Hrvoje Grofelnik, Ph.D. (Associate Professor), studied geology and geography at the Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb, Croatia, graduating in 2001. He earned his Ph.D. in 2011 from the same faculty through the postgraduate program Geographical Basis of Spatial Planning and Development. From 2002 to 2018, he worked as a geography teacher in primary and secondary schools and as an external associate at various educational institutions. Between 2017 and 2019, he served as a postdoctoral researcher at the Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality Management, University of Rijeka (FTHM), where he was appointed Assistant Professor in 2019. At FTHM, he teaches Tourist Geography, Natural Bases of Geospace, and Evaluation of Natural Resources in Tourism. Since 2019, he has led the university scientific project The Carbon Footprint of Active Sport Event Tourists: The Case of Trail Runners. He has also participated in research teams focused on sustainable student mobility and the tourism carrying capacity of karst rivers. His primary research interest lies in spatial planning, with a particular emphasis on the relationship between tourism and its environmental impact. His work focuses on the ecological footprint of tourism, highlighting the partial separation of the carbon and water footprints and providing recommendations for sustainable spatial planning.