Vikki Schaffer

Adventure tourism activities feature varying levels of physical exertion, risk, cognitive and sensory stimuli, are often located in natural environments and involve speciality transport or equipment – all potential barriers to people with disability. Normalising accessibility requires identifying barriers, motivations and opportunities. Thematic analysis of 12 in-depth interviews with tourism operators revealed inherent and perceived risks in adventure tourism activities, lack of awareness and education, and costs that inhibit participation by people with disability. Financial gain was not a key motivation. Operators indicated a strong desire, and open-mindedness underpinned motivation for inclusive approaches. Findings offer unique insights to advance the discourse. However, accessible adventure tourism will require broader financial support, directed education and training for staff and guests, and inclusive collaboration.

Immersive learning experiences support real-life contexts for meaningful teaching and provide authentic learning opportunities. This empirically based study investigated how the incorporation of immersive visualisation as a teaching technique influences student engagement and learning. This L&T funded multi-disciplinary project suggested immersive visualisation (technique) influenced cognitive and physical engagement but not emotional engagement. Cohorts within tourism and paramedicine expressed positive responses suggesting the learning based activities were not only enjoyable but supported them to learn about the course content. The delivery of effective immersive experiences depends largely on commitment from the course instructor. This cannot just be treated as cool tech. It is necessary to embed the immersive experience within the course structure with related content. As with electronic games, virtual and mixed media require active engagement to support discovery, observation, trial and error, and problem solving (Prensky 2001), not only by students but in the development and presentation of the media resources.

Immersive learning experiences support real-life contexts for meaningful teaching and provide authentic learning opportunities for tourism students. This empirically based study aims to investigate how the incorporation of immersive visualisation as a teaching technique enhances student engagement and learning abilities. Student engagement was examined within three key areas: active engagement, narration, co-presence. The research outcomes confirm that immersive visualisation (technique) enhanced students understanding, level of focus, their thinking skills and learning abilities. Further research is recommended into the application of immersive visualisation as a support tool to achieve student learning outcomes. Currently an extension of this study is being completed to further evaluate engagement and learning outcomes.

Indicators are the most popular sustainability assessment tools in the field of tourism, however after three decades of research, the current sustainable tourism indicators (STIs) still suffer from a difficulty in implementation. Our study aims to find the key issues hampering the process of indicator development in the field of sustainable tourism through a systematic literature review over 30 years of study by 1) highlighting the key limitations and challenges associated with STIs research and 2) identifying the main barriers to stakeholder participation in STIs development and implementation. According to this systematic review, data availability/reliability and insufficient stakeholder involvement are the main limitations in STIs literature. Providing a deep insight into issues challenging STIs development not only explain the current failures to practically implementation of STIs and provides great opportunities for future, but also contributes to understand why it has been difficult to motivate stakeholders to minimise unsustainable tourism behaviours.

Strategic application of immersive visualisationand simulation can address these challenges and create a competitive advantage. Equity in higher education is not only an economic imperative but a social one (Wells 2008). Regional universities create opportunities for diverse groups (low socio-economic, disabilities, special needs) to undertake higher education (Regional Universities Network 2015) and thus need to develop equitable, student focussed, authentic teaching that maintains academic standards within inclusive and stimulating learning environment. Learning spaces that extend beyond the classroom engage people with different learning styles to provide opportunities for deep learning and connection with students' respective professional communities (Isoardi 2010). Fostering the links between authentic learning, teaching and the real world creates meaning to existing and emerging concepts by drawing on previous learning, professional or personal experiences (Durham & Aidemn 2012; Hunt 2012). Clear connection to course concepts is imperative to piecing together critical constructs; this is where immersive simulation and visualisation may have the greatest impact (Bland, Topping & Wood 2010; Bradley 2006). The benefits of immersive experiences have not been extensively explored (Raja, et al. 2004). This project seeks to immerse students in a virtual or representative environment to create a sense of "presence" (Raja, et al. 2004) as immersion offers safe, repeatable and supportive learning environments, structured and planned to replicate real experiences to underpin program and course learning outcomes. Engaged students are attracted to their work, persist despite challenges and obstacles, and have a sense of pride in their accomplishments (Schechty 1994). Authentic engagement provides results that have clear meaning and immediate value to students (Schechty 2000) and is an important precursor to student learning (Zyngier 2008). Background: Innovative activities were independently undertaken in two disciplines, stemming from a desire to improve student outcomes. These academics simultaneously recognised a climate of readiness for innovative approaches that align directly with University strategic priorities: multi-site delivery and visualisation. Over 110 students across two campuses enrol in sustainable tourism, leisure and event management but only 30 can take part in Fraser Island field work. The Paramedic Clinical Practicum2 teaching team sought pedagogical approaches that explicitly linked real-world practice to the learning environment. How can equity and engagement be improved to positively influence student outcomes? Innovative use of existing and new videos, role play and peer to peer learning presented in Immersive Lab and CAVE2. 2015 informal survey asked "Being in the Immersion Lab gave me the opportunity to …. Learn from peers (63 percent), increase course understanding (48 percent), better understand (44 percent) and engage with content (44 percent). This feedback inspired multi-discipline resource development via an L&T grant: Curriculum enhancement has commenced; materials are being filmed, edited and trialled in focal courses and formal questionnaires administered to students.

International, national, state and regional tourism organisations are directing marketing efforts at emergent outbound markets. The diversity of emerging and existing markets present issues for resource- challenged regional tourism destinations. This dual phase comparative study focuses on two regional destinations: Sunshine Coast, Australia (Phase one) and Otago, New Zealand (Phase two). Semi-structured interviews with tourism industry stakeholders investigate emerging markets, the challenges of engaging with them, service delivery and perceived preparedness of the stakeholders for addressing the needs of emerging markets.