This paper seeks to highlight underlying issues of the tourism system that have led to tourism extremes of too much or too little tourism. Five phases are recognized that reflect different ways of dealing with too much tourism over time, after which the impact of a sudden lack of tourism is investigated in light of future renewal processes. This discussion highlights the remarkable capacity of the tourism industry to adjust to rapidly changing circumstances and crises, even when these cause anguish to individuals and within societies at large. The paper thus seeks to contextualize the current discussions regarding the transformation of tourism post COVID-19. It highlights the complexity of changing a tourism that multiple stakeholders depend on or have grown accustomed to. To come to a more balanced tourism, it is necessary to not only come up with alternative visions and strategies, but also to engage with the political economy nature of tourism development. A future research agenda should therefore also discuss facets of entangled power, social exclusion, inequalities and class differences to come to new reference points of what actually constitutes a more inclusive tourism success.
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This paper examines how a serious game approach could support a participatory planning process by bringing stakeholders together to discuss interventions that assist the development of sustainable urban tourism. A serious policy game was designed and played in six European cities by a total of 73 participants, reflecting a diverse array of tourism stakeholders. By observing in-game experiences, a pre- and post -game survey and short interviews six months after playing the game, the process and impact of the game was investigated. While it proved difficult to evaluate the value of a serious game approach, results demonstrate that enacting real-life policymaking in a serious game setting can enable stakeholders to come together, and become more aware of the issues and complexities involved with urban tourism planning. This suggests a serious game can be used to stimulate the uptake of academic insights in a playful manner. However, it should be remembered that a game is a tool and does not, in itself, lead to inclusive participatory policymaking and more sustainable urban tourism planning. Consequently, care needs to be taken to ensure inclusiveness and prevent marginalization or disempowerment both within game-design and the political formation of a wider participatory planning approach.
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White paper: Financing the circular economy in the tourism sector For SMEs in tourism, a transition to a circular economy can often be costly. Crowdfunding is a promising financing approach for a circular economy in tourism as it can help avoid the bureaucratic and often complex funding application procedures as well as the possible absence of appropriate loans and grants. It is essential, however, for entrepreneurs to follow guidance on how to initiate, develop and propose a crowdfunding campaign. In addition, the white paper has also highlighted the importance of creating and promoting a destination-based crowdfunding platform. Such a platform would allow the destination to create a collective effort and potentially joint crowdfunding campaigns, target tourists and communities, and ultimately promote the destination and its sustainability successes. Entrepreneurs should also consider different aspects after the implementation of the circular project, this for instance may include assessing the benefits of the circular project and communicating these to the funders and all customers. Such communication would ensure support for future campaigns, and a sense of participation in a successful project by the funders and it would also enhance customer experience. Local authorities can have a pivotal role in both cases, when a destination-based platform is created and used, and when entrepreneurs use existing crowdfunding platforms. Authorities can for example provide technical and financial support to SMEs to develop a circular project and can provide promotional support to the campaigns potentially reaching a wider audience through the destination website and by using social media. Tourism is very much a fashion-based industry, and, as such, it needs to have effective marketing. It is increasingly known that sustainability can be a marketing asset for a destination. The circular economy, as a concept, is not well-known, partly because it is new. The wider concept of sustainable tourism is not fully understood by the market, even after its emergence and first implementation nearly forty years ago (Bausch et al., 2021). Steps should be taken to explain and market the concept of the circular economy as often as possible, using a multi-media marketing strategy. The issue of governance might need to be considered if the circular economy is undertaken by a partnership of several SMEs, by an entire destination, or even perhaps by several destinations in one region. It is to ensure equity between partners, maximise benefits, and publicise the benefits of the process. Evidence for the need for effective governance comes from the now abundant experience obtained from efforts to implement sustainable tourism strategies (Bramwell, 2011; Bramwell & Lane, 1993; Bramwell et al., 2017). To conclude: crowdfunding for a circular economy in tourism has the potential to raise essential funds for SMEs that cannot easily be accessed through more conventional financing options, but as in using every funding channel, it requires time and resources to be successful. This white paper provides initial guidance to tourism entrepreneurs that are seeking to engage in fundraising for their circular projects.
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White paper: Circular tourism and support from local authorities The white paper proposes six strategic steps for local authorities to enable the tourism sector transition to a circular economy in coastal destinations. The steps draw from the experience of the EU 2 Seas FACET project as well as relevant examples from other destinations. The six steps: 1: Develop a local integrated vision and strategy for a circular economy 2: Support the creation of a regulatory conducive environment for a circular economy 3: Facilitate the creation of transition communities for a circular economy 4: Engage pro-actively and provide technical support for a circular economy 5: Enhance circular economy adoption through financing 6: Celebrate and demonstrate success The six steps help integrate a common circular economy vision and targets at the local level through the participation of stakeholders. Moreover, they guide the facilitation of a conducive regulatory environment, a detailed understanding of the local barriers to a circular economy and the design of a transition framework within which tourism entrepreneurs are supported from the technical, financial, and social perspectives. The six steps also show how the local authorities – through actively liaising with financial institutions – can alleviate the financial barriers faced by tourism businesses when seeking to adopt circular solutions. Finally, the steps highlight the importance of celebrating successes to allow businesses to inspire other businesses through communication mechanisms that enhance not only the circular solutions that have been implemented but also the short and long-term benefits for the entrepreneurs involved. These successes can feedback to enhance the local environment and infrastructure to further accelerate the adoption and diffusion of innovative circular economy practices, as well as, over the longer term, embolden circular economy visions and targets in other local areas and destinations.
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This paper introduces the Special Issue on slum tourism with a reflection on the state of the art on this new area of tourism research. After a review of the literature we discuss the breadth of research that was presented at the conference 'Destination Slum', the first international conference on slum tourism. Identifying various dimensions, as well as similarities and differences, in slum tourism in different parts of the world, we contest that slum tourism has evolved from being practised at only a limited number of places into a truly global phenomenon which now is performed on five continents. Equally the variety of services and ways in which tourists visit the slums has increased.The widening scope and diversity of slum tourism is clearly reflected in the variety of papers presented at the conference and in this Special Issue. Whilst academic discussion on the theme is evolving rapidly, slum tourism is still a relatively young area of research. Most papers at the conference and, indeed, most slum tourism research as a whole appears to remain focused on understanding issues of representation, often concentrating on a reflection of slum tourists rather than tourism. Aspects, such as the position of local people, remain underexposed as well as empirical work on the actual practice of slum tourism. To address these issues, we set out a research agenda in the final part of the article with potential avenues for future research to further the knowledge on slum tourism.
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The general aim of this research project has been to examine this phenomenon of tourism flow switching and consider the factors driving the geopolitical instability that can compromise destination security. On a more practical level the research has also examined what the reactions of Dutch tourists are to security threats affecting their tourism decisions and looked at the development of preventive measures against attacks by destinations and travel organisations. Finally, the research on the regional geopolitics of the MENA and European areas have together with the attitudes of Dutch tourists towards destination security been used as inputs into a scenario planning process involving the steering group of tour operators who originally commissioned this research, as participants. This process has focussed on macro environmental analysis, identification of key uncertainties, and the development of resilient strategies for the future.
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Welcome City Lab is an innovation platform dedicated to urban tourism that includes the world’s first incubator specifically for this sector. It was created in July 2013 by Paris&Co, with the support of the City of Paris, BPI France, Paris Convention and Visitors Bureau, and the French General Directorate of Enterprise (DGE). Its other founding members are Atout France, the Caisse des Dépôts, the Conseil Départemental des Hauts-de-Seine, Galeries Lafayette, Groupe ADP, the Métropole du Grand Paris, Paris Inn Group, RATP Group, Sodexo and Viparis. The innovation platform offers start-ups and players in the tourist sector a full range of services: an incubator, a place for networking, discussions and co-working, a test platform and a monitoring unit.
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In a matter of weeks last year, discussions regarding tourism in cities changed from how to deal with overtourism to how to deal with ‘no tourism’. Shortly thereafter, a great number of posts on LinkedIn, websites, and blogs highlighted how the tourism crisis that resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic could help reinvent tourism, into something more equal, inclusive, and sustainable. And so, online – at leastin mypersonalonlinebubble – there seemedtobe a real momentum for proper, transformative changes in (urban) tourism. How can we rebuild urban tourism in a sustainable and resilient way?
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This paper adopts a problematising review approach to examine the extent of mitigating climate change research in the sustainable tourism literature. As climate change has developed into an existential global environmental crisis and while tourism's emissions are still increasing, one would expect it to be at the heart of sustainable tourism research. However, from a corpus of 2573 journal articles featuring ‘sustainable tourism’ in their title, abstract, or keywords, only 6.5% covered climate change mitigation. Our critical content analysis of 35 of the most influential papers found that the current methods, scope and traditions of tourism research hamper effective and in-depth research into climate change. Transport, the greatest contributor to tourism's emissions, was mostly overlooked, and weak definitions of sustainability were common. Tight system boundaries, lack of common definitions and incomplete data within tourism studies appear to hamper assessing ways to mitigate tourism's contribution to climate change.
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This manifesto describes the notion of sustainable development according to its basic appeal for economic, social and environmental value-creation, together with the implications of its meaning at the level of the individual (the manager), the organisation (the business) and society. As sustainable tourism is focused on the long term, foresight is used to develop four scenarios for a sustainable tourism industry in 2040: “back to the seventies”, “captured in fear”, “unique in the world”, and “shoulders to the wheel”. The implications of the scenarios are mapped for four distinct types of organisational DNA: the blue organisation focusing on quality, professionalism and efficiency, the red organisation for whom challenge, vision and change are most important, the yellow organisation addressing energy, optimism and growth, and the green organisation which is led by care, tradition and security. The manifest concludes with strategic propositions for tourism organisations in each of the four business types and each of the four scenarios.
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