What do we get out of it? Tourism actors’ perspectives on the benefits of partaking in student innovation camps

Student innovation camps based on real-world business cases have become a popular pedagogical tool in tourism & leisure education. Research on the benefits that contributing industry actors gain from contributing to such camps has, however, remained scarce. This study explores the benefits tourism actors gain from participating in innovation camps through semi-structured in-depth interviews with thirteen Norwegian tourism actors. Six types of benefits were identified through thematic analysis of the interviews: 1) New ideas & perspectives, 2) Process activation, 3) New insights, 4) Personal benefits, 5) Networking opportunities, and 6) Exposure. These findings provide novel insights into the outcomes industry actors experience from engaging in university-industry collaboration and offer practical implications for enhancing innovation camp benefits for contributing industry actors.