Ko Koens
. Professor New Urban Tourism :
Dr. Ko Koens has been the professor of the New Urban Tourism research group at Inholland University of Applied Sciences since February 2020.
I am a human geographer and I deal with consumption areas, places where shops, hospitality, residential functions and public space come together. I find shopping areas interesting because they are hubs where large-scale social and economic changes meet everyday life and create tension or conflicts between stakeholders with different interests. My PhD research focuses on how consumer spaces in Amsterdam are changing as a result of increasing tourism. Tourism is pre-eminently a global development with economic functional, social and emotional consequences for residents, visitors and entrepreneurs in consumer spaces.
I hope to get contacts from the network for possible future projects or other types of collaborations. I also think it would be very interesting to help think about the future of tourism research – and of course the place for consumer spaces in it.
The themes of governance and placemaking tie in best with my research interests.