The Center for Tourism Studies and Research (Cetur), in collaboration with the Institute for Galician Studies and Development (Idega), both from the Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, presented awards at the Museum of Pilgrimages and of Santiago for the best Final Degree Projects (TFG) and Final Master's Projects (TFM) in the field of tourism. The awardees for the 2023-24 academic year are studies conducted on the Ourense campus by Miguel Peña, Iago Barreiro, and Santiago Pérez, focusing on the potential of olive tourism in Galicia and Ourense Termal.
The initiative, aimed at recognizing university academic work that contributes to the analysis and reflection on tourism activity, in its first edition, awarded the TFG by Miguel Peña, "The potential of olive tourism in Galicia" (Joint Program of the Degree in Tourism and Geography and History of the UVigo). An honorable mention was also given to Iago Barreiro and Santiago Pérez for their work "Development and validation of a tool for evaluating social profitability in tourism projects: application to the Ourense Termal destination" (Degree in Business Administration and Management of the Faculty of Business and Tourism Sciences of the Ourense campus).
For the 2024-2025 academic year, the award for the best TFG went to Laura Prego for "Opportunities for Blue Tourism in Arteixo: Maritime Heritage, Surf, and Sustainability" (Degree in Tourism from the Universidade da Coruña). The best TFM was awarded to Cristina Huertas for her "Proposal for a chatbot to disseminate the documentary heritage of the Codex Calixtinus through AI" (Master's in Digital Cultural Heritage from the USC).
The jury was composed of Lucrezia López (Director of Cetur), Iván Meléndez (Director of Competitiveness of Turismo de Galicia), Xosé Manuel Cao (Head of the Service for Culture, Tourism, and Language Promotion of the Concello de Lugo), María Milagros Vivel, and María de los Ángeles Piñeiro (both from the USC).
Through these awards, Cetur and Idega aim to promote and highlight academic research on tourism, fostering dialogue between the university and sector stakeholders. They also seek to consolidate the Institute's research line on tourism and its impact on Galicia's territorial, economic, and social development, thereby strengthening knowledge and understanding of the challenges and opportunities that tourism presents for the region.
