Sustainability challenges in tourism are widely discussed. There is a huge need for education in the field of destination development. Students require appropriate problem-solving skills. This article examines the master’s course in destination development at Uppsala University, Campus Gotland, with the aim of increasing students’ skills in solving sustainability problems. The course took place in the spring semester of 2020 with the main goal of improving students’ skills in formulating and solving sustainable challenges in groups. This was achieved by activating the heterogeneity of the group, seeking relevant information and facts, and organising and carrying out the task with a design-thinking methodology. Students were provided with real problems or challenges by tourist companies, authorities and other interest groups on the island of Gotland. The purpose of this study is to describe the group of students as well as joint learning processes and knowledge needed in the work towards sustainable solutions. The major implication of the study is that the course gave the students the opportunity to deepen their understanding of both the barriers and benefits of working with heterogeneous groups. Furthermore, the study revealed a number of factors that all organisations would need to take into account in order to improve the effectiveness of their work towards sustainable solutions.

Purpose: This paper aims to study how a pair of hosts for one bed and breakfast establishment and their guests create value for the visit by communicating and interacting with each other on the island of Gotland.Methodology/Approach: A case study was conducted on one single Bed and Breakfast (BnB) accommodation. An interview and a Questionnaire study were performed.Findings: The study shows that there are several processes involved in the co-creation of values between visitors and hosts. Co-creation processes begin already when visitors are planning their visits to the island. Their expectations are created while choosing their accommodation type, often done online on different websites. Pre-information about the chosen BnB accommodation contributes to visitors’ expectations and image of the object, which can be seen as a part of their identities. In the physical meeting with the accommodation and the hosts and other guests, the co-creation process is strengthened. There are processes of participation, communication, creation of meaning for the stay, processes of trust and responsibilities which all together create a common culture which in turn contributes to co-creation of values for both parties. These processes also take place between guests. The processes are furthermore dependent on meaning-making and sensemaking processes. This all together generate knowledge about the destination and the values that enhance the positive experience of the visits. It also creates knowledge for the hosts about how they can develop their service to achieve increased customer satisfaction. Finally, these skills can be valuable for the continued planning and development of the tourism industry.Research Limitation/implication: The study is limited to a one single BnB accommodation with its hosts on the island of Gotland in Sweden.Originality/Value of paper: The study makes a contribution to the knowledge of processes of co-creation values by exploring how some visitors and their hosts experienced visits to the island. The study can help bridging the gap in the views and actions on co-creation of values among visitors and those who are visited.

Introduction: The concept of sustainability has become one of today's most widely used and controversial concepts. It is therefore important to develop activities within all educational contexts in order to increase understanding of the goals for more sustainable practice. This also means that professors themselves must take more responsibility for their assignments, interpret and understand the content of the concept of sustainability and demands for new courses. They need, doubtlessly and naturally, new methods and tools. Traditionally professors plan their lessons, different tasks and how they are to be assessed, entirely themselves. This is now slowly changing not least due sustainability approaches. Today there is demand for more collective learning practices, not only among students, but also among university professors themselves. Objective: This paper aims to study how some students are using the course design to create knowledge on Sustainable Business Development, within the division of Quality Technology of the Department of Engineering Sciences at Uppsala University. Methods: This paper studies Sustainable Business Development a course at Uppsala University in spring 2017, included both theoretical and practical exercises. In this study it was used qualitative and quantitative approaches, inquires, observations, focus group discussions interviews with students as well as documentation over the course design were used as empirical sources. Results: Students learned through both individual and collective learning processes. Literature studies, scalable learning sequences, organized individually, gave them pre-under- standing and the tools for further knowledge. The discussions in groups clarified and deepened they understanding of sustainability. They experienced that the whole process of learning got easier to manage by collective learning. Research shows that there is a need for balancing these two learning processes to maximize students’ learning. The processes of collective learning seem to even support low performing students. Conclusions: The results show that educational organizations are in great need of creating tools and arrange structures and give space and time for this combined type of learning for all students. This to create understanding for the issues students are learning in general and not at least on issues of sustainability.

This study aims to investigate ten hotels on the island of Gotland and their daily, practical work towards sustainability. An exploratory study was conducted at ten hotel establishments on the island of Gotland in Sweden. Ten hotel managers were interviewed about their daily practice and work towards sustainable solutions at their hotels. The results show that there are big differences between these hotels regarding the way in which knowledge about sustainability issues are implemented and shared to the personnel as well to the guests. In addition, there is a clear difference in the way in which sustainability is expressed in practice: the accountability is largely attributable to most of the hotels, but a few convey responsibility. Some of the managers seem to take a more active role in mediation of sustainability issues than is the case with the majority of the hotel managers. Also, anonymity between hotel guests and staff, large number of seasonal workers and insufficiently trained staff can be seen as a hindrance for knowledge exchange over the sustainability issues. Working with sustainability issues can also be seen as a way to win market shares in the hotel business. The study makes contribution to the knowledge of processes of co-creation of sustainable values by exploring how some hotel managers are working towards sustainability on a daily basis. The study can help to share knowledge of possibilities and hindrances in daily work towards sustainable hotels.