Our Professors
The initiative is led by Dr. Erdinç Çakmak and Asst. Prof. Dr. Chution Savini, who serve as co-directors. They provide strategic leadership in research development, partnership building, and capacity building, while also strengthening collaboration between the two institutions at both academic and practical levels.
Ultimately, SusDeLL connects knowledge with action, bridging between academia and practice to co-create innovative, scalable interventions that flourish destinations and restore balance between people and nature.
Director of Graduate Programs
Academy of Tourism
Breda University of Applied Sciences (BUas)
Monseigneur Hopmansstraat 2, 4817 JS Breda, Netherlands
https://www.buas.nl/en/programmes/master-tourism-destination-management
cakmak.e@buas.nl
Dr. Erdinç Çakmak
SusDeLL Co-Director
Dr. Erdinç Çakmak is a university professor at Breda University of Applied Sciences and Co-Director of the Sustainable Destinations Living Lab, where he advances transformative approaches to tourism through research, education, and real-world experimentation. As a tourism sociologist, his work is driven by a commitment to rethinking tourism beyond growth paradigms, towards more just, inclusive, and regenerative futures.
He holds a PhD in Social Sciences from Wageningen University & Research and is actively engaged in international academic networks and collaborative research platforms dedicated to advancing sustainable and regenerative tourism futures.
With over two decades of international experience, Dr. Çakmak specialises in destination development, living lab methodologies, and community-based research. His work explores how tourism systems can be reconfigured through multi-stakeholder collaboration, value chain innovation, and more equitable relations between formal and informal economies. Central to his approach is recognising and empowering local actors, who are often overlooked in dominant tourism models, as key agents of resilience, creativity, and transformation.
Dr. Çakmak’s work contributes to emerging debates on regenerative tourism, mobility justice, and inclusive development, with a particular focus on destinations facing social, economic, and environmental pressures. His research has informed policy and practice across diverse global contexts, and he has published widely on tourism entrepreneurship, power relations, and development in fragile and contested settings.
Within the Sustainable Destinations Living Lab, he leads transdisciplinary initiatives that bring together academia, communities, governments, and industry to co-create knowledge and test solutions in real-life contexts. His research employs qualitative and mixed-method approaches, including ethnography, narrative inquiry, and participatory methods, to capture the lived experiences of tourism stakeholders and to understand the complex social, cultural, and political dynamics shaping destinations.
Asst. Prof. Dr. Chution Savini
SusDeLL Co-Director
Asst. Prof. Dr. Chution Savini is a wildlife conservation scientist and full time lecturer at the International College for Sustainability Studies, Srinakharinwirot University. She received the Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA), a professional recognition under the UK Professional Standards Framework (UKPSF). She currently serves as Co-Director of the Sustainable Destinations Living Lab (SusDeLL), where she contributes to advancing transdisciplinary research and collaboration on sustainable tourism and human–nature relations between Thailand and the Netherlands.
With over two decades of experience in wildlife research and conservation, Dr. Savini began her professional career with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), where she served as a wildlife scientist for more than a decade. Her expertise spans wildlife conservation, law enforcement support and suppression, wildlife monitoring, and wildlife trade. She has contributed to global efforts by compiling and authoring guidebooks on wildlife identification in
Southeast Asia to support conservation practitioners and enforcement agencies. Her primary research focuses on wildlife ecology and the development of science-based conservation strategies to strengthen wildlife conservation efforts in Thailand. Her work emphasises applied research, integrating ecological knowledge with practical conservation management.
She has been a full-time lecturer at SWUIC since 2019, where she integrates her field experience, research expertise, and international networks into teaching. Her academic contributions include embedding sustainability concepts into the B.A. Programme in Sustainable Hospitality and Tourism Management. She previously held leadership roles as Assistant Dean for Student Affairs and Assistant Dean for Research, contributing to student development and research advancement.
Beyond academia, Dr. Savini has actively participated in numerous national and international conservation initiatives. She served as Chair (Asian Chapter) of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation (2013–2015), promoting scientific understanding and conservation of tropical ecosystems through global conferences. She has also contributed as a committee member in graduate-level conservation programs.
Dr. Savini is actively engaged in international conservation networks. She is a member of the IUCN SSC Asian Elephant Specialist Group and also contributes to the IUCN Connectivity Conservation Specialist Group and the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas. Through these roles, she supports global efforts in biodiversity conservation, protected area management, and ecological connectivity.
Her current work focuses on addressing human–elephant conflict in communities surrounding protected areas, while also engaging in sustainability management, working with corporate partners, and advancing urban ecology and conservation networking. She works closely with multi-stakeholders and local communities across multiple conservation landscapes, including World Heritage sites, to strengthen community engagement, local empowerment, and participatory conservation practices. Her work involves developing and implementing action plans for protected areas and elephant conservation, while collaborating with park rangers and stakeholders to co-design practical mitigation strategies that enhance long-term conservation outcomes. She has also developed guidebooks to support community empowerment in ecotourism and community-based tourism, as well as practical guidelines on elephant driving techniques aimed at promoting human–elephant coexistence. In addition, she is the founder of the SWUIC ECO Group, a student-led initiative actively engaged in green activities and youth-
driven sustainability initiatives.
Wildlife Conservation Scientist
University Lecturer
Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management
International College of Sustainability Studies (SWUIC)
Srinakharinwirot University
114 Sukhumvit 23, Bangkok 10110, Thailand
chution@g.swu.ac.th