Blue tourism refers to a variety of coastal and marine-based activities, such as beach recreation, water sports, coastal cruising, and marine wildlife experiences. It is characterised as a central component of the blue economy, involving the sustainable use of ocean resources to support economic development, enhance livelihoods and employment, while safeguarding the health of marine ecosystems. However, translating these sustainability ambitions into practice requires new forms of learning and capacity-building across diverse stakeholder groups. This workshop explores the development of a coastal sustainability education programme, informed by digital pedagogical design. It reports on a short, focused micro-credential designed and delivered as part of SEALabHaus, an Interreg Atlantic Area Programme targeting educators, tourism stakeholders and community actors across Atlantic coastal regions. The micro-credential leverages the New European Bauhaus(NEB) framework through digital learning experiences focusing on key pedagogical affordances: structured reflection, collaborative meaning-making and applied, project-based inquiry. Findings exhibit the potential for transnational learning, reporting on how we engaged with over 400 learners across Europe and fostered community-driven engagement by working through sustainability challenges to deliver co-created solutions. This design-oriented workshop offers insight into how digital pedagogical design for transitions in blue tourism help learners reimagine coastal sustainability education and offers a flexible and scalable mechanism for supporting upskilling in coastal and blue tourism sustainability.

Authors:
Felicity Kelliher, South East Technological University, Ireland
Mary Clare Curran, South East Technological University, Ireland
Lorna Bailey, South East Technological University, Ireland
Neill Wiley, South East Technological University, Ireland
Emmet Cullinane, South East Technological University, Ireland

About the Presenter(s)
Dr Felicity Kelliher is a Professor of Management Practice and Academic Lead at the Faculty of Business BRIM-RIKON research Centre, South East Technological University, Ireland. Felicity is currently the academic lead on the SeaLabHaus project.

Connect on Linkedin
https://www.linkedin.com/in/felicity-kelliher-ab92798/

See this presentation on the full schedule – Saturday Schedule

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