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Ad­ri­ana Budeanu

Associate Professor

Subjects
Sustainability Tourism Innovation Working environment Moral

Primary research areas

Sustainable Tourism

Working with sustainability challenges at individual, organizational and regional levels to find applicable solutions for tourism destinations and businesses

Service innovation and sustainability

Using design and innovation to support organizations in developing sustainability practices

Resonance and alienation from nature

Working with social theories of them to examine and re-imagine human connections to natural ecosystems

Waste and tourism

Mitigating waste accumulation and tourism overconsumption

I harness the discomfort of novelty to help foster responsible mindsets towards the world

Historically, my teaching and research interests focused broadly on tourism sustainability, including topics such as corporate responsibility, tourist behaviour, tourism partnerships and tourism in developing countries. Fortunate to work close to various tourism practitioners (tour operators, travel agents, hospitality companies), I participated in projects that focused on developing applied tools which business organizations can use in elevating sustainability performance.  

  

Currently, my research is geared towards using organizational and social theories to critically investigate how practices shape and belief systems, looking for opportunities to enable sustainable change. Instances when raised individual consciousness about the multiple connections to the world, guides subsequent behaviours towards a caring and responsible stance toward the world, stimulate my intellectual curiosity.  Furthermore, motivated by my background as an ecologist, I engage with emergent debates at the interface between biological and human systems, through theoretical lenses of new materialism, resonance theory and biosociology.   

Recent research projects

Environmental Sustainability of Hotels in Zanzibar

Examining waste pathways in tourism, we investigate organizational changes which align waste strategies with community and institutional priorities.
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New Partnerships for Sustainability

Main objective of the NEPSUS project was to analyse partnerships with different degrees of complexity through structured comparisons in three key natural resources sectors, specific focus on Tanzania.
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Øresund EcoMobility

A collaboration between universities, public and private actors to create solutions for tomorrow’s transportation
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Outside activities

Padova University, April 2025–present

Guest lecturer on sustainable tourism

Open University of Tanzania (OUT), 2018–2025

Supervisor of PhD work on institutional and organizational factors influencing sustainable waste management

University College London, June 2023–present

Examiner of PhD work on sustainable management of heritage through social entrepreneurship

Swiss National Science Foundation, 2021–present

Evaluator of applications for research funding

Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism

Member in the Advisory Board since 2014

Lund University, 2019–2023

Rethinking urban tourism development: Dealing with sustainability in the age of over-tourism Project, member in board