Rotem Mashkov is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Geography and Planning at the University of Toronto under the supervision of Prof. Paul Hess. She is a human geographer and an urban planner whose research interests include the tourist experience, urban tourism, cognitive urbanism, and the application of advanced tracking technologies to explore human experiences in urban settings.
She earned her Ph.D. in Geography in November 2024 from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her dissertation, entitled " Sensing Urban Overtourism: Innovative Measurement Approaches, " utilized a multidimensional methodology that combined GPS tracking, online surveys, and embodied measures such as electrical skin conductance (EDA) and eye-tracking glasses. The research investigated the effects of overtourism on visitor experiences in congested urban environments, resulting in two papers published in high-ranking journals: Tourism Geographies and the Journal of Travel Research, with a third article currently under second revision for the Annals of Tourism Research.
During her work at the Advanced Tracking Technologies Lab (ATTL), led by her PhD supervisor, Prof. Noam Shoval, she contributed to developing innovative methods for assessing visitor experiences in diverse settings, including memorial sites and museum exhibitions in Berlin and Munich, religious sites in Jerusalem, and hotel buffets on the Gold Coast, Australia. Her work involved designing and conducting field experiments that integrated GPS data with physiological sensors to capture both objective and subjective dimensions of visitor experiences.
Her current research investigates the cognitive and emotional dimensions of urban underground spaces (UUS), using Toronto’s underground pedestrian wayfinding system, the PATH, as a case study. This work explores how UUS environments influence visual attention, cognitive load, and emotional responses, aiming to enhance accessibility, safety, and overall well-being in these spaces.