1. Post-humanism, ethics, sustainable future and work

Multispecies communities in tourism

Title: Multispecies communities in tourism 

Organizers: Dr. Hindertje (Hin) Hoarau-Heemstra, Professor Dr. Carol Kline and 
Dr. Emily Höckert


This session joins the ongoing relational and posthuman turns in tourism studies, that recognise and call attention to the agency and wellbeing of non-human actors – such as non-human animals, plants, rocks, elves – in tourism settings. It draws inspiration from scholarly debates that question human exceptionalism and dichotomies between culture/nature, self/other, and focusses on questions of justice and equity in multispecies communities. 

The purpose of the session is to bring together scholars interested in exploring more-than-human perspectives and enrichening the post-humanist discussions in tourism research. The session welcomes research on governmental, managerial, practical, ethical, philosophical, spatial or sustainable aspects of tourism in multispecies communities. We also hope to dive into the questions of animal welfare and our recognition of animals as sentient beings with the ability to feel pleasure and pain in situations where many tourist activities continue to exploit and mistreat other than human animals. The session is also open to methodological reflections, thought provoking narratives, ethical concerns of other than humans in tourism, advantages for other than humans to be involved in tourism, otherness in tourism in general, the role of place for non-human labour in tourism (marine destinations, national parks, cities etc.) and representation of other than humans in tourism.
 
The outcome of this session is an overall discussion of ways in which multispecies communities shape, and are shaped the tourism phenomenon. We aim to gather scholars who are interested in researching more than human perspectives, and who would like to contribute to a platform of posthuman research in tourism. 

Dr. Hindertje (Hin) Hoarau-Heemstra,
Associate Professor,
Faculty of Social Sciences Nord University, Norway 

Professor Dr. Carol Kline,
Department of Management at Apalachian State University, USA 

Dr. Emily Höckert,
Senior Researcher, Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Lapland, Finland 

Please submit your abstract before 12th May 2023 through the submission system EasyChair https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=nsthr2023

Revisiting tourism ethics in a changing landsape

Title: Revisiting tourism ethics in a changing landscape

Organizers: Siamak Seyfi and Alberto Amore

Ethical and responsible consumption in tourism constitutes one of the targets of the UN Sustainable Development Goal 12 (responsible consumption and production) for 2030 (Glyptou, Amore and Adie, 2022). In the last years, there has been an increased pressure from consumers, interest groups, and media on social and environmental issues around tourism and how ethical and conscious consumption is expected to contribute towards more sustainable practices (Boluk, Cavaliere and Higgins-Desbiolles, 2019; Seyfi, Hall, Vo-Thanh & Zaman, 2022). Tourism is a complex social phenomenon in which different stakeholders participate and influence the practices of tourism. In such scenario, tourists have a crucial role to play in proactively influencing a much-needed change in the current processes and practices of tourism and sustainable development. Tourists' increasing awareness of environmental, human, and non-human animal rights in the production and consumption of commodities and services influence their travel and behaviors while on a holiday (e.g., Gössling et al., 2019). Nowadays, more than ever, tourist consumption plays a significant role in constructing personal identities and how individuals understand the broader societal and political ramifications of their choices (Seyfi, Sharifi-Tehrani, Hall & Vo-Thanh, 2023). The nexus between tourism and ethics is a well-explored research focus in the study of sustainable tourism practices. Ethical consumerism is an important feature of the global tourism system and ethics play an important role in shaping values, beliefs, perceptions, and behaviors of individuals, yet this key element is relatively overlooked or taken for granted in current tourism research. We argue that, in order to rethink tourism, a repositioning and a re-appraisal of the ethics of tourism is necessary.

The aim of this session is to offer a thorough exploration of the ethical consumerism phenomenon and help map out the current state of knowledge on ethical consumer actions within the tourism context. This session is expected to offer new insights to the ongoing discussion about the future of tourism and how to make it more sustainable, ethical and beneficial for all stakeholders involved. Participants who attend this session can expect to gain a deeper understanding of ethical tourism and the challenges it faces in the present as well as potential future directions. While we will consider any thematically relevant proposal, we are particularly interested in theoretical and empirical work as well as case studies on the following topics:

  • Ethical consumerism in tourism and the SDGs
  • The role of social media in promoting ethical consumerism in tourism
  • Leisure consumption and lifestyle political consumerism
  • Social, cultural and economic perspectives of ethical consumerism and tourism
  • The significance of intermestic issues: environment and human rights
  • Ethical consumerism and corporate social responsibility across tourism organizations
  • Emerging issues in ethical consumerism and tourism
  • Anthropogenic climate change, biodiversity and boycotts and their influence on ethical consumerism in tourism
  • Current and future directions of responsible leisure consumption

References:

Boluk, K. A., Cavaliere, C. T., & Higgins-Desbiolles, F. (2019). A critical framework for interrogating the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 2030 Agenda in tourism. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 27(7), pp. 847-864.

Glyptou, K., Amore, A. & Adie, B.A. (2022). From aspirations to applications: The SDGs and the role of indicators in the measurement of sustainable tourism. In A. Farmaki, L. Altinay & X. Font (ed), Planning and Managing Sustainability in Tourism: Empirical Studies, Best Practice Case and Theoretical Insights (pp. 13-25). Amsterdam: Springer. 

Gössling, S., Hanna, P., Higham, J., Cohen, S., & Hopkins, D. (2019). Can we fly less? Evaluating the ‘necessity’ of
air travel. Journal of Air Transport Management, 81, 101722.
Seyfi, S., Hall, C. M., Vo-Thanh, T., & Zaman, M. (2022). How does digital media engagement influence sustainability-driven political consumerism among Gen Z tourists? Journal of Sustainable Tourism, DOI: 10.1080/09669582.2022.2112588.  

Seyfi, S., Sharifi-Tehrani, M., Hall, C. M., & Vo-Thanh, T. (2023). Exploring the drivers of Gen Z tourists’ buycott behavior: a lifestyle politics perspective. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, DOI: 10.1080/09669582.2023.2166517. 

Siamak Seyfi
Geography Research Unit
University of Oulu, Finland
siamak.seyfi@oulu.fi

Alberto Amore
Geography Research Unit
University of Oulu, Finland
Alberto.amore@oulu.fi

Please submit your abstract before 12th May 2023 through the submission system EasyChair  https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=nsthr2023

Decent and Meaningful: Tourism and Hospitality Work in Sustainable Tourism Futures

Title: Decent and Meaningful: Tourism and Hospitality Work in Sustainable Tourism Futures  

Organizers (corresponding contributors: Anu Marju-Myllyaho and Tara Duncan):   
Anu Harju-Myllyaho, Mari Vähäkuopus, Sini Kestilä, Tara Duncan, Susanna Heldt Cassel, Maria Thulemark, Tone Therese Linge,  Olga Glerald , Åsa Helene Bakkevig Dagsland
  
Theme: Sustainability/social sustainability, labour, working life, tourism work, hospitality work, hr practices, meaningful work, research methods, SDG Goal 8  
 
This session intends to be two-fold. Firstly, and immediately below, is a call for papers for a ‘traditional’ paper session where we ask colleagues to critically and thoughtfully engage with the topics suggested. Secondly, we will host a workshop session where we call for engagement in intellectual activism following the lead of the GHRA (Global Hospitality Research Alliance) as we aim to work towards our critical research making a difference to society.   
 
Firstly, we invite submissions for a paper session that will discuss current challenges concerning the future of decent, meaningful, and socially sustainable tourism and hospitality work. The tourism and hospitality sectors continue to struggle with many issues including labour shortages, precarious working conditions, skills and competency incongruities, abuse and harassment issues and high levels of turnover. We know, for instance, that COVID-19 has had a definite, often negative, impact on tourism and hospitality labour, and amplified worklife challenges identified in previous decades of research.   
 
At the same time, working life is in constant transition. How we work and who is employed is ever-changing as, for example, people with broader cultural and demographic backgrounds, values and principles enter working life. More attention needs to be paid to employees possibilities of experiencing a sense of meaningfulness at work, yet with consideration to ethical structures and practices of the working community.   
 
The future is built on the realities of today and thus, a way to make progress is through the formation of alternative scenarios and (re)construction of (socially) sustainable futures. This demands critical discussion and scrutiny of the current state of tourism and hospitality research around work, employment and labour, its developments and the ability to deconstruct the realities of today.
  
We welcome active, critical, engaged presentations as part of this paper session. Topics for consideration might include, but are not limited to:   

  • Social sustainability and tourism/hospitality work

  • Meaningful work and career paths in tourism/hospitality 

  • Intersectional approaches to tourism/hospitality work  

  • Inhospitality workplaces: abuse, harassment and the treatment of staff  

  • Critical/alternative perspectives to meaningful tourism/hospitality work 

  • Work identities and work culture in tourism and hospitality 

  • Innovations in research methods  

  • Embodiment and performativity 

  • Precarity and the tourism/hospitality worker 

  • Affective labour and tourism/hospitality spaces  

 
The second part of this call will be for a workshop session which will build on the collection of papers presented in session(s) above. It will also utilise the impetus of the GHRA to bring together scholars and other interested parties to discuss how, in a Nordic context, our research, outputs and dissemination can be utilised to make a difference, specifically to tourism and hospitality workplaces. Thinking through ways in which we can employ multi-stakeholder engagement in our dissemination processes, this workshop will involve group activities, lively discussion and scenario planning to work towards tangible ways forward for students, academics and workers to engage, promote and ensure opportunities and possibilities for decent, meaningful and sustainable work in tourism and hospitality.

Anu Harju-Myllyaho, Lapland University of Applied Sciences
anu.harju-myllyaho@lapinamk.fi  

Mari Vähäkuopus, Lapland University of Applied Sciences
mari-vahakuopus@lapinamk.fi 
 
Sini Kestilä, Lapland University of Applied Sciences
sini.kestila@lapinamk.fi
  
Tara Duncan, Dalarna University
tdu@du.se
 
Susanna Heldt Cassel, Dalarna University
shc@du.se
  
Maria Thulemark, Dalarna University
mth@du.se
  
Tone Therese Linge, University of Stavanger
tone.linge@uis.no
  
Olga Glerald, University of Stavanger
olga.gjerlad@uis.no
  
Åsa Helene Bakkevig Dagsland, University of Stavanger,
aase-helene.b.dagsland@uis.no

Please submit your abstract before 12th May 2023 through the submission system EasyChair https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=nsthr2023 

Tourism Work and Workers: Seeking Dignified Labour out of Precariousness

Title: Tourism Work and Workers: Seeking Dignified Labour out of Precariousness 
 
Organizers: Dimitri Ioannides & Kristina Zampoukos (Mid Sweden University) 
 
In recent years, there has been a noticeable upswing of academics’ attention concerning work and workers in the tourism and hospitality sector. Researchers have focused, for instance, on themes such as: the (precarious) nature of tourism work; the geography of tourism work and workers; labour mobility in the tourism and hospitality sector; the gender and intersectionality dimensions of tourism employment; the organization (or not) of workers; stratification of employment within the tourism workplace; what counts as skills and knowledge within hospitality; and embodied labour in the tourism and hospitality sector (Booyens, 2022;  Jordhus-Lier & Underthun, 2015; McDowell & Bonner-Thompson, 2020; Zampoukos, 2021).  
 
Despite this growing volume of research, one area that remains relatively underexplored relates to the issue of tourism work and workers in the context of sustainability (Ioannides et al., 2021; Mooney et al., 2022). Specifically, despite ample rhetoric concerning the need to promote decent work in the tourism sector (e.g., based on the UN SDGs), what decent work actually entails is ill-defined. When it comes to the notion of dignity in the workplace, critics regularly lament that it is difficult to achieve this in an era of extreme deregulation, where workers’ rights have been systematically eroded (Booyens, 2022). Finally, it should not be forgotten that the Covid-19 pandemic exposed the extreme vulnerability of tourism workers on a global scale at an unprecedented level (Baum et al, 2020). Indeed, three years after the outbreak of the pandemic, many parts of the tourism and hospitality sector have struggled to replace a large part of the workforce made redundant because of drastic travel restrictions.  
 
In this session, we invite presentations related to offering fresh perspectives on the aforementioned topics, but we especially encourage submissions that  address the various challenges facing tourism and hospitality workers in the wake of the pandemic as well as economic crises; inflation and political instability, digitalization and novel practices related to the platform economy, as well as papers highlighting how, and under what circumstances, workers are able to act on/respond to the above matters. 
 
Taking a cue from the work currently being done in the Cowork4YOUTH project, we also invite submissions addressing the complexities related to employment and un(der)employment in tourism dependent regions. Thus, submissions to this session could encompass, but are not limited to, the following topics: 

  • Structural and regional challenges/opportunities in connection to tourism employment/unemployment/underemployment.
  • Worker agency: How and under what conditions are workers able to shape the geographies of which they are part. 
  • Decent and dignified labour in the lives of tourism and hospitality employees. 
  • The employment dimensions of the platform-based tourism/hospitality sector (e.g., food delivery
  • services, transport operations and short-term rentals). 
  • The social and spatial divisions of tourism and hospitality labour. 
  • Migrant labour: Mobility strategies and constrained mobilities. 
  • The knowledgeable tourism/hospitality worker – what skills and capacities are acknowledged and remunerated (and which remain in the shadows)?  

References 
Baum, T., Mooney, S. K., Robinson, R. N., & Solnet, D. (2020). COVID-19’s impact on the hospitality workforce–new crisis or amplification of the norm?. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 32(9), 2813-2829. doi.org/10.1108/IJCHM-042020-0314  
 
Booyens, I. (2022). Tourism’s development impacts: an appraisal of workplace issues, labour and human development. In A. Stoffelen & D. Ioannides (eds.) Handbook of Tourism Impacts: Social and Environmental Perspectives. Cheltenham, UK: Elgar. pp. 197-211 
 
Ioannides, D., Gyimóthy, S., & James, L. (2021). From liminal labor to decent work: A human-centered perspective on sustainable tourism employment. Sustainability, 13, 851 
 
Jordhus-Lier, D., & Underthun, A. (Eds.). (2014). A hospitable world? Organising work and workers in hotels and tourist resorts. Routledge. 
 
McDowell, L., & Bonner-Thompson, C. (2020). The other side of coastal towns: Young men’s precarious lives on the margins of England. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 52(5), 916-932. 
 
Mooney, S., Robinson, R., Solnet, D., & Baum, T. (2022). Rethinking tourism’s definition, scope and future of sustainable work and employment: Editorial for the Journal of Sustainable Tourism special issue on “locating workforce at the heart of sustainable tourism discourse”. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 30(12), 2707–2725. 
 
Zampoukos, K. (2021). The hospitable body at work—A research agenda. Gender, Work & Organization, 28(5), 1726–1740. 

Dimitri Ioannides
Mid Sweden University

Kristina Zampoukos
Mid Sweden University 
 

Please submit your abstract before 12th May 2023 through the submission system EasyChair https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=nsthr2023

2. Sustainable behaviour, consumption and marketing

Sustainable behaviour in tourism and hospitality

Title: Sustainable behaviour in tourism and hospitality

Organizers: Sarah Seidel, MA. and Femke Vrenegoor, MA. 

Tourism’s future greatly depends on its capacity to meet a growing demand without increasing its environmental footprint or its pressure on communities at the destination (UNWTO and UNDP, 2017). The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were established as a new global sustainable development agenda for 2030. Many of these 17 SDGs can be related to tourism and hospitality; such as sustainable consumption (goal 12), climate change (goal 13) or reduced inequalities (goal 10). In addition, nudging behaviour in hospitality and tourism can motivate people to consume less water (goal 6), to lower food waste (goal 2) and so on. CSR (interpreted as value creation on people, planet and profit) therefore can be connected to all SDGs.

The question therefore arises how to influence the behaviour of actors in the tourism supply chain (providers and consumers) to behave more sustainable to reach the SDGs by connecting to their values (egoistic, hedonic, biospheric, altruistic) and making those values more salient (Steg, 2016; Stern, Dietz & Guagnano, 1995). For example, tourists are more likely to consume local food when they are aware of the benefits for the locals and the local destination (Cavagnaro, 2018; Feldmann & Hamm, 2015). Other example: Altruistic values and biospheric values are prioritised by SME tourism entrepreneurs, even though entrepreneurship literature suggests that egoistic values are most dominant (Vrenegoor, 2023). How can consumers be nudged to make more sustainable choices? How to motivate providers to improve the sustainability of their offer?

This session is geared towards sharing research on influencing actors in the tourism supply chain to behave more sustainable (Steg, 2016) based on their values and motivations. Which opportunities are there to reach a sustainable future for tourism? How can behaviour be nudged by connecting to people’s values and motivators to achieve this sustainable future?

Examples of possible topics:

  • Nudging responsible tourist behaviour in protected areas or areas under high tourism pressure. (Examples include such as behaviour in the outdoors, signposting, hiking trails, natural or cultural heritage)
  • Choosing small scale local products during travel
  • Avoiding waste in the tourism or hospitality supply chain
  • Analysing motivations of providers to offer sustainable products in the tourism industry
  • Addressing values in marketing communications to nudge tourism stakeholders to buy sustainable goods

Key words: UN Sustainable Development Goals, sustainable behaviour, values, climate change, organisational/individual behaviour.

Sources:

Cavagnaro, E. (Ed.). (2018). Sustainable value creation in hospitality: Guests on earth. Goodfellow Publishers Ltd.

Feldmann, C., & Hamm, U. (2015). Consumers’ perceptions and preferences for local food: A review. Food quality and preference, 40, 152-164.

Steg, L. (2016). Values, norms, and intrinsic motivation to act proenvironmentally. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 41(1), 277-292.

Stern, P. C., Dietz, T., & Guagnano, G. A. (1995). The new ecological paradigm in social- psychological context. Environment and Behaviour, 27(6), pp. 723-743.

Vrenegoor, F. (2023). Author - last name, initials. (Year). Sustainable Tourism Entrepreneurs - Values, Motivations and Implemented Sustainability Measures [Doctoral dissertation, University of Groningen).

World Tourism Organization and United Nations Development Programme (2017). Tourism and the Sustainable Development Goals – Journey to 2030. Madrid: UNWTO.

 

Sarah Seidel, MA.
Academy of International Hospitality Research
Leeuwarden, the Netherlands
sarah.seidel@nhlstenden.com

Femke Vrenegoor, MA.
Academy of International Hospitality Research
Leeuwarden, the Netherlands
femke.vrenegoor@nhlstenden.com

Please submit your abstract before 12th May 2023 through the submission system EasyChair https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=nsthr2023

Rethinking Choise architecture interventions in tourism for a more sustainable future

Title: Rethinking Choice architecture interventions in tourism for a more sustainable future

Organizers: Jonathan Yachin, Marie Nowak

This session provides a platform to discuss the use of choice architecture interventions and green nudging as means to change consumer behaviour and reduce the environmental harm of tourism activities. Recent research demonstrates the effectiveness of practices such as introducing pledges (Albrecht & Raymond, 2021), reducing plate sizes (Kallbekken & Sælen, 2013), asking guests to opt-in to have their hotel rooms cleaned (Cvelbar et al., 2020) and providing instant feedback on energy use (Warren et al., 2017), in reducing negative externalities. The guiding notion is that people’s decision-making is contextually influenced. Thus, it is possible to manipulate (nudge) their behaviour by designing decision situations (Thaler & Sunstein, 2008). Respectively, green nudges are choice architecture interventions that promote pro-environmental behaviour. 
Nudging and choice architecture interventions provide an accessible explanation of human decision-making that is easy to adopt and relatively inexpensive to implement. However, we researchers should be careful not to subscribe to simplistic narratives but rather critically engage with these ideas to generate valuable knowledge for tourism practitioners and policymakers.
  
For this session, we welcome conceptual, methodological and empirical contributions that aim to advance our understanding of (non-exclusive list): 

  • how to implement green nudging in tourism and hospitality 
  • how to study choice architecture in tourism
  • how to adapt behavioural economic theories to tourism contexts
  • the shortcomings of choice architecture in tourism 
  • other theoretical and conceptual approaches to changing tourists’ behaviour 

Jonathan Yachin
Tourism Studies, School of Culture and Society, Dalarna University
jmy@du.se   

Marie Nowak, Co-chair
Tourism Studies, School of Culture and Society, Dalarna University 
Tourism Studies, Department of Economics, Geography, Law and Tourism, Mid Sweden University
mnw@du.se 

Please submit your abstract before 12th May 2023 through the submission system EasyChair https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=nsthr2023

Critical interventions into sustainable tourism promotion and consumption

Title: Critical interventions into sustainable tourism promotion and consumption

Organizers: Cecilia Cassinger, Monica Porzionato, Jan-Henrik Nilsson

Changing the discourse and practice of tourism is a pressing issue for the tourism and hospitality
industry. Tourism is typically understood as a consumptive oriented leisure practice standing
in a binary opposition to work and everyday life. In recent years the consumptive side of tourism
has been accentuated as low-cost airlines and online booking systems enable the
commodification of travel, mobility, and destinations. The negative consequences of mass
tourism consumption are vast including damaging effects on places in terms of their cultural
heritage, wildlife, climate, and social life. As a response, sustainability awareness has risen
among consumers, who are increasingly drawn to more sustainable travel options and to visit
green destinations.


In this regard, promotion of nature-based experiences as well as the integration of ecosystem
services in urban areas in terms of, for example, green infrastructure, have been proposed as
possible solutions for making tourism a more sustainable practice. Nevertheless, such solutions
could also be regarded as yet another way of commodifying nature for touristic purposes, thus
still contributing to the ongoing deterioration of social and ecological equilibria in and around
destinations. The challenge is how to maintain sustainable ecologies as they are transformed
into products and services for tourism consumption.


This thematic session addresses the theme of the conference on “Rethinking tourism for a
sustainable future” by examining the paradoxes, challenges, and possibilities of sustainable
tourism as modes promotion and consumption. The session invites conceptual and empirical
research papers that critically intervene in ongoing discussions on tourism as a cultural and
spatial phenomenon in the intersection of consumption, promotion, and sustainability. Crossdisciplinary
work and new modes of presenting research findings are encouraged.

Cecilia Cassinger
Department of Strategic Communication
Lund University, Sweden
Box 882, 251 08 Helsingborg
042-356525
cecilia.cassinger@isk.lu.se

Monica Porzionato
Department of Strategic Communication
Lund University, Sweden

Jan-Henrik Nilsson
Department of Service Studies
Lund University, Sweden

Please submit your abstract before 12th May 2023 through the submission system EasyChair https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=nsthr2023

3. Digitalisation for sustainable future

Airbnb hosts: Platform-based entrepreneurship and sustainable development in rural Nordic regions

Title: Airbnb hosts: Platorm-based entrepreneurship and sustainable development
in rural Nordic regions

Organizers: Birgit Leick, Guðrún Þóra Gunnarsdóttir, Vera Vilhjálmsdóttir and Susanne Gretzinger

Background and motivation for the session:
Airbnb-based accommodation provision based on entrepreneurial engagement of private households and businesses as hosts plays an important role for tourism development in urban places. During the past COVID-years, rural tourism has attracted significantly more travelers to particularly rural destinations, which also benefitted sharing-economy providers, such as Airbnb (Jang and Kim, 2022; Strømmen-Bakhtiar et al., 2020).

In rural regions, sharing-economy providers offer manifold advantages: for private households in rural regions, Airbnb represents a possible source of income for rural residents. Established small and large companies may also offer their accommodation services through the platorm to increase their visibility (Griggio and Oxenwärdh, 2021). However, to date, there exists a gap of knowledge about the role of Airbnb hosts in rural tourism and economic development, for instance, their motivations to become entrepreneurial and their contribution to regional development and sustainable development goals (exceptions are, e.g., Li et al., 2020; Falk et al., 2019).

Importantly, the activities of Airbnb hosts in Nordic rural regions are discussed controversially because of the effects on e.g. local housing markets. One recent example is some tourist locations on the Norwegian Lofoten Islands, which are characterised by overtourism and negative externalities due to Airbnb-based tourism during the high season (NRK, 5 February 2023).

Topics to be included in the special session:
The proposed session will be dedicated to the role of Airbnb in rural tourist destinations in the Nordic regions as a means to facilitate regional tourism entrepreneurship and support sustainable economic development. We welcome contributions to this topic that address the following questions:

  • How can private users benefit from Airbnb-based service provision to become entrepreneurial in Nordic rural regions?
  • What qualifies Airbnb hosts as rural tourism entrepreneurs?
  • What is a competitive advantage of Airbnb hosts in relation to other tourism providers (e.g., hotels, bed & breakfast pensions) in Nordic rural regions?
  • What motivates commercial tourism actors to provide services on Airbnb in Nordic rural regions?
  • Which barriers and regulations do Airbnb hosts face in rural Nordic regions?
  • Which consumption patterns do Airbnb hosts show in Nordic rural regions?
  • How do Airbnb hosts in Nordic rural regions address sustainability issues (e.g., environmental sustainability, social sustainability) with their activities?
  • Which role do Airbnb hosts play in regional tourist economics in Nordic rural regions?

Besides these topics, any other contributions dealing with Airbnb and Airbnb hosts in Nordic rural
regions are also welcome.

References:

Falk, M., Larpin, B. and Scaglione, M. (2019). The role of specific attributes in determining prices of Airbnb listings in rural and urban locations, International Journal of Hospitality Management, 83, 132-140.

Griggio, C. and Oxenwärdh, A. (2021). Human capital and sustainability challenges for Airbnb Bed and Breakfast lifestyle entrepreneurs. Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism, 21(3), 286-312.

Jang, S. and Kim, J. (2022). Remedying Airbnb COVID-19 disruption through tourism clusters and community resilience. Journal of Business Research, 139, 529-542.

Li, S., Fong, L. H. N., Zhang, C. X. and Chen, M. (2020). Investigating the motivations and constraints of Chinese peer-to-peer accommodation hosts, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 33. 305-326.

NRK (Norsk Kringkasting, Norwegian Radio and Television) [2023]. Mener Lofoten burde forby Airbnb: – Det blir ikke plass til å bo her. 5 February 2023. URL: https://www.nrk.no/nordland/hotelldirektor-i-svolvaer-i-lofoten-vil-forby-airbnb-1.16265303 (accessed 15 February 2023).

Strømmen-Bakhtiar, A., Vinogradov, E., Kvarum, M. K. and Antonsen, K. R. (2020). Airbnb contribution to rural development: the case of a remote Norwegian municipality. International Journal of Innovation in the Digital Economy (IJIDE), 11(2), 31-46.

Birgit Leick
University of South-Eastern Norway
School of Business/Department of Business and IT, Norway
birgit.leick@usn.no

Guðrún Þóra Gunnarsdóttir
Icelandic Tourism Research Centre
gudrunthora@rmf.is

Vera Vilhjálmsdóttir
Icelandic Tourism Research Centre, Iceland
verav@unak.is

Susanne Gretzinger
University of Southern Denmark
Department of Entrepreneurship and
Relationship Management Business-to-Business
Marketing and Supply Chain Management, Denmark.
sug@sam.sdu.dk

Please submit your abstract before 12th May 2023 through the submission system EasyChair https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=nsthr2023

 

Digitalisation and Technology in Tourism for a Sustainable Future

Title: Digitalisation and ICT in Tourism for a Sustainable Future 
 
Organizer: Konstantin Gridnevskiy
 
In the last decades, the interest in the fast-moving environment of digitalization has increased immensely and allowed an acceleration in innovation (Matt, 2022; Mostaghel et al., 2022). This readiness for digitalization, also referred to as e-readiness (Piman & Poldee, 2016), can be defined as the ability of “a country, region or entity (e.g., corporation) to utilize information and communication technologies for sustaining welfare and growth” (“What”, n.d., para. 2).  While this can be seen in many industries, tourism is one of the first sectors which aimed to digitalize processes and operations (The World Tourism Organization, n.d.). For example, self-service technologies (SSTs) have increasingly been used in tourism worldwide, with the aviation industry being the most advanced sector in terms of digitalization (Ivanov & Webster, 2019). Similarly, in the hospitality industry, digital technologies are becoming more widespread and are being implemented in an increasing number of hotels. The rapid advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies are also said to have major impacts on the industry. For travellers, AI can help to plan trips, book flight, get personalised recommendations and 24/7 customer support in a variety of languages. For airlines, hotels, and travel agencies, AI-powered features can help to update the cost of services in real-time, analyse guest preferences, and improve their marketing. All this can help destinations and organisations improve their resilience and reach a sustainable future. Or cannot they? 

While there are multiple advantages and positive examples of digitalisation and the use of ICT in tourism, there are also concerns that the technologies can (be used to) ‘manipulate’ their users as well as lead to inequality (Gretzel et al., 2020). In addition, a strong focus on technology instead of the context (i.e., values and meaning), within which it is used, can stand in the way of creating a sustainable smart destination (Fuchs & Sigala, 2022). 
 
Therefore, this session is meant to be a place to discuss various aspects of the use of ICT and digitalization in tourism, which can be both positive and negative, and how they can help to transform the current realities into a sustainable future.  
 
Examples of possible topics could include: 

  • Smart tourism and smart destinations 
  • Impacts of AI in tourism 
  • Customer and industry perspectives towards digitalization 
  • Transformative e-tourism strategies
  • Socio-technical nature of ICT in tourism.  

Key words: digitalization, AI in tourism, transformative e-tourism, smart destinations, smart tourism
 
References: 
Ivanov, S., & Webster, C. (2019). Robots, Artificial Intelligence and Service Automation in Travel, Tourism and Hospitality. Emerald Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1108/9781787566873
 
Fuchs, M., & Sigala, M. (2021). Strategic use of information technologies in tourism : A review and critique. In Z. Xiang, M. Fuchs, U. Gretzel, & W. Hoepken (Eds.), Handbook of e-Tourism (pp. 1109–1145). Springer Nature. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-48652-5_67
 
Gretzel, U. , Fuchs, M. , Baggio, R. , Hoepken, W. , Law, R. , Neidhardt, J. , Pesonen, J. , Zanker, M., & Xiang, Z. (2020). e-Tourism beyond COVID-19: A call for transformative research. Information Technology & Tourism, 22, 187-203. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40558-020-00181-3
 
Matt, D. T., Pedrini, G., Bonfanti, A., & Orzes, G. (2022, January). Industrial digitalization. A systematic literature review and research agenda. European Management Journal. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emj.2022.01.001
  
Mostaghel, R., Oghazi, P., Parida, V., & Sohrabpour, V. (2022, July). Digitalization driven retail business model innovation: Evaluation of past and avenues for future research trends. Journal of Business Research, 146, 134–145. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.03.072
  
Piman, S., & Poldee, W. (2016). A proposed for assessing hotel e-readiness for tourism in Southern Thailand. SHS Web of Conferences, 23, 02007. https://doi.org/10.1051/shsconf/20162302007 
 
What is e-readiness. (n.d.). IGI Global. https://www.igi-global.com/dictionary/e-readiness/8895  
The World Tourism Organization. (n.d.).  Digital transformation. UNWTO. https://www.unwto.org/digital-transformation 

Konstantin Gridnevskiy, MA.
Academy of Leisure and Tourism
NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences
Leeuwarden, the Netherlands
konstantin.gridnevskiy@nhlstenden.com

Please submit your abstract before 12th May 2023 through the submission system EasyChair  https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=nsthr2023

4. Sustainable tourism geographies

Resilience in places

Title: Resilience in places 

Organizers: Maria Månsson & Jörgen Eksell, Department of strategic communication, Lund University; Linda Lundmark, Department of Geography, Umeå University 
 
The tourism sector has been severely affected by a range of global disasters such as COVID-19, natural disasters, financial and political instability in the last couple of years. However, there are also ongoing slow changes, such as global warming, that affects the tourism sector in the long run. It is therefore no surprise that resilience has emerged as a key concept in the last couple of years in the field of tourism. Resilience research is developed from Hollings seminal work that introduced resilience in ecological systems to explore the resistance of natural systems to disturbances of natural or anthropogenic causes. Since then, resilience thinking has expanded to a broad range of contexts and perspectives beyond the ecological systems approach. However, there is no distinct definition of resilience, but it is usually addressed as the ability to adapt, respond, and deal effectively with change at an individual, organisational, destination or community level. 
  
There is a lack of research that address destination resilience especially including empirical approaches. In this session a destination is regarded as a place that could for example be a park, a city, a hotel, or a walking trail.  
 
Furthermore, it is argued that in order to advance knowledge about complex societal issues the focus need to be on the problem and the knowledge (disciplines) relevant for the problem more flexibly applied. This session therefore welcomes abstracts that address resilience in places from a range of perspectives, disciplines, and empirical contexts.  

Abstracts are therefore invited for, but not limited to, the following topics: 

  • Resilience in urban contexts 
  • Resilience in rural contexts 
  • Resilience and destination stakeholders  
  • Resilience and destination engagement 
  • Resilience and communication practice
  • Resilience and ecosystem services
  • Resilience, vulnerability, and risk 


Maria Månsson
Department of strategic communication
Lund University

Jörgen Eksell
Department of strategic communication
Lund University

Linda Lundmark
Department of Geography
Umeå University 

Please submit your abstract before 12th May 2023 through the submission system EasyChair

https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=nsthr2023

Re-thinking tourist landscapes in energy dependent economies

Title: Re-thinking tourist landscapes in energy dependent economies 
 
Organizers: Dr. Solène Prince, Dr. Tatiana Chekalina and Dr. Marianna Strzelecka 
 
With the urgent need to transition towards sustainable socio-technical systems, renewable energy technologies are expanding into landscapes worldwide. Of interest, their expansion in tourist destinations is changing the character of idyllic landscapes and their associated tourist experience, which challenges prevailing perceptions of tourism and regional development strategies built upon the production and consumption of cultural and natural authenticity. Specifically, renewable energy infrastructure in rural areas alarm tourism stakeholders who often believe that renewable energy infrastructure will impede tourism development by degrading the character of the landscape. While renewable energy technologies seek to redress unsustainable patterns of consumption and production that cause climate change and deplete resources in energy dependent economies, their localized impacts are felt and dealt with in different ways by various stakeholders. Arguably, a conceptualization of tourist landscapes that considers the multiple purposes and contested meanings that spaces are acquiring during sustainable energy transitions is needed to re-imagine the future of tourism development.  
 
In this session, we are interested in presentations that explore tourism futures in the context of energy dependency and the pressing need for sustainable energy transitions. What does energy dependency and the transition towards renewable energy production mean for tourism development? How should we think of tourist landscapes considering the expansion of renewable energy technologies? With our session, we seek to critically address the multiple social, economic, political, and cultural challenges related to the production of energy in tourist landscapes. What does this expansion mean for the development of tourism products, the consumption of landscapes and the tourist experience? How can regional development find a balance between the prospects for sustainable tourism and renewable energy production when tourist landscapes are reconfigured into sites of renewable resource harnessing and energy production? We also welcome presentations that critically engage with questions surrounding responsible tourism mobilities and/or new forms of commodification in energy dependent economies. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, aspects of energy tourism, energy consumption in tourism, sustainable energy innovations at destinations, destinations and landscapes of renewable energy, tourist attitudes related to energy consumption and renewable energy development. 
 
 
Solène Prince   
School of Business and Economics 
Linnaeus University, Kalmar
solene.prince@lnu.se  

Tatiana Chekalina  
European Tourism Research institute 
Mid-Sweden University, Östersund 
tatiana.chekalina@miun.se 
 
Marianna Strzelecka 
School of Business and Economics 
Linnaeus University, Kalmar
marianna.strzelecka@lnu.se  

 

Please submit your abstract before 12th May 2023 through the submission system EasyChair  https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=nsthr2023

City tourism development for a sustainable future

Title: City tourism development for a sustainable future based on responsible tourist behaviour and institutional governance arrangements

Organizers: Göran Andersson and Saeid Abbasian

City tourism functions as engine behind tourism industry’s development globally and contributes significantly to the development of cities and life conditions of their inhabitants. This raises the question how to face this increased demand and justifies the need for a sustainable city tourism development that satisfies both tourists, host destinations/locales and the industry in accordance with UN’s sustainability agenda. In order to understand responsible tourist behaviour in cities, there is a discussion how to use the concept of transformative experience and behaviour change.

 
Although increased tourism in cities has created new opportunities and prosperity for locales, it has also given rise to negative impacts. A series of psychosocial and ecological environmental problems have emerged at global level during recent decades and in relationship with increased tourism, and they are more visible in urban areas, particularly in major city regions worldwide. Among them pollution in air, water and soil, Overtourism, increased criminality and risk of terrorism, traffic congestion, can be mentioned as examples. One might ask herself: what responsibility tourists have in this regard? Or for this sake what responsibility other important stakeholders have. 

 
Due to the growing cities in the world and challenges mentioned above there is a debate how to plan a new city structure. One way is to organise regional city centres with specific functions supported by tourism development. It is also essential to understand the border for these regional centres and city centres. In order to manage these centres there are new ways of destination governance using the quadruple-helix principle. This sort of institutional governance arrangements can be a source of common welfare for the whole society. Depending on sort of destination character, such as local or regional, destinations can be organised in different destination management organisations (DMO). 


Here, also the concept of Smart city (Smart City Sweden, 2023) is discussed for a new mode of urban planning and management. One can ask how this governance can be a source of creativity and innovation in city destinations. Mobility is one important aspect in this concept, where the city be gateways from where visitors both start and experience their journey. Furthermore, smartphones services (apps) and new IT-solutions can support urban planning in general and planning of visitor streams, where leisure activities must be better planned for both residents and tourists.

 
Göran Andersson
Associate professor at Tourism Studies
Södertörn University
goran.andersson@sh.se

Saeid Abbasian
Associate professor at Tourism Studies
Södertörn University
saeid.abbasian@sh.se 

 

Please submit your abstract before 12th May 2023 through the submission system EasyChair  https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=nsthr2023

Environmental impacts from recreational activities: towards novel paths in spatial planning

Title: Environmental impacts from recreational activities: towards novel paths in spatial planning  
 
Organized by the research group “Sustainable use of land and water” in Mistra Sport & Outdoors: Erik Andersson, Rosemarie Ankre, Sara Borgström, Peter Fredman, Marie Stenseke & Sandra Wall-Reinius. 

 
The current upswing and intensity of nature-based tourism and recreation activities may have profound impacts on local environments. This in parallel with global climate change and biological diversity crisis with present local impacts and future changes. Without proactive planning and continuous and adaptive management, we risk having negative impacts on species and their habitats – ecological effects that could be irreversible and with largely unknown consequences for recreational activities. This call for improved knowledge about how such activities and combinations of activities are part of, shape and impact, socio-environmental interactions and systemic contexts. In this session, we explore novel paths to investigate and handle impacts from nature-based tourism and recreation in spatial planning and management of rural and peri-urban landscapes, including green and blue spaces, in the Nordic context. We welcome both empirical and conceptual presentations exploring institutional arrangements and governance systems, co-creation and collaboration as well as pioneering work and processes in relation to planning and management of multifunctional landscapes. 
 
Some of the issues this session would like to address are:  

  • What impacts do different forms of recreational use, including newer forms and activities, have on the environment?  
  • How is nature-based tourism and recreation affected by climate change and biodiversity decline and how can this be recognized in planning and management?  
  • How can ecological footprint analysis in tourism inform visitor management and policy?  
  • What makes biodiversity initiatives in relation to nature-based tourism and recreation successful?  
  • How may spatial planning and management endorse recreational participation while maintaining environmental and ecological qualities as well as capacity to handle future environmental changes?
  • How can collaborative knowledge strengthen new processes and policies to minimize environmental impacts from nature-based tourism and recreation?  

 
This session will share knowledge relevant for research on governance, spatial planning and decisions on management of different landscapes, tourism and recreation policies. In addition, we expect critical discussions and thought-provoking reflections about environmental impacts, environmental justice and ethics, and the possibilities and limitations of spatial planning to manage impacts and improving the prospects for a resilient future.  

Sandra Wall-Reinius
Mid Sweden University
sandra.wall-reinius@miun.se 

Please submit your abstract before 12th May 2023 through the submission system EasyChair https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=nsthr2023

5. Environmental sustainability

Inclusive and accessible nature for a healthy and socially sustainable society

Title: Inclusive and accessible nature for a healthy and socially sustainable society 

Organizer:  the research group “Accessible nature to promote active and healthy ageing”, funded by the Kamprad Family Foundation: Rosemarie Ankre, Kristin Godtman Kling, Sandra Wall-Reinius & Magnus Zingmark. 

This session addresses issues of inclusive and accessible nature experiences for a diversity of visitors, with a focus on the role of nature-based tourism and outdoor recreation to enable a broad range of people (older adults, people with disabilities, socio-economic disadvantaged groups etc.) to improve their health and well-being through activities in nature. The positive effects on health and well-being from spending time in nature is today well recognized. Nevertheless, access to nature is unevenly distributed across groups in society. Political objectives therefore attempt to target equal access to nature, and increasingly, national and regional goals, policies and guidelines on inclusive nature environments are being developed. Still, it is a challenge for public and private actors to promote and facilitate outdoor settings and activities that cater to different groups and various needs. Recently, Wall-Reinius et al. (2022) showed that tourism businesses can play a major role in offering accessible and inclusive nature experiences. However, the resource that nature-based tourism constitutes is underutilized due to lack of knowledge of different consumer groups, as well as a reluctance to adapt the tourism services.
 
The increased global interest in individual and public health related to nature experiences and activities may lead to a greater recognition of the so-called silver economy. It is based on the idea that the rapidly growing group of older adults may have valuable economic and societal contributions after retirement (Stjernberg et al., 2021). We therefore wish to highlight the potential of the silver economy related to nature-based tourism and outdoor recreation, and welcome studies on this topic. 
 
Related to the overall conference theme; this session would also like to explore innovative solutions that promote inclusivity in nature experiences and outdoor recreation. For equal access to nature to become reality, both private and public actors as well as the third sector need to develop conditions that allow for improved accessibility, for example by including a diversity of societal groups in the development of services and activities. Moreover, there is a need for people to be able to participate in different governance processes and to be involved as users in decision-making. We encourage presentations dealing with participation and collaborations in planning and management, as well as research on key aspects for improving social sustainability in nature settings. 

References:
Stjernberg, M., Sigurjónsdóttir, H. R., & Wøien Meijer. (2021). Unlocking the potential of silver economy in the Nordic Region (Nordregio Report 2021:7). http://doi.org/10.6027/R2021:7.1403-2503
 
Wall-Reinius, S., Godtman Kling, K., & Ioannides, D. (2022). Access to nature for persons with disabilities: perspectives and practices of Swedish tourism providers. Tourism Planning & Development. https://doi.org/10.1080/21568316.2022.2160489 


Kristin Godtman Kling
Mid Sweden University
kristin.godtmankling@miun.se
+ 46 (0)10- 142 78 51 

 

Please submit your abstract before 12th May 2023 through the submission system EasyChair
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Rethinking the role of biodiversity in tourism

Title: Rethinking the role of biodiversity in tourism

Organizer: Henna Konu, Juulia Räikkönen, Miia Grénman and Esko Sorakunnas 
 
The adverse environmental impacts of tourism have until now been scrutinized mainly from the perspectives of general environmental protection (e.g., waste management and sewage treatment) and global climate change. The rapidly proceeding biodiversity crisis, however, also challenges the tourism industry to rethink its direct impacts on life and all organisms living on this planet.

The loss of biodiversity has long been overshadowed by climate change. Still, according to the intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), the undisputed loss of biodiversity poses a severe threat to humankind, and therefore, it should be incorporated into all decision-making. The role of tourism is twofold: it is dependent on biodiversity and healthy ecosystems, but at the same time, it also threatens them. The first biodiversity initiatives have already emerged at the levels of nations, destinations, organizations, and individuals. But how to convert this so far relatively marginal issue into mainstream thinking to achieve a systematic transformation? How can tourism contribute to enhancing biodiversity at the destinations? What kind of criteria, indicators, and measurements of biodiversity impacts can be applied to the tourism industry? Is the value of biodiversity instrumental, intrinsic, or relational – or what should it be, and does the understanding about the value of biodiversity differ among diverse actors in tourism? The session offers an open-minded forum to exchange innovative approaches and ideas to tackle this topical challenge.

We welcome presentations from diverse – governmental, business, individual – perspectives to examine wide range of topics related to biodiversity and tourism. The role of biodiversity can be addressed in relation – but not limited to – themes such as leadership and governance, transformative and regenerative tourism, nature positivity and well-being, nature relatedness, environmental sensitivity, outdoor recreation, environmental interpretation, and ethics.

Henna Konu
Associate Professor, D.Sc. (Econ. & B.A.), M.Sc. (Geography)
Adjunct professor, Nature-based tourism business
University of Eastern Finland
henna.konu@uef.fi

Juulia Räikkönen
Adjunct professor, University of Turku
juulia.raikkonen@utu.fi

Miia Grénman
Postdoctoral researcher, University of Jyväskylä  
miia.grenman@utu.fi

Esko Sorakunnas
Postdoctoral researcher, University of Turku
esko.sorakunnas@utu.fi

Please submit your abstract before 12th May 2023 through the submission system EasyChair https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=nsthr2023

 

Sustainable Futures of Coastal and Marine Tourism

Title: Sustainable Futures of Coastal and Marine Tourism 

Organizers: Jari Kaivo-oja, Arja Lemmetyinen, Anu Lähteenmäki-Uutela, Tuomas Pohjola and Sanna-Mari Renfors 
 
Coastal and marine tourism is one of the fastest increasing segments of the global tourism industry (Leposa, 2020). The EU has recognized its potential as part of its blue growth strategies (ECORYS, 2018; European Commission, 2019). Unfortunately, the highly dynamic nature of the coastal and marine environment can easily be threatened by development, with severe long-term consequences (Stewart & Draper, 2006). Coastal and marine tourism benefits from ecosystem services such as clean water and beautiful landscapes, but at the same time it may threaten the same ecosystem services. 

  
Sustainable coastal and marine tourism planning needs multi-stakeholder support to establish “a balance between the economic, environmental, and societal aspects” (Wang et al., 2016, p. 652). The perceptions of local stakeholders are particularly important and should be studied using a collaborative approach (Stewart & Draper, 2007). A multi-stakeholder approach could foster the development of a holistic coastal and marine tourism ecosystem that considers, understands and identifies the potential conflicts and growth potentials that could arise in the future. From a legal perspective, society must balance the rights of different land-based, coastal, and marine sectors and actors. As sustainability is a systemic concept (Porter & Derry, 2012) consisting of ecological, social, and economic dimensions permeating all value processes of service ecosystems, a systemic view is required for studying the phenomenon. The multi-stakeholder analysis illustrates a strategic shift toward future-oriented destination management, where the focus is directed toward cross-sectoral development and conflict resolution, paving the way for sustainable blue growth (de Andres Gonzales et al., 2018).

 
In the call for this special session, we invite contributions on how to manage the transition towards smarter and more sustainable coastal and marine tourism. We welcome not only academic papers but also case or project presentations representing different disciplines (business-managerial, socio-psychological, macroeconomic, political/governance/law, and future studies to name a few) in order to get a wide insight on the actors and action required. We invite abstracts that examine sustainable futures of coastal and marine tourism for example from the viewpoint of the following themes: 

  • Sustainable business development and entrepreneurship
  • Sustainable leadership and management
  • Sustainable transformation
  • Smart specialization
  • Stakeholder coordination, collaboration and conflicts
  • Local government’s role in sustainable tourism development and inclusive policymaking
  • Empowered host communities and community participation
  • Legal rights and regulation
  • Tourism stakeholder ecosystem
  • Cruise tourism as a tourist activity with considerable potential to affect coastal and marine areas both positively and negatively
  • Cultural and creative industries (CCIs) in a coastal tourism destination 
  • Circular economy as a tool to achieve sustainable development 
  • Data and platform economy
  • Meaningful work in coastal and maritime tourism 



Jari Kaivo-oja 
University of Turku

Arja Lemmetyinen
University of Turku

Please submit your abstract before 12th May 2023 through the submission system EasyChair
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6. Sustainable community development

Local communities in sustainable tourism: From participation to empowerment

Title: Local communities in sustainable tourism: From participation to empowerment
 
Organizers: Cecilia de Bernardi, Jarkko Saarinen, Ulrika Persson-Fischier, Narcis Bassols Gardella 
 
 
Communities play a vital role in tourism development. In many places, communities are a crucial attraction element for tourism, but in some cases, they can form a critical opposition to tourism growth (Cheer, Milano, & Novelli, 2019; Goodwin, 2019). Indeed, communities can have various roles, stakes and involvement in the tourism system, and a majority of tourism planning models highlight the need to understand and participate in local communities in tourism development. The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) also strongly emphasize the role of communities: Goal 11, for example, focuses on access to housing, sustainable transport, green public spaces and safeguard of the world’s cultural and natural heritage (among others) (United Nations, n.d.). From the perspective of the SDGs, scholars and policy-makers have indicated a need for promoting the tourism industry as a local community level solution for global challenges.
 
This calls for empowering communities in tourism and supporting their resilience and sustainability. However, the idea of community is dynamic, contextual, and often contested. In practice, communities are not homogeneous (Saarinen, 2019) and can include different preferences, values and priorities towards tourism development. This raises the question how a community as a concept and unit of analysis could and should be approached in research, or based on whose interests and position we define the benefits and costs of tourism growth for communities. 

In this session we welcome submissions that explore communities, sustainable tourism and sustainable destination development from a number of perspectives. These can include but are not limited to: 


  • The idea and conceptualization of “community” in (tourism) research 
  • The role of communities in tourism marketing, planning and development
  • Critical perspectives on communities and tourism benefits and costs
  • Indigenous communities and sustainable tourism
  • Different approaches to scaling and the size of a community
  • Perspectives on agency, community control and community-based tourism
  • Community empowerment in tourism
  • Tourism and community resilience building
  • The concept of community in relation to issues of class, gender and ethnicity
  • Communities involved in tourism and the possibility to participate in meaningful work
  • Communities involved in tourism and place competitiveness 

References: 
Cheer, J. M., Milano, C., & Novelli, M. (2019). Tourism and community resilience in the Anthropocene: Accentuating temporal overtourism. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 27(4), 554-572.
 
Goodwin, H. (2019). Barcelona–crowding out the locals: a model for tourism management. In Dodds, R. & R. Butler (Eds.). Overtourism: Issues, realities and solutions, 1, (pp. 125-138). De Gruyter Oldenbourg.

Saarinen, J. (2019). Communities and sustainable tourism development: Community impacts and local benefit creation in tourism. In S. F. McCool & K. Bosak (Eds.). A research agenda for sustainable tourism (pp. 206-222). Edward Elgar Publishing.
 
United Nations (n.d.). 11 – Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. Retrieved from: https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal11 

Cecilia de Bernardi
ETOUR, Department of Economics, Geography, Law and Tourism (EJT)
Mid-Sweden University, Östersund, Sweden. 
Department of Civil and Industrial Engineering,
Uppsala University, Visby, Sweden

Jarkko Saarinen
Department of Civil and Industrial Engineering
Uppsala University, Visby, Sweden
Geography Research Unit, University of Oulu, Finland 

Ulrika Persson-Fischier
Swedesd/UGHRIS - Center for research and education on learning for sustainable development and global health, Department of women’s and children’s health, Uppsala university

Narcis Bassols Gardella 
Department of Civil and Industrial Engineering, Uppsala University, Visby, Sweden.  

Please submit your abstract before 12th May 2023 through the submission system EasyChair https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=nsthr2023
 

By the people, for the people? Searching for justice and community empowerment in sustainable tourism development

Title: By the people, for the people? Searching for justice and community empowerment in sustainable tourism development 

Organazisers: Bailey Ashton Adie and Alberto Amore 
  
The vulnerability of tourism-dependent communities to socio-ecological externalities like climate change and – more recently – the COVID19 pandemic has further exacerbated academic debate on the necessity to reframe tourism development trajectories. For a long time, scholars have been advocating for a local turn in tourism development thinking that puts the community at the center of the decision-making process. Equality, distributive justice, and enhanced social sustainability represent three of the key desired outcomes communities seek through tourism development practices. This echoes the shift in the understanding of well-being and quality of life from a socio-ecological perspective in tourism research. However, these aspirations risk to be downplayed or overruled by the rhetoric of ‘bouncing back’ or ‘recovery’ which places the emphasis on economic and tourism growth at the expense of local communities. In this scenario, community empowerment represents at best a marketing tool through which to continue with business as usual or, and more commonly, an impediment which is best dealt with through strategic planning legislation which effectively removes all community threats to growth. This flies in the face of both community-focused tourism research, which stresses the importance of inclusive practices, as well as the current trend in policy making rhetoric, which places emphasis on bottom-up decision-making and community-centered policymaking. 

To this end, the purpose of this session is to foster critical debate on not only the necessity of centering local populations within the discussion and development of sustainable tourism futures but also how this can practically occur. Therefore, while we will consider any thematically relevant proposal, we are particularly interested in theoretical and empirical work as well as case studies on the following topics:

  • Community activism and sustainable tourism development 
  • Identity, communities, and sustainable tourism development 
  • Power, communities, and tourism 
  • Inclusive governance and destination development 
  • Regenerative tourism in action 
  • Community dissent and tourism 
  • Local development and tourism 
  • Land rights, indigenous communities, and tourism development 
  • Community displacement and tourism development 
  • Marginalized voices in tourism planning 
  • Alternative tourism development paradigms 


Bailey Ashton Adie 
University of Oulu, Finland 

Alberto Amore 
University of Oulu, Finland 

Please submit your abstract before 12th May 2023 through the submission system EasyChair https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=nsthr2023

Rethinking Tourism Entrepreneurship for a more suatainable future

Title: Rethinking Tourism Entrepreneurship for a more sustainable future

Organizer:  Jonathan Yachin

This session provides a platform to discuss theoretical concepts and methodological approaches to studying tourism entrepreneurship. In line with the theme of the 31st Nordic Symposium on Tourism and Hospitality Research, we wish to focus on the role of tourism entrepreneurship in promoting: 

  • a more just and responsible approach to local development
  • resilience and capacity to adapt to changes
  • the adoption of green practices and attitudes

We adopt a view of entrepreneurship as a process manifested in actions taken to generate value and bring a desirable change. This view expands entrepreneurship research beyond the study of business start-ups and profit-oriented initiatives. Accordingly, we welcome conceptual, methodological and empirical contributions that aim to advance our understanding of (non-exclusive list): 

  • the creative and responsible re-imagination of local features as tourism experiences and products 
  • the involvement of, and consideration for, various local stakeholders in entrepreneurial processes
  • the structures and mechanisms that enable and support tourism entrepreneurship
  • examples and conceptualisation of how tourism entrepreneurs interact with their environment to create value and overcome limitations
  • adapting to changes in circumstances and building resilience, both for the place and the business
  • investigating failed processes and unsuccessful entrepreneurial attempts
  • collective and social entrepreneurship in tourism
  • collaborative models for tourism entrepreneurship 


Jonathan Yachin 
Tourism Studies, School of Culture and Society
Dalarna University
jmy@du.se 

 

Please submit your abstract before 12th May 2023 through the submission system EasyChair https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=nsthr2023

Reimagining the role of food in the rural and the periphery

Title: Reimagining the role of food in the rural and the periphery

Organizers: Albina Pashkevich and Francesc Fusté-Forné 
 
While food tourism research often pays attention to the role of food in tourism, this panel aims to critically analyze the role of tourism in food. Drawing on the growing interest in the relationship between food and tourism, both at local and national scales, this panel aims to contribute to the understanding of the role that food can play in revitalising and strengthening local identities, specifically in peripheral areas (De la Barre and Brouder, 2013; Fusté-Forné and Leer, 2023).  This becomes especially important to consider as the world continues to recover from economic uncertainly, global pandemics and cultural and natural crises. Issues of sustainability and food security remain high priorities and food tourism is often seen as a panacea for local food and agricultural ‘scenes’, especially outside of urban areas. This session aims to contribute to critical discussions about food and tourism in two distinct ways that often intersect in peripheral and rural areas. This session aims to contribute to a broader discussion of how the growth of tourism and tourism management and marketing processes can challenge, change, influence and shape how local food heritage and traditions are (re)presented, performed and enacted in peripheral and rural areas (Hall, 2021; Raheem et al., 2022).    
Through the papers in this session, the goal is to highlight that providers of food services in remote places often represent the fabric of touristic experiences, as well as playing important roles in the sustainability and resilience of local communities, their cultural identity and practices.
 
We invite contributions that consider, but are not limited, to the following issues:   

  • the co-creation of unique food experiences, including the use of local food in restaurants
  • the notion of the smart rural (introducing mobile solutions to the travel in remote rural areas) and/or the consequences of the use of social media in relation to food and gastronomic experiences 
  • consideration of skill shortages in the hospitality industry in relation to food experiences  
  • understanding of the negotiation of foodscapes between locals and tourists  
  • the role of agriculture and livestock activities in food tourism, as well as the perceived impacts and risks for local foodways due to issues such as climate change, food security, migration flow or consumption patterns 
  • the relationship between traditional practices and technological development and innovation in relation to production of local artisan food 
  • the role of community-based initiatives or small-scale entrepreneurship in the creation of sustainable food experiences
  • the potential tensions between food provision for local communities and tourism activities 


References: 
De la Barre, S., & Brouder, P. (2013). Consuming stories: Placing food in the Arctic tourism experience. Journal of Heritage Tourism, 8(2-3), 213-223. 

Fusté-Forné, F., & Leer, J. (2023). Food at the Edge of the World: Gastronomy marketing in Tórshavn (Faroe Islands). Shima, 16(2), 1-19. 

Hall, D. R. (2021). Tourism, Climate Change and the Geopolitics of Arctic Development: The Critical Case of Greenland. CABI.
 
Raheem, D., Holopainen, A., Koegst, J., Tulimaa, M., & Benkherouf, M. (2022). Promoting Sustainability within the Nordic-Arctic Region’s Food System: Challenges and Trends. Sustainability, 14(15), 9716. 

Albina Pashkevich
Centre for Tourism and Leisure Studies,
Dalarna University, Sweden.
alp@du.se  

Francesc Fusté-Forné 
Department of Business
University of Girona, Catalonia, Spain.
francesc.fusteforne@udg.edu. 
Centre for Innovation and Research in Culture and Living in the Arctic, Aalborg University, Copenhagen, Denmark

Please submit your abstract before 12th May 2023 through the submission system EasyChair
https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=nsthr2023

Advancements in Event & Festival Research - a sustainable future

Title: Advancements in Event & Festival Research – a sustainable future
 
Organizers:  Tommy D. Andersson, John Armbrecht, Erik Lundberg


Type of session: paper session 
Events and festivals are back. However, the pandemic has had large impacts on the event industry and event audiences in terms of e.g. the rapid digitalization, changed mobility patterns, participants’ quality of life, bankruptcies of organizers and more. This will influence the industry going forward and it is a perfect time to rethink business models and behaviors for a more sustainable future of events and festivals. 


Up until the pandemic, there was an accelerating growth in events and festivals with respect to frequencies, purpose, content, form, and popularity. Festivals and events constitute an important part within the experience economy, an important type of travel and leisure activity as well as a development within the flora of cultural expressions. Under certain conditions, events and festivals seem to contribute to sustainable development of places and their local identities, to branding of places and marketing of regions, development of tourism and bridging gaps between locals, and between locals and visitors. They may enhance self-esteem and pride among local inhabitants, and facilitate their (re)discovery and (re)learning processes related to cultural and tangible items. However, there are also implications, dilemmas, paradoxes and controversies connected to events and festivals that can encumber a development in more sustainable directions. 

 
The session is open to anyone who would submit their paper on event and festival related issues, and will contain a range of papers discussing various aspects of event and festival (tourism) issues. The objective of the session is to broaden and build relationships between researchers interested in this field in the Nordic countries and beyond. 

Tommy D. Andersson
Centre for Tourism, University of Gothenburg 
tommy.andersson@handels.gu.se

John Armbrecht,
Centre for Tourism, University of Gothenburg
john.armbrecht@handels.gu.se 

Erik Lundberg
Centre for Tourism, University of Gothenburg
erik.lundberg@handels.gu.se  
 

Please submit your abstract before 12th May 2023 through the submission system EasyChair https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=nsthr2023

Co-production of knowledge and social learning for sustainable tourism communities

Title: Co-production of knowledge and social learning for sustainable tourism communities 

Organizers:  Ulrika Persson-Fischier and Julia Olsen

Session format: Panel discussion with stakeholders and oral presentations 

Outcome: A scientific paper 

Many tourism scholar are engaged in research on sustainable transformations of tourism destinations. One of the conclusions deriving from these studies emphasizes a need to understand and account for the voices and knowledge of local population and stakeholders who first and foremost are exposed to the impacts from tourism industry. To ensure that this knowledge becomes fully relevant for decision-makers and tourism stakeholder, many scholars adopt emerging approaches like knowledge co-production, knowledge exchange and social learning. Increasing use of knowledge co-production facilitates meaningful engagement between researches and social actors and lead to democratization of knowledge that in turn lead to communities´ empowerment. An argument for this type of method development for sustainability tourism is that more conventional approaches risk being confined to the academic ivory tower rather than really benefiting communities, and that conventional approaches of simply handing-over of results at the end of a project do not provide any facilitation for communities of what to do with research rapports. To overcome these challenges tourism research is now involved in trying out other approaches. This session invites contributions on contemporary approaches for sustainable tourism transformations. We welcome contributions discussing experiences, pros and cons of these approaches, results of such research, discussions of challenges involved and acceptance of epistemological diversity in academia. Both empirical and theoretical contributions are welcome. 

To this session we will invite tourism destination stakeholders who can share their experiences on their involvement in research/partner projects and their co-operation with researchers. They will be asked to propose some tips and suggestions for meaningful knowledge co-production and/or utilization of other approaches.  

The session co-organizers are planning to develop a scientific paper covering the topics, addressed during the session. The presenters of this session will be invited to contribute to the manuscript development.  

Ulrika Persson-Fischier,
Lecturer, Uppsala University, Sweden
ulrika.persson-fischier@angstrom.uu.se 

Julia Olsen,
Associate Professor,
Nord University, Norway 
Julia.olsen@nord.no 


Please submit your abstract before 12th May through the submission system EasyChair
https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=nsthr2023

Mobile Precarity in Digital Nomadland: Implications for Destinations (Round table)

Title: Mobile Precarity in Digital Nomadland: Implications for Destinations (Round table)

Organizers: Szilvia Gyimóthy & Dimitri Ioannides

Topic: A diversifying mobile workforce (ranging from precarious seasonal labour, such as tourism workers, to creative workers and more affluent digital nomads) are increasingly setting their mark on various urban and rural destinations. Larger metropolitan areas but also smaller places (located on the coast or in mountain resorts), are attentive to the needs of these groups and offer access-based services and amenities to target collaborative forms of residential, recreational and working practices. New business franchise concepts for co-living and co-working are entering the property market and gradually changing the spatial configuration of tourism in these regions. These feature both consolidated brands (e.g., Airbnbforwork, WeWork) and emerging ones (Roam, NomadStays, Betahouse, Arctic Coworking, and THeCollective). This session aims to address overlapping and interdependent processes of working and consumption by the nomadic workforce, by investigating the consequences these have for individuals, communities, and tourism businesses. It also seeks to explore what all of these issues mean from a governance perspective.

Aim and Expected Outcomes

In this roundtable session we invite conceptual reflections and/or empirical contributions, which discuss the social and spatial dynamics of nomadic workers and what these mean for tourism destinations. The expectation is to generate discussions and thoughts towards devising a framework, eventually leading towards a major project proposal. Possible topics for discussion include but are not limited to:

  1. Digital nomads, seasonal tourism workforce and rural resilience
  2. Effects of digital nomads on the housing market
  3. Digital nomads, labour precarity, and the seasonal workforce
  4. Spatial distribution of digital nomads and seasonal workers
  5. Characteristics of digital nomads & the seasonal tourism workforce

Format

Please submit a short abstract – around 300 words. We ask each presenter to give a very short presentation (no more than 10 minutes each) and then open up the floor for discussion with all presenters. This will be followed by a moderated round table discussion between the panelists and members of the audience (Maximum number of presenters 4 plus us as moderators)

References

Cocola-Gant, A., & Lopez-Gay, A. (2020). Transnational gentrification, tourism and the formation of ‘foreign only’enclaves in Barcelona. Urban studies, 57(15), 3025-3043.

Chevtaeva, Ekaterina, and Basak Denizci-Guillet. "Digital nomads’ lifestyles and coworkation." Journal of Destination Marketing & Management 21 (2021): 100633.

Mancinelli, F. (2020). Digital nomads: freedom, responsibility and the neoliberal order. Information Technology & Tourism, 22(3), 417-437.

Thompson, Beverly Yuen. "The digital nomad lifestyle:(remote) work/leisure balance, privilege, and constructed community." International Journal of the Sociology of Leisure 2.1-2 (2019): 27-42.

Villa, M. (2019). Local ambivalence to diverse mobilities–the case of a norwegian rural village. Sociologia Ruralis, 59(4), 701-717.

Please submit your abstract before 12th May 2023 through the submission system EasyChair
https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=nsthr2023

 

 

Sidan uppdaterades 2023-03-20