BIP - Military Tourism, Re-enactment and Immersive Experiences: bringing history back to life

This BIP brings together students and professors from the three partner universities, establishing international cooperation between Portugal, Greece and Belgium. The program includes both online and physical mobility initiatives. An international platform for cooperation between higher education courses in tourism is created, promoting technical and practical knowledge, developing and applying creative approaches based on success stories shared by partner universities, their research areas and student’s creativity to solve today’s problems, all framed by the Military Tourism theme.

With this BIP ‘Military Tourism, Re-enactment and Immersive Experiences: bringing history back to life’, we aim to develop and share synergies that frame the tourism resources of each region/country, focusing on military tourism that covers the various historical eras, the medieval and Napoleonic periods in Lisbon (Portugal), the First World War and Napoleonic Wars in Waterloo (Belgium), and finally in the island of Crete (Greece), considering the cultural heritage and references for the Second World War.

Far more than visiting the battlefields, we want to explore new museum interpretations, digital applications and the dynamization of the experience and immersion in these historic landscapes, enhancing the creative and technological capacity, analysing the challenges and pointing out solutions that value the action of local stakeholders, who are also invited to share their practices.

The course aims to provide an immersive learning experience in the themes of Military Tourism, combining edutainment with living history, creative design thinking of touristic experiences and awareness of re-enactment importance. Students will engage in an innovative blended learning process through a series of lectures, workshops, fieldwork, and collaborative projects. This approach will provide them with hands-on experience in interviewing, analysis, and presentation of results on these themes. By adopting an agile, learning-by-doing pedagogy, students will enhance their practical research skills and achieve lasting knowledge.