Sustainable Tourism Marketing: Doing Justice to Place, People and Pasts

While a few authors have attempted to build the notion of sustainable tourism marketing on the broad principles of environmental, social and economical sustainability as well as social marketing (Dinan and Sargeant, 2000), the approach remains vague in practice, ill-defined and subject to criticism by researchers and academics (e.g., Mowforth and Munt,1988). Jamal and Jamrozy (2006) argue that vital destination functions are fragmented rather than well-networked, so that marketing, land-use planning, resource use and conservation have tended to operate in isolation from each other and from societal values and resident/visitor needs; such a marketing-planning gap is no longer tenable. In this paper, we argue that a paradigm shift is needed towards an integrated, eco-cultural and ethical approach to sustainable tourism marketing. In this new framework, justice, equity and the well-being of diverse cultural groups are integral considerations in development, planning and delivery of tourism marketing initiatives. A case study of tourism-related impacts in the popular destinations of Cozumel, Mexico, illustrates some of the ethical and critical challenges to be considered in this task

Resisting Domination and “Cultural Imperialism” Through Direct Indigenous Participation in Historical Reenactments

Indigenous peoples have endured a complex history of socio-cultural, political, economic and environmental injustices worldwide, including in the United States. Tourism’s role is not exempt here, but practices related to heritage tourism can offer potential to resist and challenge discourses of domination and oppression. Few studies have examined the potential of events such as historical enactments to facilitate cultural recognition, reconciliation and justice for diverse groups and disadvantaged, minority populations. This study offers a preliminary exploration of the potential of heritage events to resist dominant narratives and “cultural imperialism”, focusing specifically on direct Indigenous participation and production of historical reenactments. We adopt a justice-oriented lens using theorist Iris Marion Young (2011) to examine the case of the Real Bird Reenactment of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, an annual event held by a family of the Crow Tribe on their land near the Little Bighorn battlefield in Montana, USA

Guiding principles for good governance of the smart destination

Smart tourism development has received tremendous attention worldwide, but relevant literature remains largely focused on the technological aspects of achieving the greater economic growth and efficiency through innovation, mobility, inclusion and environmental sustainability the smart paradigm promises. While well-being and experience enhancement are considered at the individual level of tourists and (sometimes) residents, guiding principles for achieving responsible smart tourism at the destination level are lacking. Addressing these concerns, this paper begins to explore justice and ethics principles that offer the potential to help facilitate good governance of sustainable smart destinations. By merging smart tourism goals with justice and ethics considerations the paper presents preliminary guidelines for theory building, public policy and development practice in the context of smart destinations governance, and future research in this area. Keywords: smart tourism; sustainable development; governance, ethics, justice, responsible touris

Fast-Thinking and Slow-Thinking: A Process Approach to Understand Situated Tourist Experiences

Situated tourist experiences are encounters among tourists and experience-providers that occur at specific places and times. Such encounters are ordinarily staged by providers to optimize the probability of positive tourist experiences. Interpretive talks, dining experiences, sporting events, theatrical performances, concerts, and museum visits are examples. We propose a process-based, “Situated Tourist Experience ” (STE) framework to describe the flow of tourists ’ immediate conscious experiences during these encounters. Our framework is grounded in interdisciplinary literature on attention, immediate conscious experience, tourism experience, engagement, mindfulness, motivation, emotion, and satisfaction (e.g., Csikszentmihalyi and Csikszentmihaly

Academic activism in tourism studies:Critical Narratives from Four Researchers

A climate of neoliberalism challenges the work of scholars whose research focuses on societal well-being through embedded community research and critical analysis of public policy, planning, and industry practices, what we call academic activism. This article draws on the autoethnographic insights and critical narratives of four tourism scholars to describe and analyze in a systematic manner the experiences of these researchers each engaged in what they consider to be academic activism. Our aim is to bring into focus and raise as matters of concern the future of tourism research in the neoliberal university and the need for greater critical and reflexive engagement by researchers in their positionality and agency. Although the contexts in which we work and our experiences differ greatly, the article identifies common themes, challenges, and opportunities within our approaches to research and action. Four emergent themes arose through the narrative analysis that helped to structure insights and findings: experiential journeys that shaped our current academic positionality and philosophical approaches to research and practice; a preference for embedded situated methodologies; a reflexive understanding of our political positioning; and a critical situated approach to understanding the external influences upon our research and strivings to contribute to the public good. The article raises challenging questions on the meaning of tourism research and the "public good" in the neoliberal university, and what being an academic activist entails in this context.</jats:p

Monitoring Structured Experiences during Youth Programs: Development of Brief Measures of Perceived Value and Engagement

A brief questionnaire that can be used to routinely monitor the quality of structured experiences for youth is discussed in this paper. Structured experiences are discrete periods of time in which youth gather for activity under the supervision of adult or youth leaders.  Four-item measures of perceived value and engagement were created.  A questionnaire including these measures along with items from the 4-H Common Measures was administered to 219 youth from 11 4-H clubs.  Data were analyzed for evidence of reliability and validity.  Alpha reliability estimates were .82 and .71 for the two multiple-item monitoring instruments.  Correlations (validity coefficients) ranged from .48 to .61. Multiple regression results were consistent with predictions.  Significant relations were found between perceived value, engagement, meaningfulness and supportiveness of social climate and safety of social climate.  Results thus suggest that these instruments may be appropriate for use in monitoring structured experiences for youth