The Department of Business Studies and Knowledge of the Government of Catalonia has awarded the Tourism Medal of Catalonia to the UdG teacher Dolors Vidal i Casellas, for her work in this sector. The Catalonia tourism awards, adjudicated by a jury made up of the Catalan Tourism Board and different tourism experts, were given out on 10 January.
The awards recognise effort and dedication to tourism and are an instrument to encourage professional conduct and performance that helps to improve the image of tourism in Catalonia and tourist services. More precisely, the Tourism Medal of Catalonia is an acknowledgement of the effort and dedication of people who have especially contributed to promoting tourism by providing outstanding services in any aspect of the sector, or they are contributing with their professional example in cooperating with the tourism interests of Catalonia and its international positioning as a tourist destination. Dolors Vidal will receive the Medal for the Best Knowledge and Research Project.
Passion and ability to deliver results
Dolors Vidal i Casellas was one of the first teachers recruited by the Official School of Tourism of Catalonia in 1989. For the past 30 years ago, she has dedicated her teaching, research and transfer career to adding value to Cultural Heritage in the area of tourism and to conceptualising Cultural Tourism. Her passion and ability to deliver results is undeniable and she is considered to be the pioneer of the study of cultural tourism in Spain.
She graduated in Arts and Philosophy in 1979 (History of Art section) from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Her first studies linked to tourism were at ESADE in 1988, where she completed a programme about managing artistic and cultural institutions. Her commitment to tourism led to her obtaining an Ingénierie du Produits Touristiques degree from Toulouse-Le-Mirail University. Her official academic education culminated in her doctoral thesis presented at the UdG under the title “The monumental and artistic imaginary of cultural tourism. The case of the Barcelona Atracción magazine".
In the UdG's first tourism studies (TEAT), she taught the subjects of the History of Art. When education specifically in tourism first started at the university (1996), Vidal ensured that a section on Cultural Heritage was included in the main subject areas of the new qualification, the Diploma in Tourism. She also took part in drawing up the white book for the Bachelor's degree in Tourism, commissioned by ANECA (2004).
As part of her professional activity, she has organised and taught a large number of courses and programmes to update the knowledge of Guide Interpreters across Catalonia. This specialisation has also led to her becoming a member of the jury of the Catalonia Tourism Guide Interpreter Test organised by the Government of Catalonia since the year 2000. She has also been the commissioner of several exhibitions displaying tourism and cultural policies.
During her time as Dean of the Faculty of Tourism of the UdG (2012-2016), she facilitated and promoted growth in the number of student exchange contacts which crystallised in several dual degree agreements, especially for the two official master's degrees (Master in Cultural Tourism and Master in Tourism Management and Planning), with Colombia, Brazil, Moldavia, Georgia and Azerbaijan. She has taken part, in some cases as the main investigator, in several projects funded by the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID).
At present, she leads the research group of the Multidisciplinary Laboratory of Tourism Research and she is the director of the Calonge-Sant Antoni Chair of Gastronomy, Culture and Tourism.