Arash Akhshik

Associate senior lecturer
Department of Marketing and Tourism Studies School of Business and Economics
arash.akhshik@lnu.se
Save contact

I am a tourism and socio-environmental scholar examining how people and nature interact across protected areas and urban informal green spaces. My work combines field insight with advanced analytical approaches ranging from AI and machine learning to mixed-methods designs with the aim of understanding, planning, and shaping visitor–nature interactions for conservation and community benefit. Recent projects include AI-assisted studies of riverscapes and multispecies justice in informal urban greens, and empirical work on encouraging pro-environmental behavior in marine wildlife tourism context.

I have held roles across government, industry, and academia that inform a pragmatic, stakeholder-oriented research and teaching agenda.

 

Research

Selected focal areas and contributions

  • Pro-environmental behavior in wildlife and coastal tourism (e.g., interpretive sea-turtle tours), using fsQCA and predictive analytics to uncover pathways to greener visitor actions.

  • Investigating visitor misbehaviors in river contexts, using big data to explore how ruver users justify or normalize harmful behaviors, offering insights for more effective and sustainable practices.

  • Conservation conflict analysis and residents’ justice concerns in and around protected areas, linking nature connectedness, place attachment, and policy legitimacy.

  • Urban nature and informal greenspaces, including an NCN (Poland)-funded line of work on multispecies justice and AI-supported assessment of human–nature and urban animals' interactions.

 

More about my research:

 

Funded projects:

 

Selected publications:

  • Strzelecka, M., Boley, B., & Akhshik, A. (2025). Beyond economics: the role of empowerment in shaping conservation justice through rural nature-based tourism. Journal of Ecotourism, 1-25.
  • Akhshik, A., Tusznio, J., & Strzelecka, M. (2023). Equifinal paths to megafauna conservation through memorable wildlife tourism experiences: Evidence from the restitution of the European bison (Bison bonasus) in Poland. Current Issues in Tourism, 26(18), 3064-3084.
  • Rezapouraghdam, H., Akhshik, A., & Ramkissoon, H. (2023). Application of machine learning to predict visitors’ green behavior in marine protected areas: Evidence from Cyprus. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 31(11), 2479-2505.
  • Olya, H. G., & Akhshik, A. (2019). Tackling the complexity of the pro-environmental behavior intentions of visitors to turtle sites. Journal of Travel Research, 58(2), 313-332.
  • Strzelecka, M., Rechciński, M., Tusznio, J., Akhshik, A., & Grodzińska-Jurczak, M. (2021). Environmental justice in Natura 2000 conservation conflicts: The case for resident empowerment. Land Use Policy, 107, 105494.