ITM Master 1. Sem.
International Tourism Master Forum

Mi 10.00-11.30 h S 17

2 SWS Course

Workload:

30 h classroom work / 150 h self-study

ECTS points: 6

Examination:
- Presentation (45 min. + 45 min. structured discussion (including an active part for participants: for instance every participant has to tell a structured experience related to the topic; prepared role play or prepared debate etc.)
- Synopsis paper as Handout (2-3 pages) handed out to participants one week before presentation (Presentation+Synopsis 30%)

Assignment Paper
(12-15 pages per person) to be handed in before Jan. 31, 2012 (70%)

REVIEW OF FIVE ARTICLES

- Abstract

- Introduction

- Summary

What discourses the authors identify their paper to be part of?

What do they want to achieve?

What are they presenting as main conclusion/result?

Turbines

Abstract: This study proposes to assess and empirically verify possible negative effects from

the construction of wind turbines on the landscape image and tourism potential of affected

areas, using the example of two comparative recreational localities in the Czech Republic:

one with the construction of a wind farm planned and the other with an already existing

farm. The empirical research consisted of two mutually linked parts: a questionnaire survey

and focused, semi-structured interviews. Emphasis was placed on the subjective perception

of the phenomenon by tourists and local business representatives from the sphere of tourism.

The analysis focuses also on the social-geographical factors that shape tourists attitudes to the

wind energy development dilemma. Keywords: wind energy, landscape, perception, Czech

Republic. _

Growing concern over global climate changes, energy sustainability,

and security has led to increasing interest in developing renewable

energy sources. In this respect, wind energy has become the most

dynamically developing sector. However, development is not as fast

as had been expected in many countries and wind turbines (hereafter

WT) projects are at both local and regional levels subject to

considerable social controversy (Breukers & Wolsink, 2007; Van der

Horst, 2007; Wu¨stenhagen, Wolsink, & Bu¨ rer, 2007). Among the

main arguments of opponents recently is, in addition to the potential

impacts of WT on the character of the landscape, also speculation

about their negative effects on tourism in the affected areas, owing

to a suggested loss of attractiveness of the ‘‘visually polluted’’ landscape

(Gordon, 2001). Still, there has been a very limited number

of studies (including no examples concerned with East-Central

Europe) dealing with the specific issue of tourist perception of the

phenomenon, unlike the surveys of general public opinion of wind

energy development or on the local acceptance of WT projects by

residents.

The wind energy development, no more than other energy sectors,

has brought about some negatively perceived impacts on the landscape

and the familiar life of local residents (Franta´l & Kucˇera, 2009). The

high visibility of WT itself is generally regarded as its most serious misconduct;

consequently, an ideal area does not exist, only more or less acceptable areas do. On the other hand, unlike traditional energetic industry, WT do not produce any waste, and are temporary constructions,

being relatively easy to remove from the sites and recycle after their operating time has passed. They have pros and cons, and it is difficult, perhaps impossible, for people not to project their own subjective preferences into assessing a balance between the local impacts

on the landscape and environment and the profits for local community,

and the supply for global climate changes. For developers and

planners a relevant consideration should be that people living in areas

that are in some way environmentally stricken (e.g., by mining activities,

smokestacks, or the chemical industry) are those more likely to

support the building up of new and alternative energy facilities such

as WT. Generally, WT can be perceived and presented both negatively—

which is still often the case in political dictums and in the media,

not only in the CR—as constructions which could frighten away all

prospective tourists from the given area and positively as (a) a complement

to the surrounding landscape, a new architectural element creating

new dimension and value; (b) objects extending the selection of

activities for tourists who are interested in modern technologies, with

WT as technical monuments becoming destinations for educational excursions; (c) constructions bringing to municipalities direct financial profits which can then be used either in the form of investments in infrastructure or to promote tourism in the location (information

boards, nature trails, cycling routes, support of cultural or sport activities, media promotion).

Museums

Abstract: This study reconstructs and expands well-established cultural tourist typologies while offering an alternative model to help explain the subtle differences between different cultural tourists in art museums. Keeping in mind that art museum visitors differ from visitors of other kinds of museums and that museum visitation is not separate from everyday life, indepth, semi-structured interviews in the participants’ home country were used to explore museum perceptions and memories of past museum experiences. The main outcome of the study is the identification of eight different ways of perceiving the art museum whether at home or a tourist destination. Five case studies are presented in order to demonstrate the need for more inclusive and flexible typologies. Keywords: typologies, art museum, cultural tourism, everyday life, museum perceptions.

Interestingly, when McKercher (2004) surveyed cultural attractions in five countries, he found that tourists tended to participate in the same types of activities regardless of destination. Museums were found to be the most popular attraction, usually followed by art galleries and monuments.

This is not surprising if we consider that museums help define the overall tourism product of a destination by providing a sense of a particular time and place that is often unavailable elsewhere (Graburn, 1983, 1998; Tufts & Milne, 1999). Apart from providing a sense of ‘‘hereness’’

(Kirchenblatt-Gimblett, 1998), museums are part of a universal cultural system for the dissemination of knowledge and experience (Herreman, 1998). As Kirchenblatt-Gimblett (1998) mentions, ‘‘Tourism needs destinations, and museums are premier attractions’’ (p. 132).

Unfortunately, with a few exceptions, most tourism studies appear to be fragmented. This is mainly due to the fact that they investigate specific destinations or institutions and therefore no generalizations can be made that can eventually help build broad and strong theories regarding cultural tourism. Furthermore, there seems to be a lack of multi-disciplinary perspectives (Wall, 2010), which in some cases are essential to analyzing specific types of cultural tourism. …

The good news is that post-modern theories have ignited new trends in the conceptualization of the tourist experience (Uriely, 2005). To begin with, there is an increased interest in the performances, subjective experiences, and meanings tourists make (Bærenholdt, Haldrup, Larsen, & Urry, 2007; Edensor, 2000; Prentice, Witt, & Hamer, 1998; Richards & Wilson, 2006). Significantly, the emergence of tourist typologies is considered a step towards the recognition of the diverse and plural character of tourist experiences (Cohen, 1979a; Uriely, 2005). Additionally, while tourism has traditionally been considered as an escape from everyday life or a form of ‘‘getting away from it all’’ (Graburn, 1989), increasing evidence supports the view that tourism can be viewed instead as an extension of everyday life (Kim & Jamal, 2007).

Following these trends in theorizing tourists’ experiences, this study (a) does not separate everyday life from tourism experiences; (b) focuses on a specific form of cultural tourism—that of art museums;

(c) acknowledges the subjective nature of experience without ignoring the factors that help shape it; (d) concerns itself with the development of a holistic and flexible cultural tourist typology for art museums which can account for a number of tourist experiences; and finally, (e) complements and expands rather than contradicts previous typologies. The two main purposes of this paper are to introduce an alternative cultural tourist typology for art museums and to argue that exploratory research which explores emerging narratives and is conducted in the participants’ home environment can be extremely valuable. Such methodological alternatives can potentially expose different

aspects of the same intellectual puzzle.

To sum up, by pointing out the diversity of tourist experiences in art museums, this study reconstructs and expands well-established typologies while offering the MPF model as a more flexible alternative to help explain the subtle differences between cultural tourists in art museums without separating tourism from everyday life. Furthermore, it has been shown that exploratory research which is based on narratives of past experiences, and not on asking specific questions about specific destinations or museums, can provide valuable data. By talking about art museums in general, interviewees were often forced to distil and clarify their perceptions about art museums and their cultural tourism

experiences without separating them from everyday life or their sense of identity. Nevertheless, future research which will examine people’s museum perceptions at home as well as at a tourist destination might reveal more about actual practices as well as provide information about issues of memory and identity. Finally, as this research investigated cultural tourists in art museums, no generalizations can be made across other types of cultural experiences. More research is needed when it comes to cultural tourists in other kinds of museums in addition to other types of cultural attractions.

Ageing

Abstract: This paper provides a reflexive marking of tourism and ageing research, arguing

for a transformation of its research approaches. It observes that extant research on tourism in

later life is largely quantitative and concerned with developing market-oriented typologies.

Here we argue the case for humanist, participatory approaches to the study of older people

that adopt the principles of critical gerontology and hopeful tourism. We discuss biographical

research to illustrate how such enquiry could engage older people, foreground their voices

and agendas and impact on their lives. We conclude with a four part agenda for tourism

and ageing research. Keywords: older people, critical gerontology, hopeful scholarship,

humanist research, biographical research.

This paper argues for a transformation of tourism and ageing research to embrace the principles of critical gerontology and hopeful tourism scholarship. Tourism enquiry has seen a dramatic growth over the last 40 years; yet despite the enormous expansion in research and publication, leading scholars describe a considerable proportion of this research as ‘‘confirmatory’’, ‘‘reproductive’’ (Tribe, 2005) and ‘‘formulaic’’ (Page, 2005) and suggest that the power of qualitative enquiry remains underserved (Jamal & Hollinshead, 2000; Phillimore & Goodson, 2004). Arguably this is true of much tourism and ageing research which has tended to focus on market trends and marginalize personalized accounts which foreground the voices of older people themselves. In this paper, we scrutinize tourism and ageing research’s architecture of knowledge and outline a future research agenda that includes both existing approaches and new cross-disciplinary enquiry in order to achieve holistic understandings of tourism in later life. Such a paper is opportune as the dramatic increase in the numbers of older people means that there is likely to be an acceleration of tourism research focused on these individuals (Glover & Prideaux, 2009). For example, in more developed countries there is predicted to be some 1.2 billion people aged 60 and over by 2025, rising to two billion by 2050—three times as many as today (World Health Organisation, 2009).

Our argument in this paper is framed by what we term hopeful tourism scholarship (Ateljevic, Morgan, & Pritchard, 2007), an emergent knowledge network in tourism enquiry, which has achieved ‘a measure of success in enrolling people, ideas and inscriptions’ (Tribe, 2009, p. 12). Hopeful tourism scholarship is a values-led approach that aims for co-created knowledge based on partnership and

reciprocity and regards moral and ethical obligations as intrinsic to its enquiry (Ren, Pritchard, & Morgan, 2010). It advocates the transformation of relationships between the researcher and the researched— regarding the latter not as subjects or even participants in projects, but wherever possible as co-creators of tourism knowledge (e.g., Sedgley, Pritchard, & Morgan, 2007; Richards, Pritchard, & Morgan, 2010).

In advocating approaches like biographical research and in focusing on the political, economic and social context of older people’s lives, we also urge researchers to acknowledge the structural disadvantages that face many older people across the globe (in particular economic and

health constraints). We must not assume that all older people are part of the ‘new age’ elderly (Patterson, 2006) with good health and pensions to make tourism participation possible. However, identifying the structural constraints that many older people face will not be enough.

We must reflect on the potential policy implications of our work and on what we as tourism researchers might do to challenge the status quo. Too often, research appears to be undertaken for its own sake (Walker, 2004), with no positive impact on people’s lives. This is in fact, the final part of our four part agenda. We suggest that tourism researchers aspire to advocacy scholarship that promotes the social inclusion, human dignity and human rights of older people. Involving older people in the research process and engaging with their agendas is likely to result in studies that inform policy, work for older people and challenge ageism. It also creates spaces to challenge negative stereotypes of older people as inactive, dependent and disengaged and allows academics to work in partnership with older people in advocacy research which can led to positive social change for us all as we move

through the life course.

Backpackers

Abstract: This paper offers insights into backpacker tourism from the People’s Republic of

China. Chinese backpackers are a distinctively post-Mao reform generation growing up at a

time when China shifts from Mao Zedong’s socialist policies to Deng Xiaoping’s policy explorations

with capitalism. Through distanced virtual ethnography of a leading internet forum, it

has been discovered that the forum members’ post-Mao backpacker gazes appropriate the

postcolonial spaces of Macau in ways that contradict existing backpacker ideals and media

and academic portrayal and stereotyping of Chinese youths, particularly concerning gender

role adoption and the exoticising of postcolonial leisurescape. Backpacking in Macau also

reveals the communal and differentiated nature of the tourist gaze and Chinese mobilities.

Keywords: backpacking, China outbound tourism, gaze, cybercommunities, post-Mao

China.

Proponents of the mobilities paradigm in the social sciences have

variously argued that peoples, places and images in social life have

been, and are, increasingly mobile (Amin & Thrift, 2002; Larsen, Urry,

& Axhausen, 2007, p. 85; Sheller & Urry, 2006; Urry, 2004). Deriving

from studies on backpackers originating from mobile developed economies

(Cohen, 1972, 1973; Elsrud, 2001; Enoch & Grossman, 2010;

Loker-Murphy & Pearce, 1995; Murphy, 2001; Murphy & Pearce, 1995;

O’Reilly, 2006; Riley, 1988; Sorensen, 2003; Uriely, Yonai, & Simchai,

2002; Vogt, 1976), backpacker, budget and youth tourism studies have

seen mobility across national borders and geographical boundaries as

an integral and unproblematic component of backpacking and

expressed as practices of freedom, decadence, adventure, self-transformation

and rites of passage. Building upon the efforts of the mobilities

paradigm, this paper argues for a more nuanced understanding of this

political-geographic aspect of backpacking. In particular, what happens

when backpackers originate from countries where citizens did not travel

freely within and across national territories and still face travel

restrictions from many countries, and what happens when backpackers

travel into a formerly colonised and ceded territory?

Unexpectedly, such socialisation has also been found to be gender-

biased. It is shaped by Confucian ideology commonly interpreted

as Chinese traditions, male and female backpackers were expected

to fulfil their gender roles: men to be assertive, adventurous and

rugged and women to be submissive, domestic and gentle. This finding

can assist future tourism studies in understanding more of post-

Mao Chinese society than what is commonly portrayed in the media,

and for investigating more deeply the nature of social interactions

and gender in this generation’s travel ethnographies. While post-

Mao generations were commonly described in the popular media

as possessing a self-obsessed and materialistic me-culture, it was revealed

in this analysis that the real situation could be quite the

opposite. That is, that peer-affirmation is important and that it is

built on maintaining and developing friendships and communities,

both virtually and through lived travel experiences.

Packing

Abstract: Tourist behaviours can be viewed as performances on a variety of tourism stages.

This article examines tourist packing practices as planning and preparation for touristic performances.

Grounded theory methods are employed to analyze documentary sources in

which tourists describe what and how they pack for air travel. The article presents a substantive

theory of packing for travel. This theory is viewed through the lens of Giddens’ grand

theory of self-identity. The contents of a travel bag constitute the costumes and props a tourist

believes will aid their performance in each tourism setting. Packing for travel is an act in

which the tourist prioritises those items they believe will most assist the maintenance, construction

and articulation of self-identity in new settings. Keywords: tourism as performance,

self-identity, packing, grounded theory.

The study of tourism is likely experiencing a paradigm shift (Noy, 2008). The performative approach views all tourism as performance, in which the tourist constructs place and identity (Brown, 2009; Desforges, 2000; McCabe & Stokoe, 2004; Noy, 2004). Tourism is performed on stages (Edensor, 2001; Noy, 2008) such as airports, hotel lobbies, tour buses, attractions and national parks. Here the performance of the tourist is contextualised and managed by the design of the stage,

scripts supplied, and directions given by tourism management and employees. On tourism stages, tourists’ identities are performed. There are commonly held understandings of ‘‘how to be a tourist’’ (Edensor, 2001, p. 61), for example how to be an airline passenger, a hotel guest, or a member of a tour group. ‘‘Tourism constitutes a collection of commonly understood and embodied practices and meanings which are reproduced by tourists through performances—in alliance with tourist

managers and workers’’ (Edensor, 2001, p. 71). Expected forms of dress, movement, gaze and expressions of emotion are somewhat prescribed and choreographed for each tourism stage. Thus tourists construct and reconstruct tourism places by performing and reacting to these places as prescribed by convention and imagination.

One touristic performance that has received little research attention is packing for travel. This paper examines packing for leisure or business travel both as touristic performance and preparation for touristic performances. The study examines packing as an act of planning and

preparation (Jack & Phipps, 2005; Koc, 2003), by which the leisure or business tourist anticipates the touristic performances likely during their travels, and prepares costumes and props that will assist the construction of self-identity during performances.

The substantive theory represents mid-range theory. It is not presented at the detailed empirical level where one might say conclusively, a specific practice applies to one group of tourists but not another.

Undoubtedly, future research will observe heterogeneity in packing practices. We invite future research precisely in this regard, to compare the packing practices of men and women, business people and backpackers, and tourists from varying cultures. Such research could potentially

result in the development of a typology of tourist packers. Gender differences, in particular, should be explored. In some social environments packing might be viewed as ‘women’s work’ or possibly as ‘men’s work’ (Zalatan, 1998). The theory of packing presented here could serve as a useful guide to the formulation of propositions for such research endeavours.

Tourism can be viewed as a series of performances upon tourism stages (Edensor, 1998, 2000, 2001; Haldrup & Larsen, 2003; Noy, 2008). Packing represents an act of planning and preparation for touristic performances. Packing practices resolve the conflict between packing too little—and thus lacking adequate costumes and props for effective touristic performances—and packing too much—and thus impeding freedom of movement. The contents of a travel bag constitute the costumes and props a tourist believes will aid their performance in each tourism setting (Goffman, 1959). In

packing the travel bag the tourist prioritises those items they believe will most assist the maintenance, construction and articulation of self-identity in new settings. Packing is a performance that helps the tourist create and express self-identity across time and place (Giddens, 1991).

  Contact: Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Georg Arlt FRGS
Bachelor and Master Program International Tourism Management
arlt@fh-westkueste.de, Office 2.018, Tel. 0481 8555-513
Consultation hours (during lecture period): Wed. 13.00-14.00 h