Arca Publishing

Isaac, Rami

Platenkamp, Vincent

CTS 2019 
 
Title: The Actualization of the Critical Impulse in Critical Theory: Dialogical Rationality around 
Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem 
 
Authors: 
 
Rami K. Isaac 
Breda University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands 
 
Vincent Platenkamp 
Breda University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands 
 
Abstract:  
The Critical Turn in tourism academia has been announced without a thorough 
understanding of the tradition of Critical Theory. The classical thinkers of Critical Theory need 
to be understood in order to clarify the significance of this tradition in the present situation. Two 
main concepts have been introduced in this tradition and are clarified in this paper, Critical and 
Essence. In the German discussion between Critical Rationalism and Critical Theory during the 
60s (the 4th Positivismusstreit), Marcuse introduced the concept of Essence as an answer to his 
opponents. We discuss this concept after its confrontation with post-modernism and relate this 
discussion to a revitalisation of the qualification ‘Critical,’ in Critical Theory. We save this 
qualification from the post-modernist attacks on the universality of the Critical Theoretical 
position. In order to be able to do so, we introduce a mode 3 discussion (Kunneman, 2005; Isaac 
& Platenkamp, 2012), in which the qualification ‘Critical’ receives a new significance on the 
‘agora’ (Arendt, 1958). Against the background of this revitalised critical theoretical framework, 
we demonstrate the current position of Critical Theory in the tourism academy. Our position is 
that the critical impulse in this theory has experienced a serious degree of content inflation so 
that everyone in tourism academia who uses the word critical has become critical. The 
qualification ‘Critical’ receives a more actualised significance if it can be fully elaborated during 
the process of the argumentation at the ‘agora’. Rachel’s Tomb is used as a case to illustrate this 
revitalisation of the qualification ‘critical’ on the agora. 
  


English

The Actualization of the Critical Impulse in Critical Theory: Dialogical Rationality around Rachelâs Tomb in Bethlehem

HÃ¶ckert, Emily

Grimwood, Bryan

CTS 2019 
Title: Toward Hospitable Methodologies in Tourism  
 
Authors: 
 
Emily Höckert 
University of Lapland, Finland 
 
Bryan Grimwood  
University of Waterloo, Canada 
 
Abstract: 
In our journeys toward understanding, predicting, questioning, and deconstructing the 
pleasurable and perilous phenomena we call tourism, researchers become entangled in a variety 
of host/guest-like performances and responsibilities. Our imaginations are trained to visit new 
ideas and experiences; we are socialized to explore or ramble with our curiosities about peoples, 
places, and destinations; we make space for new questions, answers, imaginaries, and 
information encountered in the field; we try to leave the door open to both the expected and 
unexpected, to what and whom we’ve anticipated in the invitation of our research proposals but 
also to the strangers who arrive unanticipated. In conducting our tourism research, we leave 
behind many of our habits of home to mingle as visitors in other places, with hosts and other 
guests. Simultaneously, we invariably bring along with us our ideological, discursive, and value-
laden baggage (e.g., Caton & Santos, 2009; Dunkin & Grimwood, 2016) but also, as Cooke 
(2018) illuminates, other travel companions influential to our broader social identities and 
subjectivities.  
The notions of hospitality and welcome can be used to describe, disrupt and shape social 
imaginings and arrangements between ourselves (Germann Molz & Gibson 2007; Kuokkanen 
2007; Lynch et al 2011; Veijola et al. 2014). It wasn’t that long ago when ethnographers, among 
other scholarly subjects to be sure, were accused of being quite arrogant guests, who, over a 
relatively short period of time, visit other peoples’ homes, communities, and places to collect 
information and make interpretations. In such scenarios, the researchers would seem to assume 
an unconditional welcome to visit and stay, leaning on the sense of entitlement and expertise 
they carried and bringing back from the field epistemic souvenirs like “new” disciplinary or 
ethnocultural insights (e.g. Höckert 2018). These kinds of research settings have been 
problematized in critical tourism studies, pointing out the risks of epistemic violence when 
research is conducted on or about, instead of with or by, host communities and participants (e.g. 
Chambers & Buzinde 2015; Grimwood et al., 2012; Pritchard, Morgan, & Ateljevic, 2011).  
In this paper, we invite complementary moves by theorizing and enacting hospitable 
methodologies in tourism. Starting with Levinas’ (1969) philosophical framing of hospitality as 
making space for otherness, we orient hospitable methodologies towards the possibilities and 
challenges of welcoming and taking care of multiple ways of knowing and being in research. To 
situate and envision research as a practice of welcome, we ask: What does it mean to be 
hospitable in and through research? What kind of roles, responsibilities, and critical 
positionalities do hospitable epistemologies and methodologies enable? What do hospitable 
CTS 2019 
methodologies do in relation to the production of tourism knowledge or the critical project of 
creating just and sustainable tourism worlds? Why are hospitable methodologies relevant to 
critical tourism studies? Bringing into dialogue reflections on our respective past, current, and 
future research, we illustrate the conceptual and empirical promise of hospitable methodologies 
in relation to research with cross-cultural, familial, and more-than-human others. 
 
Caton, K., & Santos, C. A. (2009). Images of the other: Selling study abroad in a postcolonial 
world. Journal of Travel Research, 48(2), 191–204. 
Chambers, D., & Buzinde, C. (2015). Tourism and decolonisation: Locating research and self. 
Annals of Tourism Research, 51, 1-16. 
Cooke. L. (2018). Subjectivities implode: When “the lone male” ethnography is actually a 
nursing mother…In B. A. Porter & H. A. Schänzel (Eds.), Femininities in the field: 
Tourism and transdisciplinary research. Bristol, UK: Channel View Publications. 
Dunkin, J., & Grimwood, B. S. R. (2016). Mobile Habitations of Canoescapes. In T. Duncan, 
S.A. Cohen, & M. Thulemark (Eds.), Lifestyle mobilities: Intersections of travel, leisure 
and migration (pp. 159-175). London: Routledge.  
Germann Molz, J., & Gibson, S. (2007). Introduction: Mobilizing and mooring hospitality. In J. 
Germann Molz and S. Gibson (Eds.), Mobilizing hospitality: The ethics of social relations 
in a mobile world (pp. 1-26). Aldershot: Ashgate. 
Grimwood, B.S.R., Doubleday, N.C., Laidler, G.J., Donaldson, S.G., & Blangy, S. (2012). 
Engaged acclimatization: Towards responsible community-based participatory research in 
Nunavut. The Canadian Geographer, 56(2), 211–230 
Höckert, E. (2018). Negotiating hospitality: Ethics of tourism development in Nicaraguan 
Highlands. London: Routledge.  
Kuokkanen, R. (2007). Reshaping the university: Responsibilities, Indigenous epistemes, and the 
logic of the gift. Vancouver: UBC Press. 
Levinas, E. (1969). Totality and infinity. An essay of exteriority. Pittsburgh: Duquesne University 
Press. 
Lynch, P., Germann Molz, J., McIntosh, A., Lugosi, P., & Lashley, C. (2011). Theorizing 
hospitality. Hospitality and Society, 1(1), 3–24. 
Pritchard, A., Morgan, N., & Ateljevich, I. (2011). Hopeful tourism: A new transformative 
perspective. Annals of Tourism Research, 38(3), 941– 963. 
Veijola, S., Germann Molz, J., Pyyhtinen, O., Höckert, E., & Grit, A. (2014). Disruptive tourism 
and its untidy guests: Alternative ontologies for future hospitalities. New York: Palgrave 
MacMillan. 
  


Toward Hospitable Methodologies in Tourism

Graci, Sonya

Van Vliet, Logan

CTS 2019 
 
Title: Exploring the Use of Environmental Instruments as a Method to Promote Sustainable 
Tourism in Islands: The Case of Savusavu, Fiji 
 
Authors: 
 
Sonya Graci 
Ryerson University, Canada 
 
Logan Van Vliet 
Ryerson University, Canada 
 
Abstract:  
Small islands such as Gili Trawangan in Indonesia, require the sustainable use of 
resources and conservation of their wildlife in order to continue to thrive as a tourism 
destination. As the draw to many islands is the natural resources, these destinations must protect 
the resources that sustain them. In the case of Gili Trawangan, which is known as the sea turtle 
capital of the world, it is in their best interest to conserve their marine and land based resources 
in order to ensure their longevity as a tourist destination. A rapidly growing tourism destination 
that has reached its carrying capacity, excessive pollution and disturbance from fisherman and 
tour boats has led to the negative management of the land and sea resources. Despite these forces 
of negative change however, the community has come together and instituted several innovative 
ways to create sustainable change.  Through the development of the Gili Eco-trust and its 
associated eco-tax several community based initiatives have been implemented that has led to the 
empowerment of the local community to fight the negative consequences of unplanned tourism 
development.  This paper aims to discuss several community based initiatives that have been 
implemented in this island to create empowerment and positive change. It is based on four 
qualitative studies that have been conducted in the island from 2005 to 2012.  This case study 
explores how collaboration at a community level can create the implementation of several 
initiatives such as an environmental impact assessment, eco-trust, eco-tax, and the involvement 
of an environmental coordinator that leads workshops on environmental education, fights the 
slaughter and mismanagement of the marine and land ecosystems and leads to partnerships that 
empower this community to fight the negative impacts of tourism development. 
  


Exploring the Use of Environmental Instruments as a Method to Promote Sustainable Tourism in Islands: The Case of Savusavu, Fiji

Gordon, Pauline

CTS 2019 
Title: Journey into Higher Education: A Study of Postgraduate Indian Students’ Experiences, as 
They Make the Journey to a New Teaching and Learning Environment in the UK 
 
Authors: 
 
Pauline Gordon 
Edinburgh Napier University, UK 
 
Abstract:  
In recent years the number of postgraduate students from India studying in the United 
Kingdom (UK) has significantly increased, bringing substantial economic benefits to the higher 
education sector and the wider economy. In particular, Indian students studying on postgraduate 
programmes in the UK form the largest group of postgraduate students (58%), which is forecast 
to grow annually, by 3.1%, until 2024 (British Council, 2014; HESA, 2018). However, 
increasing international competition along with evolving government restrictions on student 
immigration and the decision to leave the European Union (EU), has put the sector in a very 
vulnerable position. Currently, there are various groups of international students who have come 
from different academic backgrounds and encountered various challenges moving to an 
unfamiliar Teaching and Learning Environment (TLE). Hence it is crucial that Higher Education 
Institutions (HEIs) understand from a student perspective, the issues and challenges that students 
experience, so that they can design and implement appropriate support strategies that facilitate 
the needs of different cohorts of students.    
The search for specific studies carried out on Indian postgraduate students’ educational 
experience into (HEIs) in the UK has generated few results. Indeed much of the research that 
currently exists about international students’ educational experience has centred on specific 
aspects of transition such as: widening participation, social and academic integration, retention, 
and the social and academic institutional systems that support students Harvey, Drew and Smith, 
2006; Johnson, 2010; Roberts, 2003; Trotter and Roberts, 2006; Yorke and Longden, 2008). 
However, this study makes an attempt to move the discussion forward by viewing transition as 
an educational process rather than as an outcome. By viewing transition as an educational 
process, it allows the researcher to capture student’s experiences as they make their journey from 
one (TLE) to another. This DBA study focusses on capturing the educational experiences of a 
group of Indian students who have chosen to study on various postgraduate degree programmes 
within a Business School at a Scottish university. The study follows the students’ educational 
journey, as they move from their previous (TLE) to a new (TLE) in the UK. Using a purely 
qualitative approach to gather data, the research captures students’ experiences as they journey 
into a new (TLE) in the UK, thus allowing the researcher to obtain a deep understanding of the 
issues and challenges through the voices of students. 
Research data was gathered using two sets of unstructured interviews, which were 
conducted at two critical points in the students’ journey.  There were six students interviewed at 
two different stages and each interview lasted between one to one and half hours. Subsequently, 
the data was analysed using thematic analysis which identified six specific themes that were 
presented and discussed. The findings revealed the issues and challenges that Indian 
postgraduate students experienced when they made the educational journey from their home 
(TLE) to a new (TLE) in the UK.  The findings also reveal that the support strategies 
implemented by the host institution were not effective in helping students to successfully adapt 
CTS 2019 
to their new (TLE).  The study makes a contribution to knowledge in two ways. Firstly it moves 
the discussion forward by allowing the researcher to study transition from a different perspective.  
For example, this study views transition as an educational process that captures student’s 
experiences, therefore it explores experiences rather than simply capturing the outcome of an 
educational journey. Secondly the study contributes to knowledge by providing Indian students 
with a voice to share their experience in the context of a postgraduate programme. 
Recommendations from the study are presented and based on the needs of Indian students, with 
some ideas being unique because they were suggested by the students themselves.  These can be 
used to inform the host (HEI), the teachers who teach these students, as well as the wider 
academic community. 
 
  


Journey into Higher Education: A Study of Postgraduate Indian Studentsâ Experiences, as They Make the Journey to a New Teaching and Learning Environment in the UK

Godtman Kling, Kristin

Margaryan, Lusine

CTS 2019 
Title: (In)equality in the Outdoors: Gender Perspective on Recreation and Tourism Media in the 
Swedish Mountains 
 
Authors: 
 
Kristin Godtman Kling 
Mid-Sweden University College 
 
Lusine Margaryan 
Norwegian University of Life Sciences 
 
Abstract: 
This study investigates participation and visibility of women in outdoor recreation, by 
looking at the case of mountain areas in Sweden. We examined gender differences in 
participation in various outdoor recreation and tourism activities in the Swedish mountain region 
and explored how these activities are portrayed from a gender perspective on the websites of five 
major tourist destinations. Investigating participation in outdoor recreation from a gender 
perspective is important, as spending time in nature has been linked to better health and well-
being. It can therefore be argued that if men have better opportunities and more encouragement 
to participate in nature-based activities, women risk exclusion from important elements 
connected to quality of life.  
Remote mountain areas and Northern landscapes have traditionally been imagined and 
marketed as wild and untamed and, thus, oriented towards the male tourist gaze. Tourist 
activities such as shopping, visiting spas, spending time with family are, however, most often 
marketed towards women, perpetuating stereotypes of beauty, motherhood and care in leisure. In 
order to better understand and possibly counteract persistent gender norms in participation and 
representation of outdoor recreation, an analysis of tourist media visualizations becomes 
particularly relevant.  
This study aims to contribute to the research on gender representations in tourism media 
by focusing on promotional images of mountain destinations, grounded in statistical data on 
outdoor recreation participation in Sweden. The study adopts a mixed-methods research design, 
combining quantitative and qualitative methods. The quantitative data analysis aims to find out if 
there are gender differences in the modes of participation in outdoor recreation among the 
Swedish population, based on a national survey. The qualitative analysis of images on tourism 
websites aims to understand how outdoor recreation is represented in promotional media from a 
gender perspective. The results from both data sources are subsequently integrated.  
Results from the quantitative analysis show a statistically significant association between 
gender and type of outdoor activity in a number of the activities included in the survey. Results 
from the qualitative image analysis revealed that traditional gender norms were present in the 
website images, such as portraying women in calm environments and men in action-filled 
environments. Women were also more often portrayed as passive landscape admirers. Findings 
also show connections between activity participation and gender display, as, for example, 
CTS 2019 
significantly more men were engaged in mountain biking, and more men were portrayed 
participating in this activity. 
Persistence of gender norms in the outdoors is problematic on several levels. Perpetuating 
women’s roles as passive participants undermines their aspirations for leadership positions in the 
outdoor context and reinforce the notion of women as outsiders in this environment. Moreover, 
portraying men as adrenaline-seeking adventurers places exaggerated expectations on men as 
conquers of the outdoors. Stereotypical displays of outdoor recreation activities can therefore be 
argued to negatively affect both women’s and men’s relationship with the outdoors, as it can 
limit both genders in their choice of activity.  
  


(In)equality in the Outdoors: Gender Perspective on Recreation and Tourism Media in the Swedish Mountains

Eger, Claudia

CTS 2019 
E 
Title: The Moralization of Gender Inequality 
 
Author: 
 
Claudia Eger 
Copenhagen Business School, Denmark 
 
Abstract:  
This paper studies the persistence of inequality permeating tourism, being embodied in its 
interactions, constructed in the gendered division of labor and inscribed on representations of 
destinations. It focuses on the ways in which relationships of gender inequality are performed 
and reproduced in the workplace and everyday life through doing gender (West and Zimmerman, 
1987). The conceptual foundations of doing gender lie in its critique of the essentialist binary 
construction of gender and the effects thereof on normative conceptions of gender that maintain 
intersecting systems of inequality.  
The paper adopts an interdisciplinary perspective drawing together organizational, 
feminist and philosophical studies to capture the complex intersections between gender, religion 
and access to tourism work. Departing from a view of gender inequality as rooted in the different 
valuation of genders, it develops a novel view of the social foundation of inequality based on 
respect. It argues that socially constructed disadvantages persist due to their moralization. More 
specifically, it studies the effects of women and men’s differentiated sense of entitlement to 
respect on women’s access to paid employment.  
The framework is applied to the study of gender in Muslim majority countries, which are 
increasingly leveraging tourism’s employment potential as a development strategy. The tension 
between universal norms and moral relativism have been at the center of debates in business 
ethics and development. Galvanized by women’s movements in the Arab spring uprisings, an 
increasing reflection on the position and role of women in Muslim societies, and society as a 
whole in the 21st century, has acquired renewed urgency. In theorizing about inequality-
supportive norms and practices in organizations and society, this paper aims to provide an insight 
to the sometimes-subtle transformations that represent sites of resistance and empowerment 
within gender trouble.  
  


The Moralization of Gender Inequality

DemeyÃ¨re, Caroline

CTS 2019 
Title: Have Fun but Don’t Fight: Ambivalences and Opportunities to Use Celebration as a 
Strategy to Advance Gender Equality in Organizations 
  
Author: 
Caroline Demeyère 
Université Paris Nanterre, France  
 
Abstract: 
This communication proposes a reflection on celebration as a strategy to advance equality 
in organizations. Celebration has been important for several social movements (e.g. LGBTQ+) as 
a strategy for empowerment and to raise awareness about inequalities. Indeed, fighting for 
equality does not have to be synonymous with guilt, boringness and sadness. Celebration has a 
strong potential in creating belongingness, federating people around positive affects and 
emotions such as happiness. Yet, celebration can often be used as a way to depoliticize an issue, 
to undermine the critical dimension of the demands. It is easily captured by a tyranny of 
positivity (Ehrenreich, 2010) that will silence and exclude those who express illegitimate 
emotions (e.g. anger, unfairness, despair) in stigmatizing them as killjoys (Ahmed, 2017, 2010). I 
draw on my still on-going ethnographic experience as a volunteer in a non-profit organization 
which aims to promote gender-equality in public and private organizations through training, 
consulting and research. The non-profit organization is asked to animate fun and disruptive 
training sessions more and more frequently, and to make gender-equality an organizational 
event. In order to open a discussion on how we can articulate celebration in an ambitious 
promotion of gender-equality strategy, I present three theatre fragments that I wrote during my 
ethnographic inquiry, inspired by performance ethnography methods.  
 
Ahmed, A. (2017). Living a Feminist Life. Durham and London : Duke University Press. 322 pp. 
Ahmed, A. (2010). The Promise of Happiness. Durham and London: Duke University Press. 328 
pp. 
Ehrenreich, B. (2010). Smile or die: How positive thinking fooled America and the world. 
London: Granta. 
  


Have Fun but Donât Fight: Ambivalences and Opportunities to Use Celebration as a Strategy to Advance Gender Equality in Organizations

Benali, Amira

Belhaouane, Aicha

Smaoui, Fatma

CTS 2019 
Title: Questioning the Empowerment Discourse: The Case of Rural Women in Ecotourism in 
Post-revolutionary Tunisia 
 
Authors: 
 
Amira Benali 
Copenhagen Business School, Denmark 
 
Aicha Belhaouane 
Institut Supérieur de Gestion, Tunisia 
 
Fatma Smaoui 
Institut Supérieur de Gestion, Tunisia 
 
Abstract: 
Tourism is one of the sectors that has been most affected by the country’s political 
instability after the revolution in 2011. In particular, the two terrorist attacks in 2015, namely the 
one at Bardo’s museum in March 2015 and the one of Sousse in June of the same year, resulted 
in dramatically decreased tourism activity and all the related business such as transport, 
communications, crafts, trade, and construction. Along with this crisis, there is a solidarity 
movement that is being felt more and more in Tunisia, especially among young people and 
women. These subpopulations are mobilizing to reinvent the economy and overcome 
precariousness. The so-called “social and solidarity economy” (SSE) appears as a substitute for 
the public sector, as a solution to create employment and solve social and economic problems. In 
the same fashion, tourism was the first sector in creating new projects with social impact. These 
new projects aim to create employment and also promote local tourism in the country in order to 
depend less on international tourism. Within this context and under the discourse of 
empowerment, the figure of the rural woman is more visible. However, Tunisia is a society 
where regionalism, among other factors, creates social categories and social inequalities. 
Similarly, while the Tunisian women are the figures of independent women in the Arab world, 
the ones who are “shining” on TV and in international political speeches are often the elite 
women. They are figures of emancipation because they look like Western women. The rural 
women, the ones who wear “hijab,” work during olive harvest season, and do housework are 
only visible when it comes to promoting the social and solidarity economy.  This leads us to 
question the rural women’s empowerment discourse using a feminist approach. Women’s 
empowerment through tourism has been studied as a way to challenge the traditional gender role 
of women as being only housewives, while men provide the financial support (Moswete & 
Lacey, 2015). However, some tourism studies highlight the disempowerment effect of tourism 
(Aghazamania and Hunt, 2017). In this paper we seek to understand if the SSE in the tourism 
sector is emancipatory for rural women or, on the contrary, if it is a marketing tool exploiting 
CTS 2019 
them? In order to answer this question, a qualitative study will be held in Tunisia combining 
different methods, namely participant observation in Dar el Ain (an ecotourism center built 
around a social and solidarity enterprise), interviews with different stakeholders (government, 
NGOs, social entrepreneurs, and rural women) and also secondary data. 
 
Aghazamani, Y., & Hunt, C. A. (2017). Empowerment in Tourism: A Review of Peer-Reviewed 
Literature. Tourism Review International, 21(4), 333-346. 
Moswete, N., & Lacey, G. (2015). “Women cannot lead”: Empowering women through cultural 
tourism in Botswana. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 23(4), 600–617. 
  


Questioning the Empowerment Discourse: The Case of Rural Women in Ecotourism in Post-revolutionary Tunisia

Belhassen, Yaniv

CTS 2019 
Title: A Conceptual Framework for Sustainable Development of Marijuana Tourism  
 
Author: 
 
Yaniv Belhassen 
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel 
 
Abstract:  
The legalization of marijuana for recreational use in various localities around the globe 
has been driven by an economic rationale of enriching tourism products, attracting a new 
segment of marijuana users, and profiting from a new product that can be taxed separately. 
Accordingly, marijuana-based tourism is often presented as a means to revitalize the local 
tourism economy and advance locals’ quality of life.  Based on the growing literature on the 
development of this type of tourism, this presentation seeks to offer a threefold conceptual 
framework for sustainable development of this market: first, the cultivation of local and authentic 
marijuana products; second, a special taxation on marijuana-related products that goes directly to 
fill the needs of the local community; and third, the economic and educational support of local 
entrepreneurs in the marijuana market as a means for creating a localized market. Given the 
growing competition that seems to be arising in the global marijuana market, this threefold 
strategy should be considered by destinations that seek to utilize the legalization of recreational 
marijuana as a tourism development strategy.   
  


A Conceptual Framework for Sustainable Development of Marijuana Tourism

This research article examines Merlin\u27s prophecies and how their political use has shifted from one of belief and of direct political significance, to general disbelief. It examines how the use of prophecy exploited the prestige of King Arthur and Merlin. Tactics used to take advantage of this prestige ranged from rulers claiming blood relation to King Arthur to learned men interpreting existing prophecies. Sources, such as Wace, Geoffrey of Monmouth, and modern day novelists, are used to illustrate the prophecies\u27 evolution from the twelfth to the twentieth century and what it means

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