Teaching environmental sustainability and responsibility in the Anthropocene: Overview of Tourism Studies in Spain

Abstract

ABSTRACT Tourism studies are showing an increasing interest in the analysis of environmental sustainability and responsibility in the Anthropocene epoch. In the Higher Education (HE) Tourism studies, new concepts and skills are incorporated helping students to develop environmental knowledge and responsible attitudes and behaviours grounded in closer associations between the Earth systems and Humanity. The aim of this study is to examine the extent to which environmental education is incorporated in the curricula of Tourism studies at 55 Spanish universities throughout a syllabus content analysis. The results evidence that HE Tourism studies in Spain has a generalist orientation because of the holistic vision inherent to that courses, whereas matters regarding environmental issues would be necessary to organise in a more coherent way in the form of specialised training tracks devoted to environmental education including both sustainability and responsibility issues.