Anya Diekmann

Anya is professor in tourism (chair: cultural tourism). Currently, she is heading the BCTS and co-heading the research unit GESTe (Gestion de l’Environnement, Société et Territoire) and co-piloting of the CPDT (Conférence Permanente du Développement Territorial).

After studying Art History and Archaeology, Anya worked for ten years as an archaeologist in Antwerp and in Brussels. In 1998, she became more interested in heritage preservation and management and joined the freshly created tourism research team at IGEAT. Between 2000 and 2004, she completed her PhD on the relationship between built heritage and tourism and continued working for the following two years as a researcher in different international heritage projects.  In 2006, Anya rejoined the ULB tourism team and started teaching in the Tourism Master Program. Between 2009 and 2022, she was in charge of the Master in Tourism Science and Management. 

Her research focuses on various socio-cultural aspects of tourism from a social sustainability perspective. In particular, she conducted research into tourism in India's slums and the use and management of World Heritage sites from a cross-cultural perspective.  Her research also explores various aspects of social and responsible tourism, and she is collaborating since many years with the International Organisation for Social Tourism – ISTO - as Coordinator of the Alliance for Training and Research.  More recently, het research includes environmental behaviour and intercultural aspects of education.              

In addition, Anya has been lecturing for many years in other universities and countries, particularly in India and Vietnam, contributing for almost 20 years to Master and teacher training programs. Over the past five years, she has started developing projects in the Democratic Republic of Congo, focusing on the intersections of environment, tourism, and heritage.

Anya is also involved in the Gender Working Group of the Sciences Faculty.