USF World News
USF Team is Awarded U.S. Embassy Grant for Collaborative Tourism Research in Florida and Serbia
Interdisciplinary USF Team is Awarded U.S. Embassy Grant for Collaborative Tourism
Research in Florida and Serbia
Drs. Brooke Hansen and Adam Carmer visiting the Royal Palace with Prince Alexander and Princess Katherine in Belgrade, Serbia.
TAMPA, Fla. (July 27, 2022) -- A team of USF hospitality and tourism faculty and students will travel to Serbia in the fall of 2022 as part of a $98,000 U.S. Embassy University Partnership grant awarded to Dr. Brooke Hansen, Director of Sustainable Tourism for the Patel College of Global Sustainability, and co-P.I.s Drs. Cihan Cobanoglu, Adam Carmer, and Faizan Ali from the School for Hospitality and Tourism Management, Muma College of Business, and Dr. Laura Harrison, Director of the USF Access 3D Lab.
The grant is titled “Immersive Technologies for Cross-Cultural Tourism Development: U.S. and Serbia on a Pathway to Digital Transformation” and will involve faculty and student exchanges between USF and the University of Novi Sad in Serbia. The USF team will train the UNS participants in the latest virtualization technologies and 3D modeling at tourist sites such as Egmont Key. Other specialties that will be shared include augmented reality development in hospitality and tourism and immersive sensory pedagogies used in food and beverage tourism. The UNS faculty will host workshops on sustainable tourism development and national heritage at the Royal Palace of Serbia, hosted by HRH Prince Alexander Karađorđević, and at state-of-the-art tourism sites such as Lepenski Vir and Golubac Fortress. The collaboration will be furthered by the development of two virtual workshops in the fall geared to multiple tourism classes and the establishment of research projects between the faculty teams at both universities.