Medical Brigades to El Salvador and Honduras: Travel imaginaries and volunteer tourist recruitment

In this paper, I explore travel imaginaries in the recruitment of participants to short-term medical brigades in El Salvador and Honduras. I look in particular at how trip leaders and organization web sites frame the volunteer tourist experience, drawing on familiar, shared imaginaries of poor, backward international settings, and related performative interventions that echo white colonial relationships. Recruitment messaging offers little specific or informed sense of place, ignoring the national histories and socio-economic circumstances of the receiving countries. As a consequence, the health profiles and capacities of El Salvador and Honduras are finally obscured in favor of the valorized performance of visitors and externally-driven protocols and care. The efforts of some brigade sponsors and related organizations to improve health-care delivery to local communities, in particular fundraising among brigade participants and other donors, would seem to separate the link between travel and volunteerism. They continue, however, to reinforce broadly-held imaginaries of international poverty and economic backwardness and related rescue by the Global North. A more realistic understanding of Honduran and Salvadoran economies and politics remains elusive and requires a reorientation of voluntary engagement.

‘Hayan na ang mga Hampas-dugo! (the Penitents are coming!)’: Penitensya as religious-dark tourism

This paper applies indigenous research methods to understand the motives of visitors attending Penitensya (a Lenten Filipino ritual involving violent ritualistic performances) which we introduce as a novel form of religious-dark tourism. The paper also examines the tourism product potential of Penitensya as a controversial, yet potentially valuable feature of Filipino public culture. The motives of visitors to the Penitensya ritual in the Philippines during the 2019 schedule of events are examined to understand the touristic appeal of this unique form of religious-dark pilgrimage which involves overt and abject rituals of mortification and self-harm. Analysis suggests that the motives for attending Penitensya resonate with the motives of visitors to dark tourism attractions, and these include the allure of a novel cultural experience, knowledge-seeking and rubbernecking. The findings suggest that Penitensya might have unrealised potential as a legitimate form of intangible Filipino cultural heritage, but in order to authenticate the event as part of the nation’s cultural tourism product mix it must be carefully curated and marketed, and embraced by local authorities and the wider community.

Tourism and struggles for domination: Local tourism communities and symbolic violence in Kashmir

Community-based tourism development in rural tourist destinations is hindered by the complex interplay of power struggles between the State, hoteliers, travel agents, local tourism players, host community and activists. Following Bourdieu’s ‘epistemologically reflexive’ sociology of everyday life, including his concepts of ‘capital’, ‘habitus’ and ‘field’, I examine the power relations between the Indian State, the regional government, the armed forces, private urban hoteliers and travel agencies, religious corporations, local tourism service providers (e.g. the ponymen and taxi operators) and the host communities operating at the tourism destination of Pahalgam in the Himalayan territory of the Indian-administered Kashmir. Drawing on ethnographic material collected during June–September 2017 and October 2018, I analyse the power relations in the context of a growing political conflict in the region. The central question this article addresses is how and to what extent these actors, particularly the Indian State, engage in contestations for dominance, insurrection and subversion over Pahalgam tourist destination. Theorising the embodiment of ponywālā1 habitus, I demonstrate that ‘subaltern’ dispositions of the ponymen and their corresponding tourism practices of offering pony rides to tourists and pilgrims create boundaries within the destination ‘field’ of Pahalgam. Subsequently, I aim to show that such dispositions cultivate internalised beliefs or doxa among local community players, thus limiting their access to capitals (economic, social, cultural and symbolic) and ensuring the (re)production of their dominated position in the destination field of Pahalgam.

Social media, popular culture and ‘soft heritage’: Chinese tourists in search of Harry Potter

Complex relationships exist between rationales for visiting, experiences and perceptions. Tourists are influenced by others, increasingly through social media as electronic word of mouth (ewom). While visitation rationales associated with popular culture are well documented, less understood is how social media use among specific cultural groups constructs and fuels new fictitious sites of popular cultural tourism, through what we call ‘soft heritage’. Particular physical qualities (often visual) endow places with a distinct but fabricated heritage value, linked especially to fictional characters in popular culture. Tourism numbers grow accordingly, as soft heritage sites become marked places for tourists of specific cultural backgrounds. This is illustrated through the case of the University of Sydney, which in the 2010s became a significant destination for Chinese tourists. Through mixed-methods research involving participant observation and interviews with 85 Chinese tourists, the rationales, experiences and perceptions of Chinese tourists were explored. Reasons for visiting included group tours, education, heritage and photography, but a key attraction was the ‘Harry Potter building’, a site not in JK Rowling’s books, nor involved in the making of the films, and not previously a tourist attraction. So much did social media and the Harry Potter Building influence tourism that the University became the most prominent of the city’s several ‘marked places’ (daka). The participatory character of Chinese social media, combined with architectural heritage and the enthusiasm of many younger Chinese tourists for Harry Potter, led them to create a new Chinese tourist site (or daka destination) without input from the management of the place itself.

Quality of life perspectives for different social groups in a World Centre of Tourism and Leisure

While the quality of life (QoL) concept in tourism research has gained momentum, scholarly work has focused on host QoL and tourist-host relations, rather than exploring and analysing the perception, interpretation and understanding of QoL among different social groups in a given tourist destination. Macao is a densely populated tourism destination and designated World Centre of Tourism and Leisure, where local residents and migrants work and cohabit side by side. By broadening the scope of research through in-depth interviews, our research findings highlight how different social groups in Macao experience QoL differently. While all groups perceive positive economic impacts and appreciate career opportunities from tourism development, the analysis raises questions as to the QoL of residents and migrants, and the social sustainability of Macao. The study recommends that authorities embed a social sustainability focus in deliberations, policies and investment so as to achieve its goal of World Centre of Tourism and Leisure status, not only for tourists, but also for those who live and work there.

Social exclusion and conflict in a rural tourism community: A case study from Likeng Village, China

Social exclusion is a dynamic process in which an individual or a group becomes isolated from an organization or community and deprived of their due rights and entitlements. This study analyzed a case of social exclusion and tourism conflict in Likeng village, Wuyuan, a rural Chinese community that is economically reliant on the tourism industry. Thematic analysis of interviews with 15 Likeng villagers across two time periods (2010 and 2016) revealed that residents experienced various dimensions of social exclusion. A lack of opportunities for effective participation in economic opportunities, political decisions, and community relationships related to the development of tourism in the community were key features of social exclusion, eventually leading to conflict. Linkages between local problems, policies, and community life should be established and opportunities for meaningful resident input in tourism development decision making should be utilized in order to decrease social exclusion and conflict.

Seek common ground local culture while reserving difference: Exploring types of souvenir attributes by Ethnic Chinese people

Purchasing souvenirs is an important travel shopping behaviour in the tourist industry. Multiple studies have explored dimensions related to a souvenir. However, the attributes of souvenirs are inconsistent and few studies have explored from tourists’ perspective the customer value of the souvenirs they purchased. Using food souvenirs as an example, this study adopted the means-end chains approach to explore the consumer value of food souvenirs purchased by tourists. Based on the attribute–consequence–value linkages, food souvenir attributes most important to tourists were identified, and subsequently, the product attributes for food souvenirs were determined. This study found that when choosing which food souvenirs to buy, tourists perceived the following nine major attributes as important: good taste, shareability, convenient, nostalgia and unique, human warmth, authenticity, local characteristics, famous and representative. The findings of this study can serve as reference for helping business industry to design products. This study recommends incorporating these nine attributes and local characteristics into destination tourism development to closely resonate with the needs of tourists and strengthen tourists’ perception and impression of the customs of destination tourism industry.

Social innovations and sustainability of tourism: Insights from public sector in Kemi, Finland

This article proposes new insights on sustainability of tourism through social innovations. The underlying aim is to find practical ways to enhance sustainability in and through tourism, as sustainability has been criticized for its abstract nature. The marginally studied relationship of sustainability of tourism and social innovations is explored by utilizing ethnographic data on tourism, which is expected to grow in Kemi, Finland. Two examined examples of social innovations—related to social inclusion, employment, and using waste food—offer insights for tourism by bringing out non-traditional public sector perspectives and novel, multi-sectoral grass-root initiatives for coping with societal challenges at the local level. This paper suggests that sustainability of tourism can be informed through social innovations as cooperative processes, which respond to local needs and create novel solutions and social and other value at the destination. It is discussed how insights from social innovations can widen the understanding of what constitutes a tourism stakeholder, bring in the holistic, multi-sectoral dimensions of sustainability, and provide examples on the use of collaborative spaces for practical tourism planning.

50 Shades of Red: Recreational Communism in Post-Socialist Vietnam

Using a post-socialist framework, this article analyzes recreational communism, that is, the commodification of communism through commercial places that use Bao Cấp (subsidy period in Vietnam) for tourism and leisure. These places include cafés, restaurants, souvenir shops, art galleries, or flea markets. Why do places dedicated to pleasure make use of such a painful period? I propose to go beyond this paradox by focusing not only on the economic, but also the emotional, political, and memorial value of Bao Cấp, both in the way they are designed by their owners and practiced by customers. The visual descriptions and interviews I accumulated since 2006 allow me to address the dynamics of social interactions between people, place, and space. The spatial analysis of this material explores recreational communism as a practice of social distinction in the sense that it involves upper classes within the most globalized cities of the country.

Exploring the world together: The colonial continuity of family adventure travel

The article examines notions of family holidays in the marketing of family adventure travel, a small but growing segment of the alternative tourism sector in Sweden. In family adventure travel, the family vacation is oriented toward exotic destinations in the Global South. The analysis is conducted through a multimodal discourse analysis of web-based marketing material from seven Swedish travel agencies. It shows that the travel style of family adventure travel is constructed through a novel discourse, filled with overlapping meanings of family life, authenticity, and adventure. The article offers a unique approach to family tourism research by theorizing family adventure travel from a post-colonial perspective. It demonstrates how family adventure travel entails a colonial continuity, where notions of exploring and discovering the world become reproduced and re-negotiated in the context of family tourism. In the marketing of family adventure travel, the family vacation is reimagined as a journey of discovery.