The evolving challenges in the tourism industry, particularly those related to sustainability, demand significant revisions to current degree programs. This paper presents the design of a higher education curriculum for tourism studies at a Spanish university, responding to industry needs for broader, high-level knowledge and skills, with a strong emphasis on sustainability, digital transformation, and socially responsible practices. The curriculum prioritizes critical and strategic thinking alongside liberal reflection to empower students to lead in sustainable tourism development. Developed collaboratively with the entire tourism faculty, the curriculum design was informed by an extensive analysis of 105 international university courses, 204 job offers, feedback from 195 alumni, and ongoing consultations with professionals and community partners. Grounded in the concept of curriculum space and the philosophic practitioner framework, the curriculum integrates knowledge, soft skills, and attitudes to foster an innovative, sustainable learning ecosystem that prepares graduates to tackle the complexities of modern tourism with a focus on long-term environmental and social impacts.

Purpose: This study aims to advance the understanding of tourism destination ecosystems amid smart tourism transformations by exploring an extended destination ecosystem. It focuses on its structure, integration patterns of tourism and non-tourism actors, networking behaviours, mediation engagement and ecosystem leadership. Design/methodology/approach: This study employs the digital network to examine the ecosystem’s structure and behaviours. Using databases and web crawling, it identifies 36,813 entities and analyses relationships among 1,117 key actors. Findings: Strong integration with tourism actors makes ICT actors and various institutional and socioeconomic non-tourism (ISEN) actors indispensable ecosystem components. ICT actors, mostly foreign, play a central role, with general ICT outperforming travel tech. However, prioritising ICT ties alone is insufficient for ecosystem leadership or deeper integration for tourism actors. Links to ISEN actors, alongside ICT actors, high connectivity and diverse ties are essential for leadership. Connections to other tourism actors are relevant for greater integration and mediation. Networking behaviours of destination management organisations and public bodies differed from those observed across other sectors. Practical implications: Tourism governance and management should engage actors beyond core tourism sectors to foster resilient ecosystems, while businesses aiming for greater leadership should diversify networks beyond ICT actors. Actionable recommendations are provided. Originality/value: This research introduces a novel methodological approach and expands smart tourism frameworks with empirical evidence on diverse actor integration in the extended destination ecosystem. It highlights relationships between actors’ networking behaviours, integration levels, mediation engagement and ecosystem leadership.

Understanding the varying roles of Destination Management Organizations (DMOs) in shaping the digital ecosystem is needed in the management and governance of tourist destinations. However, the evaluation is intricate, needing extensive resources to analyze data from numerous stakeholders. This research uses the Digital Business Ecosystem (DBE) framework, hyperlink network analysis, and webometrics to address the complexities. The study examines DMOs’ roles in Gipuzkoa province, Spain, spotlighting its capital San Sebastian recognized as a Smart Destination. It scrutinizes connections of DMOs’ websites alongside websites of other tourism actors (N = 670) and more than 36,000 websites connected to the destination stakeholders’ network. DMOs have distinct roles in the DBE compared to other tourism sectors, with differences evident among DMO types. DMOs play connecting and mediating roles in destination, strengthening network ties and bridging various stakeholders. The study emphasizes the value of varying DMO connections for attracting website visitors. Future research should explore destinations with diverse tech adoption levels and digital transition strategies, while further categorizing stakeholders in the DBE and identifying various ICT actors and their network ties.

Purpose: Contemporary mobilities research has demonstrated a fundamental blurring between work, leisure and tourism practices for migrants as they seek to construct new lifestyles whilst maintaining connections with their homelands. The purpose of this paper is to present some of the results of a research project that analysed the work and leisure experiences of Polish migrants living in the North East of England using a mobilities theoretical approach. In this paper, the authors focus on the reasons influencing their migration and their leisure and tourism mobility practices. Design/methodology/approach: The results are based upon a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods gathering a sample of 90 questionnaires and 11 focus groups. Findings: Based upon a statistical analysis of the questionnaires using SPSS and textual analysis applied to the focus group transcriptions, different gendered work, leisure and tourism mobilities were identified relating to family attachments and social ties. Research limitations/implications: The authors argue that seemingly mundane leisure and tourism practices can often be a catalyst for greater mobility, and this mobility has significant gender dimensions. Originality/value: This paper thus provides new insights into the interweaving of different gendered work and leisure mobility practices based upon empirical findings of Polish migrants to the North East of England.

Recreational running, both on roads and in mountains, is one of the most practiced physical activities worldwide, and so, the motivations behind participating have been quite extensively described in the literature. However, the cultural and environmental motivations behind these athletes traveling to other countries or destinations to compete have not been properly addressed yet. The aim of this research is to analyze the motivations of sport tourists and to compare the motivations that cause mountain runners and city runners to compete. A cross-sectional study with a total of 244 athletes, divided into a group of city marathon runners (N = 118) and a group of mountain ultra-marathon runners (N = 126), was conducted. Athletes completed the Sports Tourism Motivation Scale (STMS), composed of 37 items and nine dimensions, through an online survey. Participants were asked questions related to their age, running experience, distance to events, numbers of nights in hotels and volunteering. The results showed that there were statistically significant differences in four out of the nine dimensions of the STMS between city and mountain runners’ motivations and, likewise, statistical differences were found in some dimensions of the scale related to participants’ sex, age, running experience, numbers of nights in a hotel, travel distance and volunteering. In conclusion, the reasons why runners participate in mountain and city running events are different; likewise, some sociodemographic variables should be taken into account when organizing such sporting events in a sustainable way, in order to provide organizers with the most suitable information and attract the most participants.