ENP welcomes Jordi Vegas Macias as Junior Researcher

Jordi Vegas Macias joined ENP as Junior Researcher. During his Tourism bachelor program at the Open University of Catalonia , he earned a degree and two minors in sustainable development and in destination plan and management. At the same time, he was working at the International Institute of Gastronomy, Culture, Arts and Tourism.

He moved to Wageningen to expand his knowledge and keep learning. At WUR, he earned the MSc Tourism, Society and Environment with a major thesis on shell fishing as cultural and natural heritage in the Algarve (Portugal) and a minor thesis on marine heritagisation processes in Malta. The major thesis presented heritage images and place dynamics based on the perspective of shellfish producers and tourism agents to understand better common grounds to coexist. The minor thesis studied heritagisaiton processes of fishing heritage influenced by tourism development by using social practice theory.

Through his Masters program, Jordi developed a high interest in research and the use of different techniques to better understand the tourism phenomena in combination with other sectors from a sociological perspective. He is currently contributing to research and assistance in project management activities in the PERICLES Heritage project, wherein field research, analysis and writing mostly related to the Malta case study region. He also participates in research and network activities linked to the PADDLE project, focusing on connecting marine heritage and tourism to spatial management in the PADDLE case regions. As a Junior Researcher, he will assist and teach in ENP related courses in tourism and marine areas while preparing his PhD proposal.