Preparing for the World Leisure Congress in 2025

Author: Marcel Bastiaansen is professor of Leisure and Tourism and director of the BUas Experience Lab.

WLCE and education
A primary focus of the WLCE at BUas is the delivery of the MSc Leisure and Tourism Studies. This MSc has a long-standing tradition, having started at the School of Social and Behavioural Sciences of Tilburg University in 1984, and being delivered by BUas’ ALE since 2014. The MSc Leisure and Tourism Studies has a strong research focus, with half of the course credits being allocated to an individual research component leading up to an MSc thesis.

WLCE and research
The WLCE at BUas is embedded in a vibrant research environment that is both academically oriented and closely connected to the leisure and tourism industry. Featuring a number of professorships (Experience & Storytelling, Placemaking & Events, Experience & Well-Being, and the newly established professorship of Leisure in a Social Context) that support individual PhD tracks as well as junior and senior researchers, our research aims to (1) contribute to industry and society by developing and disseminating both applied and scientific knowledge, insights and best practices in the field of leisure and events, (2) involve students in this process as part of their educational programmes, and (3) enrich our educational programmes with the knowledge developed through our industry-focused and scientific research.

Hosting the World Leisure Congress in 2025
The coming year is an exciting one for the WLCE at BUas as we are hosting the 18th World Leisure Congress on our campus from 25 to 28 August 2025. With some 500 to 700 expected delegates, the biannual World Leisure Congress is the premier venue for the international community of scholars and professionals in the field of leisure. For our WLCE and our medium-sized institute, hosting the Congress on our campus is a major event, and we are all excited about it!

The overarching theme of the Congress is ‘Leisure for a Better Society’. This theme refers to the central position that leisure takes in the lives of people worldwide. In modern society, the varieties of leisure constitute prominent platforms for self-expression. In addition, leisure is an ever-stronger determinant of both individual and collective well-being. Thinking strategically about leisure as a catalyst for promoting well-being, and for inducing increased social and ecological sustainability is what binds together academia, government, and industry. In addition, how to address these issues in the context of (sustainable) leisure businesses is of crucial importance to help build a better society. 

The Congress also features an Industry Day, specifically aimed at addressing issues, challenges and opportunities within the leisure industry. The Industry Day is organised by, with, and for our national and international key industry partners, and is orchestrated by the Dutch national Centre of Expertise on Leisure, Tourism and Hospitality (CELTH). It boasts both industry-oriented keynotes and parallel sessions, and Technical Tours for in-depth views from different key players in the Dutch leisure industry. 

The 2025 WLCE Field School
A good tradition of the joint worldwide network of WLCEs is to organise a World Leisure International Field School in the week leading up to the World leisure Congress. The Field School is an exciting learning opportunity for students at more advanced levels of training (MSc, PhD), in which they learn to work in a larger and highly international and culturally diverse group of ambitious students. They engage in research field work prior to the Congress, get access to the Congress, and are given the platform to present the results of their work in a plenary session at the Congress. The Field School concept was initiated at the 2014 WL Congress in Mobile, Alabama (USA). Previous Field School editions took place in Durban, South Africa (2016), Sao Paulo, Brazil (2018) and Dunedin, New Zealand (2023). The Field School that will take place in Breda in 2025 is closely connected to the Congress theme ‘Leisure for a Better Society’, and will focus mostly on issues around accessibility and inclusion of leisure.

This article was published in Uncover Magazine - Internationalisation. You can read the complete magazine via this link.