DkIT Researcher Aminah Dastan wins Best Paper Award at international conference
Aminah Dastan, a Technological University Transformation Fund (TUTF) Postgraduate Research Scholar at DkIT, has been awarded a Best Paper Award for her work ‘Towards regenerative festivals: embedding net-positive relationships through participatory cultural tourism'. The presentation forms part of a wider funded research project on festivals and events with a focus on wellbeing and sustainability under the supervision of Dr Daithí Kearney and Dr Kevin Burns in the Department of Hospitality and Tourism and Creative Arts Research Centre at DkIT.
DSOTT’25 | Diversity and Sustainability, Opportunities and Threats in Tourism was hosted by the University of Coimbra in Portugal. It aims to combine Science, Industry and Governance, highlighting the work of diverse professionals and researchers in the tourism field. The three-day conference featured leading scholars engaging with themes including urban tourism, tourism smartification, and tourism in times of risk.
Aminah’s research is examining themes of sustainability and stakeholder involvement in small festivals in Ireland. Her paper demonstrated the significance of festivals for social, economic and cultural regeneration in community contexts. She is currently preparing chapters for inclusion in two new books featuring international authors to be published next year. Her research is supported by DkIT and the Higher Education Authority Technological University Transformation Fund.