Tourism Research Agenda Research Articles

Urban Tourism Studies: A Transversal Research Agenda 275

The debate on tourism in cities, both academically and in practice, has for a long time taken place in relative isolation from urban studies. Tourism is mostly addressed as an external agent and economic force that puts pressure on cities rather than as an interdependent part of city systems. The recent debate on city touristification and excessive dependence on the visitor economy, as well as the associated processes of exclusion, and displacement of local city users, serves to highlight how tourism is an integral part of urban developments. A wider urban perspective is needed to understand the processes underlying the tourism phenomena and more transdisciplinary perspectives are required to analyze the urban (tourism) practices. The current article seeks to contribute to such a perspective through a discussion of the literature on urban and tourism studies, and related fields such as gentrification, mobilities, and touristification. Based on this, theoretical reflections are provided regarding a more integral perspective to tourism and urban development in order to engage with a transversal urban tourism research agenda.

Mujeres que viajan solas: la experiencia de turistas mexicanas

This qualitative, interpretive study explores the experiences of Mexican women tourists traveling alone within a gendered framework that views women’s opportunities and constraints as socially situated, and places women’s lives as central to the tourism research agenda. Data were collected from 20 in‑depth interviews and a thematic analysis was used to compare and contrast the data. The results revealed two aspects, the first is that the experience of traveling alone allows women to improve their self‑perception, gain confidence and experience a sense of accomplishment; on the other hand, it was found that sexualized male attention and fear of insecurity is an important limitation to live an experience of freedom. When experienc‑ ing harassment by men in the destinations they visited, women behaved fearful of being attacked or abused, and this limited their use of the recreational space offered at the destination. However, these factors did not deter women from future solo travel plans.

The pandemic of loneliness: designing smart tourism for combating loneliness

Many technologically driven societies currently experience a “pandemic of loneliness“. The purpose of this viewpoint paper is to conceptualize loneliness as a persistent and widespread issue among consumers that has been amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic and increasingly spills over into the travel and tourism domain. This issue creates many challenges for smart tourism design as it implies changed consumer perspectives on smart tourism and needs for smart tourist experiences. This viewpoint paper is based on a review of relevant academic literature and online resources regarding the issue of loneliness, before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, and potential solutions in smart tourism settings. Loneliness has been completely overlooked by the smart tourism research agenda despite its tremendous implications for engagement, value co-creation, and the need for experience enhancement. This viewpoint paper proposes a framework for designing a loneliness-sensitive smart tourism ecosystem (LoSSTE). The purpose of this paper is to start a debate on how to mobilize smart tourism research for combating loneliness in the post-pandemic era and to outline areas for further research.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40558-022-00234-9.

A tourism research agenda for Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan is an emerging tourism destination that has experienced a strong increase in tourist numbers since 2017. However, as little research on tourism development in Uzbekistan exists to date, this study analyzes possible research topics and proposes a tourism research agenda for the country. A mix of methods was used, consisting of participant observation, semi-structured qualitative expert interviews and qualitative content analysis. The results revealed a range of research gaps in different areas which could be synthesized into a total of ten fields, clustered into three overarching areas – namely market research, management, and culture and the environment. The subordinate research fields identified are demand, statistics, potential, governance, products, infrastructure and development, marketing, heritage and nation-building, sustainability, and peace and conflict prevention. A strategic research plan based on this tourism research agenda could help foster a purposeful scientific debate. Tourism research in these fields has the potential both to investigate and compare theoretical issues in a unique context and to produce applicable results that can make a relevant contribution to tourism development in Uzbekistan.

Book review: Richard Sharpley and David Harrison (eds), A Research Agenda for Tourism and Development (Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham, UK and Northampton, MA, USA 2019) 256 pp.

"Book review: Richard Sharpley and David Harrison (eds), A Research Agenda for Tourism and Development (Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham, UK and Northampton, MA, USA 2019) 256 pp." published on Nov 2021 by Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd.

HALAL TOURISM RESEARCH EVALUATION IN 10 YEARS: PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE

The growing Muslim population worldwide entice many countries to rule the burgeoning halal market, including the tourism sector. With its potential in reshaping the global tourism industry, researchers have been investigating key aspects that may smooth the operations of this unique tourism practice. In line with that, this study aims to analyze the research progress of halal tourism published from 2011 to 2020, summarize the identified key themes and issues, and suggest for future research area in halal tourism. In doing so, qualitative approach combining the bibliometric analysis, network analysis, and content analysis was employed to examine prior research on ‘halal tourism’ obtained from ‘Scopus’ database. VOSviewer and Microsoft Excel software are employed to process a total of 230 peer-reviewed articles, carefully selected based on relevant query and context, such as years, document type, country, journal’s name, authors’ name, number of authors, and the keywords that frequently used by authors. The major finding of this study is the disclosure of keywords connection which grouping into three various clusters. These three clusters have their own prime keyword, namely Islamic tourism, tourism, and halal tourism. The overall analysis and the summary in this study is designed to provide insights that help researchers to design future halal tourism research agenda. As for the practitioners, this article could be a reference that may help them to have better understanding of the development, issues, and possible solutions related to the implementation of halal tourism.

Africa’s Capital Cities: Tourism Research in Search of Capitalness

Although African cities are significant tourism destinations scholarship on African tourism is rural biased. This paper centres on one aspect of the neglected urban tourism research agenda of Africa, namely the state of tourism research in Africa’s national capital cities. A review of extant research is conducted on tourism in Africa’s capital cities. It pinpoints an upturn of research over the past decade with a concentration of scholarly contributions on a small group of cities and with many capitals lacking any research on aspects of the local tourism industry. Prominent thematic foci in research on capital cities are tourism and planning related issues and the development and impacts of various forms of niche tourism, most commonly of heritage and culture. Only minimally represented in Africa literature is investigations of the role of ‘capitalness’ in defining and impacting the character of capital city tourism. Arguably, therefore, Africa’s capital cities provide the setting for examining a variety of issues in tourism and hospitality research albeit that ‘capital city tourism’ is scarcely evident in contemporary scholarship about urban Africa.

Book review - A Research Agenda for Tourism and Development

Book review - A Research Agenda for Tourism and Development

A research agenda for sustainable tourism

The aim of the individual chapters of this edited book was not to describe forms of sustainable tourism or define sustainability, but better understand the outcomes of the dynamic interactions by critically asking “What is it that tourism should sustain?” Alongside Chapter 8, which provides a comprehensive overview of tourism’s contribution to achieving the UN’s 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs), several chapters directly or indirectly address SDGs, for instance with reference to climate change (Chapter 7). Chapters also discuss some paradoxes related to sustainable tourism, such as the remaining dominance of neoliberal growth models despite claiming holistic sustainability (Chapters 9 and 13) or the technological advancements that have contributed to social media “good news shows” with influences on tourist behaviour. The book is written in a way that can also be beneficial for tourism practitioners, policymakers and destination managers that aim to understand the complexity of the tourism system and its positive and negative impacts on social and environmental sustainability more holistically.

COVID-19 and African tourism research agendas

ABSTRACT COVID-19 has triggered a burst of international scholarship concerning the reshaping of tourism and the resetting of tourism research agendas. The aim of this paper is to tease out some implications for re-orienting the African tourism research agenda from 2020 and beyond. Arguably, an appropriate African research response to COVID-19 in the context of tourism must embrace a genuine transdisciplinary approach and draw in researchers who would not, historically, have operated in the tourism space. Seven key themes are discussed namely, market confidence; dependence on international long-haul tourists; supporting regional and domestic tourism especially VFR travel; redefining community-based tourism; informal sector resilience; climate change; and, addressing present-mindedness in African tourism scholarship.

The coronavirus pandemic - A critical discussion of a tourism research agenda.

Unquestionable, the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic is one of the most impactful events of the 21st century and has tremendous effects on tourism. While many tourism researchers worldwide are currently ‘Covid-19 research gap spotting’, we call for more deliberateness and rigor. While we agree that the coronavirus pandemic is unique and relevant to research, we argue that not all effects are worth researching or novel to us. Previous research on crises and disasters do show similar patterns and existing theories can often very well explain the current phenomena. Thus, six illustrative examples are shown how a research agenda could look like. This includes parts where theoretical explanations from tourism are missing, as well as where we think existing knowledge might be subject to a tourism paradigm-shift due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Presenting the donkey at the seaside: a move towards tackling speciesism in the tourism industry

ABSTRACT This paper explores the way donkeys are presented in the tourism industry and, thus, introduces the donkey into the tourism research agenda. Donkeys make a global contribution to tourism and, in particular, have a historical connection with seaside destinations. This article draws on a study of donkeys at the UK seaside in Blackpool. It shows that the donkeys’ physical and symbolic presentation is crucial for maintaining tourism traditions. However, the analysis also makes visible the ingrained speciest attitudes of human dominance over animals operating in the tourism industry. The article outlines the need to tackle speciesism in the industry and concludes with key research recommendations for tourism policy advancements.

Tourism Initiatives as a Lever for Reintegration of Former FARC Combatants in Colombia

Within the framework of the peace agreement signed between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC-EP) - the largest and oldest guerrilla group in the country – twenty-four Territorial Training and Reincorporation Spaces (known by the Spanish acronym ETCR) were created to temporarily house ex-combatants and to give them a space to set up productive projects as part of their reintegration process. Ex-combatants have opted for projects related to goods production (e.g., agriculture, textile, pisciculture, etc.). Some have also considered tourism as an attractive entrepreneurial path.The paper offers an overview of tourism-related initiatives undertaken by ex-combatants from the different ETCRs by performing content analysis on more than 100 online publications pertaining to the initiatives. This was complemented with semi-structured interviews with people involved in the tourism projects or who visited the ETCR. The intention is to provide a first inventory of the existence of these projects, their present situation and the difficulties they encounter. The article initiates an assessment of their potential and feasibility in the future, and seeks to open up a research agenda for tourism as a reintegration strategy.

Terminal illness and tourism: a review of current literature and directions for future research

ABSTRACTThis research note explores the contributions of scholarly research into terminal illness and tourism. Through a review of previous health tourism research, our search found very limited extant literature on tourism and life-threatening and terminal illness. Specific areas where research direction is needed include a reconceptualisation of health tourism to include notions of ill-health and its implications for the tourism industry; greater understanding of the lived experiences of travellers with life-threatening or terminal illness; and consideration of the notion of care and the needs of those providing palliative care during travel. The identification of these gaps in current knowledge provides an opportunity for further development of a research agenda for ill-health and tourism, which will have substantial implications both for academia and for the medical and tourism industries.

Saluting while the ship sinks: the necessity for tourism paradigm change

ABSTRACTThe established mindset underpinning tourism planning, development and research is under attack from many quarters on the grounds that “business as usual” seems impossible to reconcile with sustainability. The paper first highlights key characteristics of the prevailing paradigm associated with tourism industry expansion globally. It then identifies common elements of an alternative “sustainable futures” paradigm, contrasting its features with those of the established paradigm in relation to seven fundamental elements: neo-liberalism, anthropocentrism, shareholder orientation, growth, price, space and promotion. Next, the paper identifies the implications of the alternative paradigm in terms of the underpinning mindset (attitudes and behaviours) of major tourism stakeholders. Pathways to facilitate the transition to the new sustainable futures’ paradigm are identified. The paper concludes with reflections on the power of the new paradigm, and its implications for a global sustainable tourism research and action agenda.

A DEA Travel–Tourism Competitiveness Index

Travel and tourism competitiveness has been paramount in the research agenda for transport, tourism and economics over the last decades because a larger number of destinations and businesses have entered into the international tourism market. Different approaches have been postulated to measuring, modeling and managing competitiveness in tourism. The present study aims to create a composite index of the travel and tourism competitiveness to rank 139 countries worldwide. Our sample is based on some of the data collected in “The Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2011”, and the method is based on the virtual efficiency DEA model. An analysis of the competitiveness by geographical area and income is also analyzed. Finally some policy implications are discussed.

Family perspectives on social hospitality dimensions while on holiday

This article focuses on neglected social hospitality dimensions of food and accommodation on family holidays. Holidays signify concentrated periods of family time not only allowing for more shared food experiences but also necessitating more confined living spaces compared to home. A whole-family methodology was used as a critical and holistic approach to understand the holiday experiences of 10 families. Positive and negative memories of hospitality encounters for different family members are illustrated through the emotive concepts of commensality and spatiality highlighting their embodied, visible and interactive aspects. Family meals take on symbolic and publicly celebrated characteristics, whereas shared accommodation space is privately contested. The theoretical implications of the antithetical nature of family hospitality dimensions are further discussed and the family tourism research agenda is further developed.

La agenda de investigación del turismo mediante el Análisis Cuantitativo de Redes Sociales (QSNA)

El trabajo realiza un recorrido por la literatura aparecida en los últimos años en las revistas científicas y libros que han utilizado el Análisis Cuantitativo de Redes Sociales (QSNA, en inglés) para el estudio del turismo. Se presenta de forma sistemática todas las aportaciones científicas que han usado los métodos y técnicas propias del QSNA para el análisis del turismo, lo que permitirá que cualquier investigador pueda disponer de las referencias oportunas con el objeto de poder orientar sus trabajos de investigación utilizando el QSNA. A partir del análisis de todas estas aportaciones se plantea una propuesta de avance para la futura agenda de investigación del turismo desde el QSNA.

Research Agenda for Tourism and the Chinese Dream

This article describes a research agenda for investigating the relationship between tourism and the Chinese Dream, informed by the G20 First East-West Dialogue on Tourism and the Chinese Dream held in late 2014 on Australia’s Gold Coast. Six themes comprise this agenda, including (1) clarification of the “Chinese Dream” construct, (2) connections between the Dream, tourism and consumers, (3) geopolitical considerations, (4) conventional Triple Bottom Line sustainability considerations, (5) tourism and nontourism systems as open states, and (6) hybrid research perspectives. All themes are permeated by an implicit seventh theme of rapid change.

Exploring synergies: Hopeful tourism and citizen science

The strength of the tourism academic field is arguably its capacity to facilitate investigations thatspan business as well as the physical and social sciences. While this does not mean that disciplinesare irrelevant in tourism, it has been argued that an inter-disciplinary scholarship could lead topost-disciplinary contributions—perspectives that are more problem-focused, based on more flexiblemodes of knowledgeproduction,plurality, synthesis and greater synergy (Coles,Hall, & Duval, 2006, p.293). We situate this note within this fluid, inter-disciplinary context, with the intent to criticallyreview the recent conceptual development of hopeful tourism, and citizen science—a scientific fieldin which ordinary citizens collect data for scientific purposes and greater public good (Dickinson &Bonney, 2012). We suggest there are conceptual similarities between the social science of hopefultourism and citizen science and argue that the similarities between the two fields could lead tocommon research agendas.Hopeful tourism has emerged as a transformative perspective for tourism knowledge production(Pritchard, Morgan, & Ateljevic, 2011). Its advocates claim that hopeful tourism is characterised byhumanist, value-led scholarship, ethics and respect for human dignity. It is based on a transactional,subjectivist, value-mediated epistemology where the nature of knowledge is characterised byco-transformative learnings (Pritchard et al., 2011). The hopeful tourism research agenda currentlyfocuses on topics such as: public good, harmony and balance, aesthetics and beauty, mindful develop-ment, values and ethics, neglected ways of knowing, under-served emancipatory worlds, and so on.This agenda has recently been criticized by some scholars who suggest that hopeful tourism doesnot go far enough in making sure that its research really ‘‘interrogates tourism’s role in oppression’’(Higgins-Desbiolles & Whyte, 2013, p.22). The critics argue: ‘‘We challenge all critical tourism scholarsto engage in research methodologies that go beyond hope. We live under grave threats as people ofpower and privilege assert the right to usurp remaining finite resources leaving the majority to