Has tourism had its day?

Destination overcrowding is unpleasant for tourists and locals alike. We need to rethink our holidays.
an article by Freya Higgins-Desbiolles for the RSA Journal Issue 2 (2019) [via Medium]



Tourism and tourists are getting bad press. Complaints about the impact of backpackers in Asia, a ‘traffic jam’ of climbers on Everest, a mega cruise ship slamming into a Venetian wharf, and anti-tourism backlashes in Barcelona and Amsterdam suggest tourism has reached boiling point. But disdain for tourists has a long pedigree, at least as far back as the birth of mass tourism in the 1850s with Thomas Cook Tours in Europe.

With growing anxiety around climate change and mounting social tensions, is it now time to ask whether global tourism has had its day? At the heart of this tension is the number of countries that rely on tourism for their economic development and the sheer volume of tourists that now transit the globe: there were some 1.4 billion international trips in 2018.

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New online travel guide opens up UK attractions for accessible travel

an article by Tristram Parker in E-ACCESS BULLETIN

A comprehensive publication detailing access facilities at venues and attractions across the UK has been released digitally by travel guides company Rough Guides and made available for free.

‘The Rough Guide to Accessible Britain’ aims to help people with a range of access requirements plans trips around the UK. The newly updated seventh version of the guide features specific information for people with autism and cognitive conditions.

A wide variety of attractions, sights and cultural hotspots around Britain are covered in over 180 reviews, including museums and galleries, coastal trails, sports and activities centres, animal sanctuaries and zoos, markets and historical landmarks. The guide states that every venue has been reviewed by a team of writers who either have a disability or have visited the venue with someone who has a disability.

Reviews feature a summary of each venue and its highlights, and as the guide’s introduction explains, each review also includes “details about facilities for disabled visitors, plus ideas for places to eat on site or nearby”. Separate ‘town reviews’ explore access and attractions in different UK regions.

Venue facilities are flagged up, including facilities for those with mobility impairments, facilities for people who are blind or visually impaired, wheelchair access, guide dog access, accessible toilets and BSL (British Sign Language) interpreters.

The authors also worked with specialist organisations, including the National Autistic Society, to highlight features for people with autism and cognitive conditions, such as quiet spaces and ‘sensory stories’ for children.

‘The Rough Guide to Accessible Britain’ is available to view or download for free at Motability.co.uk, a vehicle and wheelchair lease scheme for people with disabilities.

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Terrorism, Trust and Tourism

an article by Susanne Jensen (Idea2action, Hobro, Denmark) and Gert Tinggaard Svendsen (Aarhus University, Denmark) published in Issues in Social Science Volume 5 Number 2 2017

Abstract

How does terrorism affect social trust and tourism?

The rising number of terrorist attacks in Western Europe has caused safety problems not only for local citizens but also for tourists. In fact, terrorists challenge the formal violence monopoly of the state thus creating a sense of anarchy and distrust.

Social trust is about trusting strangers, so when less predictable behaviour occurs in, a given country, people become more careful as they tend to trust most other people less.

An interesting case for future research is Scandinavia as the level of terrorism is still low and, at the same time, Scandinavia can record most social trust in the world meaning a competitive advantage when attracting tourists. Arguably, a double dividend is created from fighting terrorism, namely more social trust accumulated and more tourists attracted.

Future research should therefore try to further test our model by both quantitative and qualitative methods, for example by undertaking extensive comparative studies between Scandinavia and other countries with more terrorism and less trust.

Full text (PDF 9pp)

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Are international students tourists?

an article by Aliyu Olayemi Abdullateef and Aliyu Bukola Biodun (affiliation(s) not known) published in International Journal of Business and Globalisation (IJBG), Volume 13 Number 3 (2014)

Abstract

This paper theoretically explores the inconsistencies in the definition and composition of inbound tourists.

A detailed review of existing literature was conducted to establish the evidence in support of the inclusion of foreign students as part of inbound tourists.

The three most obvious consequences are cross-border movement, economic impacts and socio-cultural consequences. These evidences in support of foreign students as inbound tourists were extracted from both the academic and industry reports where foreign students are regarded as a significant part of inbound tourist source of revenue through foreign exchange earnings. Thus, confirming their economic impact on the host country through living costs, payment of tuition fees and travelling expenses.

Notable among their reasons for travelling is to relax, have fun, chill out, and participate with friends in sightseeing. A major implication in this paper is that it has availed tourist researchers the opportunities to use foreign students as potential respondents in inbound tourist research.

It concludes with some recommendations for future researches.

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