In the second semester of 2023-2024, twenty graduates from various study programs worked together in the Urban Leisure & Tourism Lab Rotterdam. Students from Tourism Management, Leisure Management, Integral Safety Management, Law, Business Studies and Creative Business, among others, joined forces to tackle urban challenges.
Luna’s graduation project took place at Bike & Bite, a company that organizes cycling and walking tours in Rotterdam. Her project focused on the development of new products and services that not only meet the needs of tourists, but also contribute to the sustainability of the company and the self-guided Bite Me walking tours. Luna investigated how Bike & Bite can diversify their offer and make it more sustainable at the same time.
In her research, Luna combined insights from practice with theoretical models to design new tourist experiences. Among other things, she focused on creating routes and activities that are both attractive to tourists and environmentally friendly. In addition, she investigated how the company can communicate more effectively with customers to make them aware of sustainable choices during their visits to cities and districts such as Utrecht and Rotterdam-Zuid.
The result of Luna’s work was a series of recommendations and concrete plans for new tours in Utrecht and Rotterdam-Zuid and marketing strategies that help Bike & Bite to operate more sustainably, without compromising the quality of the customer experience. Her project emphasizes the importance of innovation in the tourism sector and shows how companies can respond to the growing demand for sustainable tourism products.