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- Volume 9, Issue 1, 2019
Hospitality & Society - Volume 9, Issue 1, 2019
Volume 9, Issue 1, 2019
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Narratives of global citizenship, ethics and tourism: A Danish perspective
Authors: Hannah Baker and Dianne DredgeAbstractThis article explores global citizenship through the narratives of employees of a Danish travel-related NGO. Using a narrative approach, this article unravels how employees interpret their own identity and position themselves as global citizens. Findings reveal that participants’ stories reinforce a strong sense of moral responsibility to both people and the planet. We also found that global citizenship is constructed through a highly abductive, internal conversation that individuals have crystallizing around their moral commitments, their social identity as defined by their legal citizenship, their political identity and perceived agency, and their travel and work-related experiences. The narrative approach highlights the fractal elements of participants’ stories.
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Cruising with(out) a conscience? Sustainable discourse in the blogosphere
Authors: Judith Römhild-Raviart, Clare Weeden, Nigel Jarvis and Ioannis PantelidisAbstractCruise tourism is on its way to becoming the new mass tourism and hospitality product. However, existing research on the sustainability of the cruise industry reveals that negative impacts often outweigh the positive. Criticism includes for example, unequal distribution of economic benefits, environmental pollution and unfair working conditions, the latter being an issue that is also relevant to the wider hospitality industry. While previous research mainly focuses on the economic and environmental impacts of ocean cruising and how these can be managed by the industry and destinations alike, it is not known whether cruise tourists acknowledge any responsibility to maximize the positive impacts and mitigate the negative impacts of their cruise holiday. Based on a blogpost-analysis conducted in a travel blog community of more than 200,000 members, the study sought to understand whether cruise tourists reflect on the sustainability of their holiday. Findings reveal that cruise tourists reflect upon the sustainability of their cruise, but do so unconsciously and largely superficially. However, this article argues that an examination of these limited reflections reveals insight that can be used to develop more effective ways to encourage passengers to be critically aware of industry practices, foster a social conscience and possibly advocate for a more sustainable cruise industry.
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Harnessing empathy in hospitality and tourism: Are conversations the answer?
Authors: Lourdes L. Zamanillo Tamborrel and Joseph M. CheerAbstractGiven tourism’s economic importance, its potential to create positive social change is often promoted, including the possibility for it to become a force for cross-cultural understanding through empathy. Because of its capacity to open new forms of intersubjective understanding, it is believed that empathy can harness more ethical relations between hosts and guests. Allied to these ideals is the following question: to what extent do tourists in less developed contexts actively engage with hosts (or the Other) through empathy? By using a case study of a ten-day pro-social cycling tour in Cambodia, this study examined the conditions that governed and shaped empathy between hosts and guests. Findings suggest that the key condition that harnesses empathy in host–guest relationships materializes when there is an opportunity to engage in bilateral conversations in situations where power differences are reduced. However, the role of empathy as a ‘necessary’ element for cross-cultural understanding remains open to contestation and remains ripe for further research.
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Volunteer tourism and the eco-village: Finding the host in the pedagogic experience
More LessAbstractThe pedagogical dimension of volunteer tourism (VT) is often used to position volunteering as an alternative form of tourism. Many researchers seeking to understand the expansion and benefits of VT have approached the practice through the frameworks of transformative learning and global citizenship education. These forms of education have been criticized by pedagogy and tourism scholars alike as they reproduce an elitist neo-liberal system that positions the needs and desires of volunteers before those of host-community members. The case of Sólheimar eco-village, Iceland, is used to explore the role of the host-community during volunteer tourist experiences aimed at fostering global citizenship. While it is observed that the needs of volunteers are often prioritized, the community members of the eco-village are nonetheless significant actors in the transformative education process of these volunteers. The ability of community-members to provoke reflection amongst volunteers over their complex position as members (albeit transient) of an eco-village represents a form of learning based in critical thinking. By acknowledging the role of the host during VT encounters, researchers can avoid fixing the meaning of transformative learning and global citizenship in ways that reproduce volunteer-centric discourses.
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Book Reviews
Authors: Lusine Margaryan, Jonathan Skinner and Erkan TogusluAbstractFemininities in the Field: Tourism and Transdisciplinary Research, Brooke A. Porter and Heike A. Schänzel (eds) (2018) Bristol: Channel View, 232 pp., ISBN: 978-1-84541-649-2, e-book, £20.00
The Importance of Elsewhere: The Global Humanist Tourist, Randy Malamud (2018) Bristol: Intellect, 240 pp., ISBN: 978-1-78320-874-6, p/bk, £22/$29.50
Tourism and Memories of Home: Migrants, Displaced People, Exiles and Diasporic Communities, Sabine Marschall (ed.) (2017) Bristol: Channel View, xv + 288 pp., ISBN: 978-1-84541-602-7, p/bk, £34.95
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