Tourism and final wish making: the discourse of terminal illness and travel

This paper identifies a new discourse about tourism, that of final wish making. The website communications of charitable foundations whose dedicated purpose is to grant final wishes for adults with a terminal illness and their families were examined using critical discourse analysis. Specifically, the aim of this study was to understand how these charitable organisations construct, communicate and mediate meanings around terminal illness and travel for these individuals. Our study found that, promoted as a final wish in one’s life, tourism is framed as a transformational concept that is beneficial in the imminent time before death, as a legacy for life, and after death. Our analysis indicated implications around the memory-making potential of tourism and the differential power relations between final wish organisers and vulnerable individuals with a terminal illness. The paper calls for further research exploring the marginalisation of the terminally ill through tourism, but equally the potential of tourism to include the most vulnerable tourists in their final days

Fear of Flying: A Critical Approach

Fear of flying (aviophobia) is not an uncommon experience yet the consequences can be debilitating especially for those whose anxiety precludes them from travel. In this paper we consider different approaches to fear of flying and report the experiences of a passenger with such fear. We firstly examine the conventional mental health approach which focusses on psychopathology and situates the problem, the impairment, with the person. We then suggest taking a critical sociocultural perspective which stresses the intersubjective nature of the construction of emotion where our understanding of safety and danger (inherent in fear) is the consequence of collective agreement. We suggest benefits in turning the gaze beyond the individual to the airline industry and media to understand the construction of fear. We raise the issue of social justice especially where individuals are prevented from engaging in air travel due to severe anxiet

Taking a walk: the female tourist experience

This feminist, qualitative study explores the experiences of female tourists who like to walk during their holiday. The findings highlight that women’s full access to the benefits of walking whilst on holiday are constrained by their feelings of vulnerability and their perceptions of possible risk if walking alone, particularly at night and in isolated spaces. In order to cope with perceived risk, participants employed a number of safeguarding and self-surveillance strategies. This study therefore supports other research on female tourists that highlight the differences among male and female tourist experiences, and that point to the measures women take to keep themselves safe

Community Hospitality: Improving Advocacy and Support for Refugees

When refugees are resettled into a destination, not-for-profit organisations offer frontline services to ease refugees’ experiences of trauma and marginalisation, providing advocacy and welcome through reception processes, translation services and multicultural centres. These organisations facilitate, bridge and negotiate the former refugees’ daily experiences of vulnerability, trauma, resilience, inclusion and hostility in a climate of limited resourcing. The degree and effectiveness of welcome given by these service organisations is of importance to how quickly refugees feel they belong and can settle quickly in their new society. Adopting the framework of ‘community hospitality’, this paper presents the findings of original research conducted with 34 not-for-profit organisations in New Zealand. Ketso, a creative, participatory tool was used as a community engagement method. The results indicate how these not-for profit organisations felt the welcome, advocacy and support for former refugees could be better organised to support the settlement process. The barriers and challenges to the provision of community hospitality by community organisations are discussed, and priorities identified to improve the refugee resettlement process and outcomes

A Critical Consideration of LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® Methodology for Tourism Studies

In recent decade tourism researches turned their attention to creative qualitative methodologies to gain the deeper understandings of tourism phenomena. Despite the considerable body of research focusing on creative methodologies there is a need to challenge and creatively disrupt conventional methodological approaches as they are criticised for their inability to be participant driven, capture the co-construction of research context or to address the impact of wider social dynamics to knowledge creation in tourism studies. Based on our research focused on host–guests experiences participating in the World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF) programme in New Zealand we provide a critical consideration of LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® for tourism studies. LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® is a communication tool aimed at developing creative thinking through building metaphors around identities and experiences using LEGO® bricks. To demonstrate how the method can be used in tourism studies, we draw on examples from three LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® workshops to illustrate the benefits and challenges of this methodological approach. LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® offered a metaphorical way for participants to construct creative artefacts and explain their ideal WWOOFing experience, representing sometimes complex, entrenched and emotional issues, and relationships that may have been difficult to express via traditional methods. The method enables participant driven, co-production of knowledge in a playful, free-flowing way to foster creative thinking, meanings and possible solutions. The method helps participants creatively communicate complex and sensitive issues, especially around their relationships – to objects, landscapes, people and identities – aspects that may otherwise be silenced by traditional research methods. As a novel method LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® provides opportunities for researchers who want to gain a deeper understanding of the social dimensions of tourism, to co-create spaces for knowledge exchange and develop an in-depth understanding of socially constructed relationships and realities

Experiences of tourists with intellectual disabilities: A phenomenological approach

This paper aims to explore ways in which adults with intellectual disabilities experience tourism. The study applies phenomenology and draws on in-depth interviews with participants with intellectual disabilities focusing on their lived experiences of tourism. The tourism experience was significant and meaningful to the participants, in that tourism provided a sense of ‘normality,’ encouraged self-efficacy, and strengthened relational connections. This paper advances theory by conceptualising the nature of the tourism experience through the authentic voices and lived experiences of adults with intellectual disabilities. This lens of intellectual disability addresses a scarcity of representation in existing tourism scholarship, augmenting and advancing inclusive understandings of tourism experiences for these individuals with disabilities

Enabling the language of accessible tourism

© 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. The growing body of literature on “accessible tourism” lacks a critical scholarly debate around its specific language use and nomenclatures. To fill this gap, this paper provides a first examination of language. Language provides a unique capability to resist, strengthen and reframe identities of individuals and groups, yet can also reinforce, weaken and perpetuate dominant worldviews of disability. A content analysis examined previous accessible tourism literature with results illustrating that diversity exists amongst the varying terminologies adopted by scholars. Terms were employed loosely, inconsistently and interchangeably, euphemistically with erroneous understandings and nuances. The paper concludes with critical discussion about the power of researchers to (re) produce oppression through language that maligns and misrepresents, or to (re) conceptualise and (re) construct the world we live in with liberating language that facilitates positive social change