Tag Archive for: challenges

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1243 | | Demographic and migration challenges: new knowledge and solutions | Zaiga Krisjane (1); Maris Berzins (1); Elina Apsite Berina (1)

Every society is affected significantly and permanently by demographic changes and their interactions with migration. In a world that is constantly changing and becoming more connected, Europe is confronted by several interrelated threats, including depopulation, excess mortality, healthcare risks associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, social inequality, public unrest, and various migration emergencies (Kashnitsky, Aburto 2020; Florida 2021).
Demographic changes can have both positive and negative impacts on society. The influx of new people can create a more diverse population, leading to greater creativity, innovation and economic growth. Migration can also provide access to new resources and skills, as migrants bring fresh ideas and perspectives. However, demographic changes can also cause a number of problems. For instance, rapid population growth can place a strain on resources and infrastructure. In addition, if not managed correctly, migration can lead to cultural clashes, increased competition for jobs, and increased social tensions. To manage demographic changes and the associated risks, governments must develop policies responsive to their citizens’ changing needs. This includes ensuring access to quality education and healthcare, implementing measures to reduce inequality, and developing strategies for integrating migrants. Demographic changes and migration are inevitable and can positively and negatively impact society. Governments take proactive steps to ensure that these changes are managed to benefit all citizens. Numerous European countries experience abrupt changes in all three major demographic processes: fertility, mortality, and migration (Fihel, Okolski 2020). One of Europe’s crucial concerns for urban and regional development is the effects of demographic changes. Europe is experiencing a population drop.
Within the session, we would like to invite scholars who can contribute to the new knowledge and offer evidence-based solutions to the demographic and migration challenges. We are interested but not limited to the following topics:
Migration
Population decline
Social inequalities. Provide a comprehensive understanding of the social inequalities across different social groups and spatial contexts.
Urbanization. Analyse urbanization processes, their drivers, and their effects on societies to identify and measure the factors that shape the development of cities and urban areas.
Population health. Create a comprehensive, interdisciplinary research framework for understanding the relationships between population health and complex social, economic, and environmental factors.
Ageing. Develop a comprehensive understanding of the implications of population ageing and its implications for social, economic, and political spheres.

Zaiga Krisjane (1); Maris Berzins (1); Elina Apsite Berina (1)
(1) University of Latvia

 
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1164 | | Rethinking tourism mobility for a better future | Gabor Michalko (1); Anna Irimias (2); Barbara Staniscia (3); Josefina Domínguez-Mujica (4)

The 21st century has caused fundamental changes in the development of tourism. Low-cost flights have democratised air travel, and cheap fares have made air travel accessible to a wider number of people and social groups than before. Digitalisation has accelerated the inclusion of people in tourism in the field of booking, service evaluation, and experience sharing. The sharing economy has reduced the privilege of the hotel industry and created a new experience of “living like a local”. Up to the beginning of the ‘20s, tourism growth seemed unstoppable, with 1.5 billion international tourist arrivals recorded in 2019, exceeding the UNWTO’s earlier forecast. Many European tourist destinations suffered from the phenomenon of overtourism, with anti-tourist movements in many places. In fact, the period of total tourism has dawned, when tourist demand has spread both horizontally and vertically across the globe, governments and local authorities consider tourism as the future of economic development, devote their resources to tourism development and try to involve the widest possible groups of society in tourism mobility. However, the Covid19 pandemic changed everything in the blink of an eye, with restrictions and overtourism becoming undertourism, with international demand falling by 74% by 2020, and is not expected to reach record levels in 2022.
Today, tourism has reached another turning point. The “silence” of the Covid19 pandemic and of the political-turbulent post-pandemic has created an opportunity to rethink sustainability. At the same time, the reduction of tourism mobility has helped preserving natural and cultural heritages, which is a phenomenon also conditioned by the social and economic crisis. The Russo-Ukrainian war at the periphery of Europe and the related energy crisis and inflation are prompting researchers to formulate alternatives around the future of tourism. This new reality must be based on lessons from the past and on present trends, which will be useful to articulate a better future in a broad sense. Therefore, we are looking for answers to the question of how tourism can improve the quality of life, avoid negative environmental processes, and prevent crises. We invite researchers to contribute to this perspective with papers focusing on the balance between the socio-economic and environmental sustainability of tourism for a better future. This session will be organised by IGU Commission on Global Change and Human Mobility (Globility)

Gabor Michalko (1); Anna Irimias (2); Barbara Staniscia (3); Josefina Domínguez-Mujica (4)
(1) CSFK Geographical Institute, Hungary, (2) Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary, (3) Sapienza University of Rome, Italy, (4) University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain

 
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