The International Conference on Tourism (CACTUS) took place in Bucharest and Predeal, as well as several other smaller places in Romania. It was titled “Contemporary approaches and challenges of tourism sustainability”. With a rather small participant number of 35 researchers, the conference portrayed very good opportunity to get in contact with almost all of the conference participants from all over Europe. Particularly in the universities of Romania, there is a lot of tourism geographical research ongoing, which provided me with valuable insights and inspirations for my own research. Examples include factors influencing environment behavior in tourism, sustainable transportation in the tourism sector, or innovations as factor of services competitiveness.
The format of the conference was one of so called itinerant workshops, which means it started in Bucharest with parallel sessions and online poster presentations. The remaining three days were set in the impressive scenery of the Carpathian Mountains and several villages in Transylvania, the research areas of the University of Bucharest. Accordingly, the remaining presentations, including mine, were held directly in the villages.
I was able to attend the 7th CACTUS conference thanks to a travel grant by the GSGS. My talk during the itinerant workshops was focused on my first paper “The impact of employer image on perceived industry attractiveness – differences among owners and employees”. This paper is currently under review in the Journal of Small Business Management. The scientific exchange during the conference proved very fruitful as I am already planning a cooperation with the University of Bucharest for a follow-up research paper.
Katrin Schwaiger
PhD student
Institute of Geography
PhD project: “Destination Commitment of generation Y and Z hospitality employees”
The impact of employer image on perceived industry attractiveness – differences among owners and employees (oral presentation)