Summary

Tourism is emerging from a global crisis. While tourism operators still negotiate the immediate effects of the global pandemic, systemic issues that emerged before the current crisis, e.g. related to the impact of tourism on land and people, remain. This situation offers both challenges and opportunities to build a ‘new’ regenerative tourism model with a unique chance to radically transform the tourism sector. The research will focus on novel interactive and immersive live tourism experiences that can be jointly experienced with others regardless of their location.

For tourists physically present in Aotearoa New Zealand, the goal is to create regenerative tourist experiences, which add value to tourists and locations. For this purpose, we will explore how far human augmentation can be used to create a collective location-based memory and how this can contribute to regenerative tourism. We will further explore location-based game mechanics in relation to collective memory and how games can foster engagement with and learning about regenerative tourism. Major questions around this relate to the kind of experiences and stories relevant to regenerative tourist experiences, ways to (playfully) capture, share and explore these on location, and socio-technical inquiries into ownership and creation of stories and experiences.

Acknowledgement

This project is funded from a MBIE Endeavour Fund Research Programme grant. The programme is lead by Prof. Tobias Langlotz, University of Otago. Read more about the programme at MBIE Grant Funds Sustainable Tourism Research.

HIT Lab NZ Contacts

Prof. Stephan Lukosch 

Assoc. Prof. Heide Lukosch

Open Positions / PhD Scholarships

This project is currently recruiting for the following THREE prospective positions:

PHD Scholarship – Human augmentation for creating a collective location-based memory

$35K NZD stipend and tuition fees

Date applications close

Ongoing

Key qualifications

• • Bachelor Honours or a Master’s degree in Computer Science or a closely related field
  • Experience in Unity 3D
  • Experience with programming languages, e.g. C#
  • Experience with developing augmented reality applications
  • Experience with developing for mobile devices
  • Experience with setting up, conducting, and evaluating user studies
  • Excellent academic track record
  • High proficiency in written and spoken English
  • Enthusiastic applicants (any nationality) that want to make a positive impact in the world and can work in a collaborative environment

How to apply

Please email Prof. Stephan Lukosch with the following materials:

• • Letter of motivation with experience/background in relation to the listed key qualifications
  • CV / Resume
  • Academic transcript

PHD Scholarship – Game mechanics for engagement with and learning of location-based knowledge

$35K NZD stipend and tuition fees

Date applications close

Ongoing

Key qualifications

• • Bachelor Honours or a Master’s degree in Game Design, Computer Science or a closely related field
  • Experience in Unity 3D
  • Experience with programming languages, e.g. C#
  • Experience with game design/development
  • Excellent academic track record
  • High proficiency in written and spoken English
  • Enthusiastic applicants (any nationality) that want to make a positive impact in the world and can work in a collaborative environment

How to apply

Please email Assoc. Prof. Heide Lukosch with the following materials:

• • Letter of motivation with experience/background in relation to the listed key qualifications
  • CV / Resume
  • Academic transcript

Postdoctoral position – Augmenting and sharing touristic physical “being there” experiences

Start date

Early 2025

Duration

2 years

Date applications close: 

Ongoing

Key qualifications

• • PhD in Game Design, Computer Science, or a closely related field
  • Experience with designing and developing interactive and immersive user interaction systems using mixed reality systems
  • Experience with performing user studies and translating the analyis to design improvements
  • Excellent academic track record
  • Excellent publication track record
  • High proficiency in written and spoken English
  • Enthusiastic applicants (any nationality) that want to make a positive impact in the world and can work in a collaborative environment

How to apply

Please email Prof. Stephan Lukosch with the following materials:

• • Letter of motivation with experience/background in relation to the listed key qualifications
  • CV / Resume
  • Academic transcript

Project Team