Professor Stefan Gössling stands as a preeminent scholar whose pioneering work bridges tourism studies with environmental sustainability, establishing foundational frameworks for understanding the complex relationship between global mobility systems and climate change. Currently holding dual professorships as Professor of Tourism Research at Linnaeus University School of Business and Economics and Professor of Human Ecology at Lund University, he has cultivated an exceptional academic trajectory spanning multiple continents and disciplines. His scholarly journey began with a BSc in biology and MSc in geography from Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität in Münster, Germany, culminating in a doctoral degree in Human Ecology from Lund University in 2001. Following postdoctoral research at Freiburg University's Department of Cultural Geography, he ascended through the academic ranks at Lund University, becoming Associate Professor in 2005 and Professor in Human Ecology in 2008, while simultaneously establishing himself as Research Coordinator at the Western Norway Research Institute's Research Centre for Sustainable Tourism.
Professor Gössling's research has fundamentally reshaped the understanding of tourism's environmental footprint, particularly regarding aviation emissions and carbon accounting methodologies within the tourism sector. His influential publications including Tourism and Global Environmental Change (2006), Sustainable Tourism Futures (2009), and Climate Change and Aviation (2009) have become seminal references that define contemporary discourse on tourism sustainability. His work as co-author of the UNWTO-UNEP-WMO report Tourism and Climate Change: Responding to Global Challenges provided critical policy guidance for international stakeholders, while his contributions to the IPCC AR4 directly informed global climate assessments with tourism-specific insights. Recent research continues to challenge conventional wisdom, with his 2025 publication revealing significant underestimations of global air transport emissions, demonstrating the ongoing relevance and rigor of his analytical approach to sustainability challenges.
Beyond his substantial research contributions, Professor Gössling serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Sustainable Tourism and has built an extensive collaborative network across academia, policy, and industry stakeholders worldwide. Recognized consecutively as a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher from 2020 through 2024 and ranked #9 in tourism and #2 in sustainable tourism globally by ScholarGPS, his work has achieved extraordinary influence within environmental scholarship. His current research agenda examines the sustainability of tourism, transport, and mobilities through the dual lenses of climate change and pandemic disruptions, as evidenced by his rapid assessment of COVID-19's impacts on global tourism systems. As the global community confronts urgent decarbonization imperatives, Professor Gössling's integrative scholarship connecting tourism studies with climate science remains indispensable for developing viable pathways toward sustainable mobility systems that balance economic, social, and environmental considerations.
