Approved examples

Browse practical relevance cases

Showing 5 example(s).

Sant'Anna, E. S., Mayer, V. F., Luz, A. B. T., & Marques, O. (2025). Community-Centered Tourism Planning with Traditional Peoples in Brazil: Methodological Insights from Participatory Action Research. Tourism Planning & Development, 1-26. https://doi.org/10.1080/21568316.2025.2558673

Where: Brazil

What was studied: Community-centered tourism planning with traditional peoples

What changed in practice: Participatory action research informed the federal initiatives Experiências do Brasil Rural and Experiências do Brasil Original, supporting the development of rural tourism routes and tourism initiatives led by Indigenous and quilombola communities.

Context: Policy

Sun, Y. Y., Faturay, F., Lenzen, M., Gössling, S., & Higham, J. (2024). Drivers of global tourism carbon emissions. Nature Communications, 15(1), 10384, 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-54582-7

Where: Global

What was studied: Drivers of global tourism carbon emissions using environmentally extended input-output modelling

What changed in practice: The research informed global emissions measurement frameworks, was endorsed and adopted by UN Tourism, and has been applied across multiple countries to support tourism decarbonisation strategies and climate policy decisions. See more on: https://tourismemissions.org/

Context: Policy

Blake, A., & Seetaram, N. (2021). Using economic modelling to inform UK airport expansion. Research Excellence Framework (REF) impact case study. https://results2021.ref.ac.uk/impact/95

Where: United Kingdom

What was studied: Economic modelling of tourism impacts

What changed in practice: Computable general equilibrium models were used by the UK Airports Commission to evaluate airport expansion scenarios and contributed evidence supporting the Heathrow runway decision. (Example extracted by Wan et al., 2026; reference available in the Literature page.)

Context: Policy

Collins, A., Cooper, C., & Flynn, A. (2021). Equipping organisers with a novel toolkit to reduce the environmental impact of major sport and cultural events. Research Excellence Framework (REF) impact case study. https://results2021.ref.ac.uk/impact/eb572921

Where: United Kingdom

What was studied: Environmental impact of tourism events

What changed in practice: Integrated environmental input-output and ecological footprint tools were adopted by event organisers and policymakers to evaluate and reduce the environmental footprint of major events. (Example extracted by Wan et al., 2026)

Context: Policy

McCabe, S. (2014). Informing social tourism policy and practice. Research Excellence Framework (REF) impact case study. https://impact.ref.ac.uk/28498

Where: United Kingdom

What was studied: Social tourism and inclusion in leisure travel

What changed in practice: Collaboration with the Family Holiday Association raised awareness of social exclusion in tourism and led to changes in the charity’s practices while informing Visit England’s tourism strategy and policy discussions. (Example extracted by Wan et al., 2026)

Context: Policy