Tobias Heldt

Tobias Heldt is an Associate Professor in Tourism Studies and Senior Lecturer in Economics at the School of Culture and Society, Dalarna University. He leads applied tourism research grounded in behavioral economics, focusing on topics like rural mobility, recreational trail funding, sustainable food choices, and the horse industry. His work integrates field experiments, surveys, and big data with GIS and spatial planning tools. He contributes to the Center for Tourism and Leisure Research (CeTLeR) and co-developed the MIRANDA tool for tourism and infrastructure planning in Sweden.

Research Focus: Behavioral economics applications in tourism, spatial planning for sustainable mobility, funding models for public recreational infrastructure, and environmental policy interventions. His methodologies include norm-nudges, carbon labeling experiments, and participatory GIS approaches.

Teaching & Supervision: Teaches Event Tourism and Tourism Economics courses. Supervises students at bachelor, master, and PhD levels in tourism economics, sustainable development, and applied behavioral research.

Key Projects: Development of the MIRANDA spatial decision-support system; studies on trail pass compliance and carbon labeling in restaurants; analysis of mobility patterns in rural tourism regions like Sälenfjällen.

Publications: Over 60 peer-reviewed articles on tourism economics, sustainable behavior, and spatial planning. Recent work emphasizes behavioral interventions, infrastructure financing, and GIS-driven policy tools.