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.
MULTIFILE
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.
MULTIFILE
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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The primary objective of the project is to identify policies for the transformation of the Norwegian tourism sector to become resilient to climate change and carbon risks; to maintain and develop its economic benefits; and to significantly reduce its emissions-intensity per unit of economic output. Collaborative partnersStiftinga Vestlandforsking, Stiftelsen Handelshoyskolen, Stat Sentralbyra, Norges Handelshoyskole, Stiftelsen Nordlandsforskning, Fjord Norge, Hurtigruten, Neroyfjorden Verdsarvpark, Uni Waterloo, Uni Queensland, Desinasjon Voss, Stift Geirangerfjorden Verdsarv, Hogskulen Pa Vestlandet.
The Hospitality, Tourism, Innovation & Technology Experts Network (HTIT-EN) is a pivotal initiative aimed at unlocking societal impact potential. The Dutch hospitality and tourism sector, which employs over half a million individuals and annually hosts more than 40 million guests, ranks as the Netherlands’ 8th largest economic sector. However, this sector faces numerous challenges, including the uncertain impact of emerging technologies and issues such as unethical behavior, workforce attrition, and staff shortages, which have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The advent of emerging technologies like service robots, immersive experiences, and artificial intelligence has brought the sector to a critical juncture. These innovations pose significant disruptions, challenging the traditional concept of hospitality and questioning the positive societal impact in terms of ethical considerations, inclusivity, affordability, and data privacy.Strategically positioned to address these challenges, HTIT-EN focuses on leveraging emerging technologies to create impactful scenarios and shape the future of hospitality and tourism. Our motivation stems from the sector’s societal importance and its continuous influence on our daily lives. By harnessing technology and innovation, we aim to tackle industry-specific issues and extend the positive societal impact to related human-centered service industries.The overarching mission of HTIT-EN is to empower the Dutch Hospitality and Tourism sector to serve as a driving force for technology-enabled societal impact. The primary objective is to align research activities and promote collaboration. Key objectives include bringing together leading professors specializing in technology-driven impact within the hospitality and tourism sector, initiating research projects in line with a shared research agenda and in collaboration with local and international industry partners, and collaboratively developing expertise in emerging technologies that empower the role of hospitality and tourism as catalysts for societal impact. This endeavor contributes to the development and acceleration of the Knowledge and Innovation Agenda (KIA) ‘Key technologies’ & ‘Digitalization’. The aim is to foster an excellent reputation for Dutch hospitality and tourism as a global leader in technology-driven societal impact.We have strong support from CELTH, the Centre of Expertise within the domain of leisure, tourism and hospitality for the overall ambitions of the research project.Societal issueThe HTIT-EN project bridges societal importance and cross-cutting issues in the tourism and hospitality sectors. It’s fueled by the ambition to leverage emerging technologies to tackle industry-specific challenges, including knowledge and skills gaps, labor shortages and replacements, and evolving consumer expectations.Benefit to societyThe platform brings together professors and researchers from MBO, HBO and WO knowledge institutes as well as diverse set of professional partners to stimulate collaboration, align research lines and establish joint a joint research agenda on how technology-driven impact may become a catalyst within hospitality and tourism.
HTIT-EN (Hospitality, Tourism, Innovation & Technology Experts Network) unites professors and researchers from five leading academies in hospitality and tourism (Hotelschool The Hague, Hotel Management School Maastricht / Zuyd, Breda University of Applied Sciences, Saxion Hogeschool, NHL Stenden). Our primary goal is to coordinate efforts in setting a joint research agenda, focused on the overall question: "How can the Dutch hospitality and tourism sector, which has a profound societal presence and encompasses a diverse range of workers and stakeholders, leverage its transversal character to generate extensive societal impact through the utilization of emerging technological innovations?" Early industry adoption of emerging technologies, including robotics, immersive experiences, and artificial intelligence, make hospitality and tourism ideal contexts to serve as a catalyst for innovation and societal impact. By integrating complementary expertise of the leading professors in areas like strategic foresight, disruptive transformations, technology management, and digital transformation and by engaging in collaboration with external knowledge institutions (MBO, HBO, WO), the Centre of Expertise Leisure, Tourism & Hospitality, business professionals, and industry associations, our vision is to acknowledge the hospitality and tourism industry as a dynamic basis for generating technology-driven, positive societal change. HTIT-EN's ultimate goal is to rise to the status of a globally renowned knowledge platform, specializing in technological innovation within the domain of hospitality and tourism, within the next 5 years. To achieve this aspiration, we are committed to fostering collaboration and aligning expertise across the participating institutions, as well as extending an invitation to additional partners from both the practical and academic fields related to this network. This collaborative effort will enable us to leverage each other’s expertise and resources and fully utilize the transversal characteristics of the Dutch tourism and hospitality industry, developing it to a catalyst for technology-driven innovation with wide and lasting societal implications across the Netherlands.
