Off the Beaten Path
Travel Behaviour and Perception of the Middle East as A Travel Destination: South Asian Traveller
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Neha Bhanu Prakash, Pavlina Latkova
The topic of religion is not well represented in the tourism literature. However, religion and perceptions of religion may influence a travellers’ decision making. Specifically, perceptions of religious practices may have impacts on the image associated with a destination. The purpose of this research is to examine how south Asian tourists form a destination image of the Middle East. Further, this research explores the connection of religious perceptions and Middle East destination images. This research applies a mixed methods approach. Specifically, an online survey was gathered from social media groups to quantify perceptions and destination images. (Online surveys and semi structured interviews). Online surveys from a social media group and semi structured interviews were conducted of a randomly selected small group of participants. Results indicate that the participants created an image based on what they visualized and heard about the destination. They perceived the destination to be luxurious, safe etc. Participants indicated that religion of the destination was a factor that they considered. The perceptions of religion of the destination were based on the destination’s political stability, lifestyle, and other history of the destination.
Featured Racial Capitalism at a Martial Art Destination Training Camp in Thailand: Who Benefits from Sports Tourism? View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Alexandra Maris
There is a new trend emerging in sporting tourism: martial art destination training camps. These camps are based in the places of ‘origin’ of certain martial arts such as Muay Thai in Thailand, Judo in Japan and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in Brazil. In my study, I examine how the transnational physical cultural hotspot of Phuket, Thailand draws sports tourists from the global north to train Muay Thai in Thailand. Through my critical institutional embodied ethnography of a Muay Thai camp I found that training camps sell a particular ‘authentic’ mythology of Thailand as the land of Muay Thai as well as selling Phuket as an exotic locale of sun, sand and surf. This form of sports tourist consumption allows for a primarily western demographic of tourists to transform their bodies in healthified spaces vis-à-vis biopedagogical practices. Consequently, the local Thai population functions within a racial capitalism framework that impoverishes discourses surrounding race and ingrains racial hierarchy due to commodifying racial identity. Thus, this leads to precarity of Thai trainers and staff and the furthering of health disparities due to prolonged exposure to combat sports. This paper addresses discriminatory structures and uneven power relations at a sports tourist training camp and suggests more ethical alternatives to this form of sports tourism.
MTB Madrid to Lisbon: From the Passion to the Product View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Elsa Correia Gavinho
With the increase of tourism activity, becomes more important to structure its offer, especially in terms of products and services differentiation in fragile territories. Based on a practical example this paper aims to present the work developed in the building of a tourist itinerary, from the beginning of the idea to its implementation. Based on an autoethnography methodology, and associated with a specific example, the paper develops the different stages of MTB Madrid Lisbon creation, also from the inside point of trade view. The MTB Madrid Lisbon is an itinerary that was idealized and commercialized by a Portuguese travel agency to be done on MTB or road bike. This is an adventure tourism itinerary implemented in a territory that links the two capitals of the Iberian Peninsula, with small towns and villages, where tourism is not very developed. All information and data were obtained over eight years, beginning with brainstorming, passing to the design, planning and field preparation, and implementation. This work reflects a rich collection of information especially at the planning level of tourist itineraries, with the potential to become a guide for identical models and even as a tool for teaching in the area of tourism planning. From the developed work it was still possible to perceive that this itinerary is constantly updated looking for continuous improvement and tourist satisfaction.
From March to Plight of the Penguin: An Encounter with Antarctic Tourism View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Pat Mahoney
The Antarctic Peninsula is one of the fastest warming places on Earth, with historic average midwinter temperatures exceeding 50C since 1950 (IPCC 2022). The region is also the epicenter of a dramatic increase in Antarctic tourism along with being the primary nesting ground for Antarctica’s most prominent penguin species. As iconic images in travel catalogues and on expedition websites, Penguins have become a symbol of Antarctica’s conquest by the tourist industry. Yet, today these charismatic creatures are disappearing from the White Continent. This paper investigates the growing concern over Antarctic penguin colony collapse, a phenomenon situated at the intersection of accelerating climate change and tourism in the region. I argue that penguin’s encounter with the human – whether direct or indirect – has contributed to their current plight. The extraordinary increase in actual physical landings on the continent has brought penguins into direct contact with the human (Mahoney 2020). Penguin colony collapse can occur indirectly – without ever confronting the human – as a consequence of regional ice melt. As Antarctic ice extent decreases penguin colonies are forced into arduous intra-continental migrations or they collapse. This contradictory process of shrinking ice coupled with expanding tourist arrivals, calls into question the continuing presence of the Antarctic penguin as a tourist attraction (IAATO). Colony collapse is concentrated on the Antarctic Peninsula and in Western Antarctica, the same regions most directly impacted by tourism (Greenpeace 2020; British Antarctic Society). This paper argues that this relationship is anything but a coincidence.
