social function as well? Where neighbourhood residents can connect with each other? Two student teams mulled over this in the SLUIS Lab.

Team 1 consists of Nancy, Celine, Annemieke, Linda, Daniela, Bodil and Volkan, from the following degree programmes: AD Event Facilities Management, Tourism Management, Creative Business and Business IT & Management. They devised a concept consisting of two elements: a digiboard on the ferry, on which people can post a notice using their smartphone and a QR code, plus an interactive map on the floor of the ferry.

Notices
Annemieke explains what the concept is all about: 'All kinds of notices can be put up on a digiboard. A notice from a group of women, for instance, who are planning to set up a singing club and are still looking for members. Or a notice from a single mum who needs a babysitter for her little boy. People can post notices using their smartphone, but they can only be read on the digiboard because we don’t want everyone to be glued to their phones all the time.'

'We’re looking for a longer connection between people than a fleeting conversation on the ferry', Celine adds. 'That’s what we’re aiming to achieve with the notices on the digiboard. If people respond and make contact with each other, a sustainable connection will be created. We’re just giving them a little push.'

Drawing inspiration from museums, the group also came up with the idea of integrating an interactive map into the floor of the ferry. 'People can stand on a dot to find out more information about things they find interesting.' What does Zeeburgereiland have to offer? What are the best local restaurants? People will also see interesting facts about the neighbourhood or a piece of history.

Saving coffee points
Nicole, Kylie, Jennifer, Sven, Benthe, Manon and Roni in team 2 also came up with a digital platform in the form of an interactive screen, but the way in which it works is completely different. ‘Smart Together’ offers people the opportunity to play contemporary and old Dutch games with fellow passengers using free WiFi and their own smartphones in the middle of the ferry. People can also save coffee points, read the newsletter, look at hotspots in the neighbourhood or take part in neighbourhood opinion polls. Roni and Berthe provide more details: 'Even without a mobile phone, people can still play games in an analogue way. And locally run coffee stalls are located on both wharfs.' The team encourages passengers in a playful manner to deposit their empty coffee cups in the rubbish bin.

Peter Blummel, environmental manager at the municipality of Amsterdam responded enthusiastically: 'Your idea of making the ferry a place where people can drink coffee is really great. It will create a moment of relaxation and will indeed bring people into contact with each other. And you can do many different things using the platform. Things like saving coffee points: it’s the small things that will contribute to an enjoyable ferry experience.' He also finds the digiboard and floor map created by team 1 interesting ideas: 'Many people in such a new district are in the process of discovering who the other residents are and how they can help each other. I believe that a floor map is a good talking point on the ferry.'

Temporary settlement
Aside from the above, many more great experience concepts were developed, which will contribute to building a pleasant and liveable Zeeburgereiland. One such concept is SluisBox, an intergenerational jukebox that will play the collective music tastes of the islanders, which people can listen to in a park together. And Sluisdorp, a temporary, movable settlement offering music, food trucks, a playground, games, an interactive wall, a market, a stage, a pub, a book corner where workshops will also be held and a sports corner. Plus Waste = Food, a sustainability experience accessible to the public featuring ‘edutainment’ for and by residents of North Amsterdam, where people can learn from each other how to recycle food. The latter concept was developed by the Urban Leisure & Tourism Lab (ULT Lab).

Sharmilee Jayakkumaran, urban designer at the municipality of Amsterdam, is eager to implement a number of ideas. 'What I really appreciate is that we’ve learned a lot from each other during this process. This educational concept is so valuable.'

The FM degree programme contacted the service organisation a few months ago: 'We talked to Facilities Management to see whether we could carry out any experiments that would be beneficial to us later in the Sluis neighbourhood', explains Elze Reitsema, lecturer in Workplace & Real Estate Management (minor). 'I saw the Creative Growth Initiative programme as an example. A dedicated space was designed especially for project-based working under that programme but I just wanted to go the extra mile in creating a dedicated project space for our students.'

Design freedom
No more classes, but all eighty first-year students in one learning landscape, with lecturers in their midst to offer them support every day, where necessary. That was the idea. 'For such a large number of students, you would now need to break open an entire wing, ha ha!’ Within the Workplace & Real Estate Management minor, where third-year students focus on accommodation and the use of space, eight teams designed a learning space for their future fellow students. Each group came up with their own solution. Elze: 'The space on the first floor (A1.18 and A1.20) had already been designated and we also set out a number of framework conditions, but they were given complete design freedom within those constraints.'

Myrthe Dortants, whose work in the service organisation involves facilities management and accommodation, has been appointed project leader of the refurbishment of the two former classrooms, together with Merel de Boer. 'I’ve seen proposals containing really exceptional and creative ideas. We had a clear top 3 of best designs, but we ultimately selected the best elements from among all eight proposals, which actually closely matched the image that we ourselves had envisaged. We are currently fine-tuning the ideas, to determine, for example, especially during this coronavirus pandemic, which audiovisual media we can additionally use to create a good connection with students at home, so that we can work together in that way. We will give the green light shortly and start with the refurbishment and furnishings and fittings this summer.'

Shared experience
The focus is on first-year students, especially given that the 1.5-metre society will be maintained in the Netherlands for the time being: no more than 20-25 students are allowed to be in the room at the same time. Myrthe: 'Senior students should also be given the opportunity to share the experience and feel invited to work together. We have therefore incorporated the lobby and other nearby work spaces. This will make the entire floor an attractive space for studying. It is also rewarding to instantly recognise that this is the location of the FM degree programme.' Elze adds: 'Moreover, the learning space will not be locked. I expect that it will almost always be occupied. For the rest, you would need a crystal ball to predict developments in the coming months. I believe it is important to engage with first-year students. You won’t achieve this with a computer screen. I don’t believe in that. That’s why it’s positive that a relatively large amount of on-site time will be reserved for first-year students in Diemen.'

What design ideas will now actually be used for the learning space? 'We will start working with zones, for example, each of which will be assigned their own colour', Myrthe explains. 'The leisure space will be green and the focus space yellow. Group work will take place in the blue zone. We will use those colours on the furniture and walls. Furthermore, we have selected a diverse range of furniture: alternating between high and low, project tables, train seating and a gallery for presentations. A cork wall will be installed where students can go wild and hang up all kinds of things, so that they can be easily visualised. It should actually start feeling like their own space.'

New building in the Sluis neighbourhood
'I see a shift in the use of space', says Elze. 'To be able to focus, you work from home, whereas you meet up and work together in a building. A different division of space is increasingly being used in education buildings, with sloping floors and large galleries often integrating seating areas.' Myrthe chips in: 'In our new building in the Sluis neighbourhood, the entrance hall has the form of a gallery. It wraps around the floors. The gallery form can be used not only for events, but also for meeting up and working together. Many more learning spaces will be created in addition to theory rooms. That’s why it’s really beneficial that we’re now already working with this in Diemen.'

Elze: 'Our education will be designed around practical issues. The beauty of it is that we immediately dealt with this practical issue. The collaboration between the Inholland FM degree programme and the FM department really is a win-win situation. We have also been helping each other in other areas in the recent period. A group of students, for example, took it upon themselves to work on coronavirus measures in our building. That’s a welcome development, in my view.'

The coronavirus has a huge impact on the tourism and cultural sector worldwide. For the first time, the streets of Amsterdam are empty. No more complaints about Airbnb taking over neighbourhoods or the constant crackle of suitcase wheels on the pavement. Hotels, museums and tourism companies however, are facing a difficult future.

In this LIVECAST Inholland University of Applied Sciences and Pakhuis de Zwijger will focus on the impact of the crisis on the tourism and cultural sector. We will also zoom in on the possibilities for innovation and digitalization of the cultural sector. What can be learned from this crisis and how can we use this time to rethink the tourism sector?

We will do this together with the following speakers:

• Ko Koens, Professor of New Urban Tourism (Inholland University of Applied Sciences)
• Claudio Milano, Researcher, lecturer and consultant in tourism (Ostelea & Autonomous University of Barcelona)
• Maaike Verberk, director at the DEN institute for culture and digitalisation
• Rudolf Buurma, Managing director Stichting Bezoek Amsterdam

Watch Fair Tourism #2 The Future of Tourism for free through the LIVECAST or participate in the Zoom webinar. Make sure to register here to guarantee your online spot.

We hope to see you online this Monday evening the 20^th of April at 6:30 pm!

This is the second program in the Fair Tourism series, which Inholland University of Applied Sciences and Pakhuis de Zwijger jointly organize.

Amsterdam is grappling with the repercussions of mass tourism. In fact, the city is suffering from a 'tourism surplus', with large numbers of tourists causing annoyance to local residents. Inholland University of Applied Sciences, the North Amsterdam Tourism Industry Platform (TOP) and Pakhuis de Zwijger decided it was high time to exchange knowledge. The partners joined forces to organise the Fair Tourism Urban Conference during the WeMakeThe.City (WMTC) festival in Amsterdam.

Sustainable co-creation innovations from cities throughout Europe will be presented at the Fair Tourism conference in the afternoon of Tuesday 18 June. The event will explore Amsterdam – and, more specifically, Amsterdam-Noord – from an international perspective. Amsterdam will need all its stakeholders to take responsibility and develop more inclusive and sustainable forms of tourism. How can local businesses, local government agencies and residents work together to change the way tourists spend their time and money in the city?

Digital nomadism
The day's first keynote speaker Claudio Milano, lecturer and researcher at the Ostelea School of Tourism & Hospitality in Barcelona, sees the boundaries between tourists and local residents blurring: we are seeing the rise of digital nomadism, whereby new, temporary residents flow into our cities and countries.

Charles Landry, an author and international advisor on the future of cities, also makes reference to a nomadic world: a growing number of people are travelling the globe. Businesspeople, refugees, students, tourists. Our notions of space, location and time are in flux. For example, public spaces are increasingly multifunctional and can no longer be pigeon-holed in terms of design or image. As a case in point, he mentions a Berlin bank designed to look like a meditation centre. These days, we also tend to spend more time in the virtual world than the physical one.

Meaningful encounters
Rather than focusing on the obvious problems of mass tourism, Landry takes a broader view: "How do we create meaningful encounters and relationships in a transforming world? What do we take from our environment, and what do we have to give in return?' Cities that currently hold less appeal to ambitious modern-day nomads can take fate into their own hands. 'Find your unique niches!' This will help ensure a more even distribution of travellers and residents. The two men both envisage a key role for governance. 'The political field isn't keeping pace with the changes around us", Landry explains.

The keynote speeches will be followed by contributions from Fairbnb and www.untouristguide.com, two initiatives that benefit the city and local economy. Ewout Versloot of Rotterdam and Partners will share his experiences with Rotterdam's new tourism policy, which is primarily focused around the city's needs and tourists' potential contribution to these goals. Various special projects have been established as a part of this strategy.

A home for creators
Everyone head for Amsterdam-Noord! Eva de Klerk of TOP Amsterdam-Noord explains: "We are a home to creators and many community-based initiatives. These ideas tend to attract various subcultures once they start to take shape." While she would also like to see new tourism policies, she feels these should be co-designed by the community. "We want a seat at the table in order to develop policies with municipal authorities, businesses and other stakeholders."

TOP assigned Inholland Tourism students to develop a profile of visitors to Amsterdam-Noord. As student Coen van der Meer explains, their research showed that visitors generally don't read up on Amsterdam-Noord before visiting. They basically come to see the IAMSTERDAM letters, A'DAM Tower and Eye museum, and have no idea about the other sights and activities. The students advised TOP to create a hotspot next to the Eye film museum, with features such as a large playground, fountain or arts centre.

IJamaze
Another group of students developed ‘IJamaze’, a platform that allows tourists and local residents to take part in joint activities. "Tourists get to experience an authentic part of Amsterdam-Noord, while local residents have a sense of ownership over the activities", explains student Kathleen Umbdenstov.

The conference ended with a panel debate on potential solutions to Amsterdam's tourist surplus: should we simply restrict tourism in certain areas? Perhaps we should make more efforts to involve residents in local activities? The issues prove difficult to resolve: plenty of room for further debate, in other words.

The collaboration came into being after a visit from the Taragalte Festival director Ibrahim Sebai to Inholland’s diversity research group in the spring of 2018. The visit was so inspirational that Sebai invited Inholland students to examine the festival features that influence the visitor experience. No sooner said than done!

Five students signed up and went off to Morocco with suitcases full of useful literature and Dutch delicacies. Besides working hard behind the scenes, helping to set up the festival, they also spent a lot of time researching how to bring locals and tourists together.

In the end, they delivered two deceptively simple tourism offers; a henna space and sunrise mindfulness walk. Both provided a platform for meaningful encounters and deepening the quality of the visitor’s festival experience. ‘It has been interesting to see how they organised the festival in a totally different way’, one of the students said. ‘I’m really impressed by how good they are at adapting to the conditions they have and really feel inspired. I think we can learn a lot from that.’ Moroccan superstar Oum was one of the main attractions at the 2018 edition of the festival.

‘This was our first experience working with Taragalte, but certainly not the last’, coordinating lecturer Philippa Collin said. ‘With their rich network of international musicians and social entrepreneurships such as Playing for Change and Carpet of Life, we see plenty of opportunities for more multi-disciplinary collaboration.’​ The students were also enthusiastic and shared their experience:

‘Being at the festival really opened doors to finding new ways of working together with other cultures.’

‘The most important thing I learned this week was making sure you’re able to be flexible. It’s important to be able to adapt to your surroundings because really awesome things can come from it.’

‘It’s useful for my concepting & events course because it takes the theory from the classroom and throws it out in the desert which is very real. It’s a great way of deepening learning.’

Interested in finding out more about this project?
Contact philippa.collin@inholland.nl or abdulkadir.poyraz@inholland.nl
Coordinator of the Concepting & Events minor: Andreas Bischoff

Anne’s research project focused on inclusive tourism: ‘This is an innovative tourism concept developed and applied by the ITC, the joint development agency of the United Nations and the World Trade Organization. It aims to enhance the competitiveness of the tourism sector in least developed regions such as Kayah State. Inclusiveness is achieved by working along the tourism value chain: integrating local producers and Myanmar inbound tour operators, strengthening Myanmar government institutions related to tourism and also promoting the region in international markets. The main beneficiaries are the local people of Myanmar, among them the inhabitants of Kayah State, one of the least developed regions in the country.’

Anne was asked to compile a report that explained the applied methodology of the tourism concept, its results and lessons learned and how it benefitted the stakeholders. ‘ITC uses the report I’ve written to showcase their project to potential future donor countries – in the case of Kayah State that was The Netherlands – and to share this knowledge with other experts in the tourism industry who might seek to replicate their innovative approach.’

Demanding thesis research
‘Why did I choose to study in Diemen? I wanted to study in English, and during my travels I’d met Dutch people who told me I could do an entire Bachelor’s course in English in the Netherlands. I liked Amsterdam and the programme. I also did an exchange semester in Mexico and an internship in Jerusalem during my studies.’

So impressed were Anne’s teachers with the highly ambitious and complex scope of Anne’s thesis research, which she carried out in the Netherlands, Switzerland and during a six-week stay in Myanmar, that they awarded it a perfect score. It was the first time in its history that the Inholland Tourism Department awarded a 10 for a final Bachelor’s thesis, but it was wholly merited by Anne’s outstanding performance as a tourism student. Not only that, Anne was subsequently chosen to receive a competitive VSBfonds scholarship to pursue a Master’s degree.

Future in conflict management
During her internship in Jerusalem, Anne worked for MEJDI Tours, a tour operator founded by a Jew and a Palestinian that runs trips to Israel and Palestine and promotes peacebuilding. Anne feels the experience she gained while working there to be very meaningful, and that inspired to return to Israel after graduation. Now, she is doing a Master’s in Conflict Resolution and Mediation. ‘I’m just starting to write my MA thesis about state policy influence on reproductive rights in Rwanda. I think this is important because women everywhere should be able to have control over their own bodies. After this, I would like to continue working in research and hopefully go on to do a PhD.’