ATLAS – Association for Tourism and Leisure Education and Research
The Association for Tourism and Leisure Education and Research (ATLAS) was established in 1991 to develop transnational educational initiatives in tourism and leisure. ATLAS provides a forum to promote staff and student exchange, transnational research and to facilitate curriculum and professional development. It currently has about 165 members in around 60 countries worldwide. ATLAS has regional chapters in Europe, Africa, Asia Pacific, Middle East and has also established a regional chapter in Latin America.
Members of ATLAS can form Special Interest Groups (SIGs) related to specific education and research topics or for specific geographical areas. SIGs run research programmes and organise special events and publications related to their area of interest.
Leontine onderwater
Leontine.onderwater@atlas-euro.org
+31-6-53533504
There are currently 17 SIGs. Here a few examples:
Cultural Tourism Research Group
Gastronomy and Tourism Research Group
Business Tourism Research Group
Cities and National Capital Tourism Research Group
Volunteer Tourism Research Group
Events Research Group
Dark Tourism Research Group
Heritage Tourism and Education Research Group
Space, Place, Mobilities in Tourism Research Group
Strengths of the area (tangible and intangible)
Cultural Tourism
Tourism
Culture
Tourism Marketing
Travel Behavior
Gastronomy
Cultural Heritage
Tourism Development
Tourism Management
Local Development
Heritage
Sustainable Tourism
Urban Development
Event Management
Regional Tourism
Cultural Management
Cultural Studies
Place
The community | Cultural heritage, Typical products and activities
Publications
Reports
Website Resource Center
Conferences
SIG meetings
Webinars
Team
Greg Richards
Greg is Professor of Placemaking and Events at Breda University of Applied Sciences and Professor of Leisure Studies at Tilburg University in The Netherlands. He has worked on projects for numerous national governments, national tourism organisations and municipalities, and he has extensive experience in tourism research and education, with previous posts at London Metropolitan University (UK), Universitat Roviria I Virgili, Tarragona (Spain) and the University of the West of England (Bristol, UK). His main research areas are cultural and creative tourism, the relationship between cities and events and youth tourism.
Leontine Onderwater
Leontine holds a MSc in Leisure Studies at Tilburg University, the Netherlands. Since the foundation of ATLAS, 30 years ago, Leontine Onderwater is the executive secretary and international project manager of ATLAS. Leontine is responsible for all communications through the ATLAS website, Facebook and for dissemination of conference reports and research results by means of ATLAS Tourism and Leisure Review, ATLAS Reflections and over 100 ATLAS Publications. She manages the ATLAS members list, the special interest groups of ATLAS and has organised more then 100 conferences, meetings and seminars in Europe, Asia, Africa and recently Latin America. She has also participated in over 10 European projects related to cultural tourism, tourism education, labour mobility in leisure and tourism and information technology and small-medium enterprises. Since 2023 Leontine is also working at the Breda University of Applied Sciences (BUas) as International Event Manager.
Netherlands