This paper conceptualises tourist idleness as a temporary engagement in slow, slothful and entirely unstructured holiday activities. We aim to extend the studies that prioritise the modalities of holidays in nature that encourage simplified, slower, immersive experiences, and which celebrate mindfulness, slowness and stillness as part of a tourist journey. In framing idleness as a relaxing, creative and recuperative holiday practice, we suggest that creating places of otium which encourage ‘doing nothing’ can in many ways enhance tourist wellbeing. To this end, we discuss the significance of spatial, temporal and existential elements of tourist idleness, whilst arguing that this ‘practice’ should be more celebrated in our modern, high-speed societies.
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The impacts of tourism on destinations and the perceptions of local communities have been a major concern both for the industry and research in the past decades. However, tourism planning has been mainly focused on traditions that promote the increase of tourism without taking under consideration the wellbeing of both residents and visitors. To develop a more sustainable tourism model, the inclusion of local residents in tourism decision-making is vital. However, this is not always possible due to structural, economic and socio-cultural restrictions that residents face resulting to their disempowerment. This study aims to explore and interpret the formal processes around tourism decision-making and community empowerment in urban settings. The research proposes a comparative study of three urban destinations in Europe (The Hague in the Netherlands, San Sebastian in Spain and, Ioannina in Greece) that experience similar degree of tourism growth. The proposed study will use a design-based approach in order to understand tourism decision-making and what empowers or disempowers community participation within the destinations. Based on the findings of primary and secondary data, a community empowerment model will be applied in one the destinations as a pilot for resident engagement in tourism planning. The evaluation of the pilot will allow for an optimized model to be created with implications for tourism planning at a local level that can contribute to sustainable destinations that safeguard the interests of local residents and tourists.
De forse groei van het toerisme zorgt niet alleen voor economische vooruitgang, maar leidt ook tot negatieve effecten op milieu, sociaal-cultureel en economisch gebied van bestemmingen. Zo draagt de toeristische sector substantieel bij aan milieuschade en is wereldwijd verantwoordelijk voor 5% van de CO2-uitstoot. Vanuit de sector zijn diverse initiatieven genomen om te verduurzamen. Een veelgebruikte methode om toerisme duurzamer te maken, is om toeristische producten te onderwerpen aan een duurzaamheidsassessment, veelal leidend tot een keurmerk. Doel van deze assessments is om bestemmingen ertoe aan te zetten om tot duurzamere prestaties te komen en consumenten te prikkelen om duurzame toeristische keuzes te maken. Tot op heden blijken duurzaamheidsassessments in het toerisme niet succesvol. Dit is onder andere te wijten aan de geringe deelname aan en de beperkte interesse voor de assessments van de bedrijven in de sector. Het uitvoeren van assessments kost hen te veel tijd en moeite, en de toegevoegde waarde ervan is onduidelijk. Bovendien leiden de keurmerken nauwelijks tot gedragsverandering bij de beperkte groep in duurzaamheid geïnteresseerde eindgebruikers. Daarnaast is er een probleem met de inhoud van de assessments zelf: de gevolgen van het vervoer naar de bestemming worden niet meegenomen, terwijl juist dit element vaak doorslaggevend is in het bepalen van de omvang van de ecologische voetafdruk van een reis. SASTDes is gericht op het aanpakken van deze sleutelproblemen in de keten van duurzaamheidsassessments voor toeristische bestemmingen, met als doel om de tijdsinvestering te beperken en de branding en marketing van duurzame bestemmingen mogelijk te maken. Om aan de bovengenoemde knelpunten een antwoord te kunnen bieden, is door NHTV en 10 andere deelnemende partijen (o.a. TUI, WUR, Bookdifferent en de gemeente Breda) de volgende centrale onderzoeksvraag geformuleerd: ‘Op welke manier kan duurzaamheidsassessment effectief en efficiënt bijdragen aan de verduurzaming van aanbod en duurzame ontwikkeling van toeristische bestemmingen?’
Client: Taskforce for Applied Research (SIA), part of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), with funding from the ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW)Funder: RAAK (Regional Attention and Action for Knowledge circulation)This research is co-funded by the Taskforce for Applied Research (SIA), part of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), under the RAAK scheme.Project SASTDes aimed to resolve key issues in the sustainability assessment process of tourism destinations, with the objective to reduce the costs of assessments both in time and money, and to use the results of assessments for destination branding and marketing. The project’s core research question was: ‘How can sustainability assessments effectively and efficiently contribute to the sustainable development of tourism destinations and tourism products?’ All 7 work packages of this project were ultimately geared towards the construction of the SASTDes tool, an application enabling all elements of a destination sustainability assessment, with which DMOs can integrate sustainability into their strategic and operational management. All the project’s accomplishments are described in the Project Overview report that can be downloaded on this page. See under Research Output for individual reports.The consortium was led by BUas’ Centre for Sustainability, Tourism and Transport (CSTT). Knowledge partners were BUas’ associate professorships Sustainable Business Models (SBM) and Leisure and Tourism Experiences, Wageningen Environmental Research (WENR), part of Wageningen University & Research (WUR), and the associate professorship Data Science & ICT of Avans University of Applied Sciences. The municipalities of Breda, Goeree-Overflakkee and Schouwen-Duiveland, as well as Visit Zuid-Limburg, joined as destination partners. Tourism industry partners and NGO’s were Green Destinations, Follow, TUI Benelux, SeaGoingGreen, Fair Sayari, ECEAT, Treinreiswinkel, and bookdifferent.com.
