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• The challenges of political responsibility in tourism are discussed. • Current political consumerist approaches are problematised. • The novel concept of oppression offsetting is introduced. • Research possibilities on oppression offsetting's potential are forwarded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although tourism is one of the most popular leisure activities in contemporary times, it is also regarded as one of the most typical alienated activities. However, few studies have extensively examined tourists' experiences of alienation. Informed by the General System Theory-based alienation model, this study endeavors to explore the subtypes and causes of alienated tourism experiences. Using critical realistic thematic analysis, a total of 939 online posts were analyzed, revealing 13 distinct subtypes of alienation forms, and identifying nine underlying causes. The study further proposes a framework for alienated travel experience. It demonstrates that tourism serves as both the origin of new forms of alienation and an extension of alienation from daily life. • Explores alienation via general system theory model • 939 online posts analyzed via critical realistic thematic analysis • Reveals 13 subdivisions of alienated travel experiences across 5 dimensions • Uncovers 9 underlying causes of alienated travel experiences [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Behavioural change research for environmental sustainability is currently guided almost exclusively by a cognitive paradigm, which assumes that cognitive constructs drive behaviour and must be influenced to change it. This study challenges this dominant paradigm and tests two non-cognitive theoretical constructs – respect for authority and empathy – in the context of reducing buffet plate waste. Respect for authority (in contrast to empathy) passes the manipulation check and significantly reduces plate waste in a quasi-experimental field study in a Chinese hotel, providing proof of concept for a new, urgently needed, re-orientation in behavioural change intervention design. The intervention tested in this study can immediately be deployed by tourism and hospitality businesses who want to make their buffets more cost-effective and environmentally sustainable. • Plate waste harms the environment and must urgently be reduced. • We developed non-cognitive behavioural change interventions. • We tested them in a survey and field experiment. • Plate waste per person per day was measured at a hotel buffet. • A respect for authority-based intervention reduced buffet plate waste by 6.8 %. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the disruption caused by the COVID19 pandemic has receded, tourism capitalism continues to be imbricated in multiple and intersecting crises. This paper argues that the roots of such crises and the manner of their unfolding do not merely 'impact' tourism but have been incubated within and shaped by the structural dynamics of tourism capital accumulation itself. This paper draws on a historical materialist epistemology and critical theorization of capitalism to challenge orthodox framings of tourism crises and their deep-rooted structural drivers. The paper reflects on the nature of crises in relation to the mutations of Spanish tourism capitalism and the continual efforts to resolve the crisis-prone nature of tourism. • Crises are misleadingly construed as exogenous disruptions to tourism systems. • Tourism is imbricated in multiple, intersecting crises or polycrisis. • Tourism polycrisis is interrogated from a critical political economy perspective. • The crisis dynamics of tourism are grounded in the contradictions of capitalism. • The epochal nature of tourism polycrisis cannot be resolved through regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A half-century of research purporting to explain tourists' motivations for engaging in pleasure vacations was critiqued. Two major changes in context that have influenced tourism motivation studies, and which define the parameters of this review are identified. This is followed by a description of the Theory of Disequilibrium, which has emerged as the unifying theory for explaining tourists' motivation, and the physiological and psychological roots of motive constructs. Research findings relating to the efficacy of the most frequently cited frameworks in tourism texts for explaining this process were critiqued. The review confirmed that most studies tended to embrace either the "push" and "pull" factors which are the inputs to Expectancy-Value Theory, or a more instinctive Thematic-Combination Heuristic approach, or some combination of the two. These were critiqued. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research. • Half-century reflection of the tourism motivations research • Theory of Disequilibrium is a unifying theory to ground tourism motives research. • Eight overriding motives are identified. • Past motivational models have been misused. • A call is made for sustained research on tourism motives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This edited email dialogue between a senior American social scientist, Dean MacCannell, and an early career French anthropologist, Thomas Apchain, began soon after they observed that two of the earliest contributions to tourism studies, MacCannell's and Nelson Graburn's, both claimed tourist phenomena to be underpinned by classical theories of religion. The lack of follow-up on either MacCannell's or Graburn's claim of an analytically heuristic relationship between tourism and religion is traced back to a preexisting schism in the sociology and anthropology of religion between Arnold Van Gennep and Emile Durkheim. MacCannell and Apchain find that this division persists as a fracture in the foundation of the social theory both of tourism research and of the human sciences more generally. • N. Graburn and D. MacCannell grounded their approaches in theories of religion. • However there has been no significant follow-up toward a general theory of tourism. • One of the reasons is a schism within sociology of religion itself. • Clarifying this schism will unlock the potential of tourism research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on convention and social identity theories, this paper explores how actors utilize conventions and identities to claim legitimacy and defend their judgements in processes of hot authentication. It does this through a qualitative study of Greek ethnic restaurants, considering both in-group (Greek restaurant owners and diaspora diners) and out-group (tourist and non-Greek) perspectives. We identify three orders of worth (market, domestic and inspirational) which embody contrasting notions of authenticity (pragmatic iconicity, ancestral indexicality and innovative iconicity, respectively). Each order of worth incorporates notions of quality as well as legitimate actors in authentication processes. While hot authentication is a diffuse process, some actors nonetheless possess privileged positions in particular orders of worth. • Processes of authentication relate to orders of worth (quality conventions). • Different orders of worth embody distinct notions of authenticity. • Actors invoke conventions to validate their position in authentication processes. • While hot authentication is participatory, some actors possess favoured positions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change will have far-reaching consequence for the future of tourism. A Climate Change Vulnerability Index for Tourism (CVIT) comprised of 27 indicators provides a transparent and systematic first analysis of the differential vulnerability of the tourism sector in 181 countries. Countries with the lowest vulnerability are found in western and northern Europe, central Asia, Canada and New Zealand. High sector vulnerability is found in Africa, Middle East, South Asia and Small Island Developing States. Vulnerability is highest in many countries where tourism represents the largest proportion of GDP and regions where tourism growth is expected to be the strongest over the coming decades. Climate change will pose an increasing barrier to tourism contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals. • Lowest climate change vulnerability for tourism is found in higher-latitude OECD countries • Highest climate change vulnerability often coincides with highest sector GDP contribution • Highest vulnerability exists in regions where tourism growth is expected to be the strongest • Climate change will pose an increasing barrier to tourism contributions to UN SDGs • Consideration of climate change should be strengthened in tourism development plans [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The exceedingly competitive climate of academia has increased the emphasis on performance-based research funding. In this paper we evaluate the UK's government assessment of research impact and critically comment upon the implications for future research conduct. The key findings are as follows; firstly we provide a summary of UK tourism research impact. Secondly, we demonstrate the effect of the resulting significance gap, and comment upon the consequences of the Research Excellence Frameworks' (REF) research impact assessment in terms of a research culture change. Lastly, we proposition that the current assessment structure can have negative long-term consequences in that key issues facing tourism fall outside 'good' research impact. • The REF 2014 assessment influenced what is considered good UK research impact. • The assessed research had little impact on some of the big tourism challenges. • The research impact disciplinary mechanism is enacting its own value structure. • The emergent value structure focuses on safe, simple and tellable impacts. • Such pragmatic conduct may have long-term negative consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Awe is a positive emotion of particular relevance for tourism, although thorough studies of its behavioural outcomes are rare. This research investigated the experience of awe accessed through tourism and its influence on environmentally responsible behaviour (ERB). Three studies, including an on-site survey and two experimental studies across different populations, were conducted to test our theory and proposed hypotheses. Our results show that by diminishing the emphasis on the individual self, evoking awe through tourism experiences may encourage people to conduct ERB. The robustness of the results was verified through multiple methods. Finally, theoretical contributions and managerial implications are discussed along with recommendations for future research. • This study revealed that awe can be triggered by nature-based attractions as well as man-made attractions. • This study found that awe elicited in the tourism setting has a strong and positive impact on ERB intention • The effect of awe on ERB intention was found to be driven by the small self-perception induced by awe. • This study provided experimental evidence that the effect of awe on ERB intention is causal. • This study showed that awe not only influences ERB intention but also exerts extensive influence on actual ERB behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper recounts a "Roots" tour of Ghana that took place in 2014. Roots tours are African tours specifically marketed toward African-American travelers. Tours include stops associated with the trans-Atlantic slave trade as well as sites of a more general cultural interest. The paper focuses on the encounters of tourists with Ghana. Specifically, this study uses Benjamin's concept of auras of authenticity to demonstrate that the authentic and affective are inextricably coupled and that both perform as essential constituents in place and memory making. This work relies on readings and interpretations of travelers' aspects (emotional expressions) as well as their sentiments as expressed in their speech and their writings. These manifestations of affect are captured through participant observation, interviews, photographs, and autoethnography. The findings of this study suggest that experiences of authenticity along with affective materials and landscapes work to bind memory to moment and place. • Auras of authenticity can trigger affects. • Structures and objects can harbor absent presences. • Landscapes can harbor absent presences. • Encounters with human and non-human entities can conjure affects. • Affect bind memories to moments and places. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper identifies changes in borderland tourism and their bordering consequences on the Daluo-Mongla border in Xishuangbanna, China. It identifies three distinctive phases: (a) phase one (1991–2001)- rapid growth of organized cross-border tourist flow, (b) phase two (2002−2011)- stagnation and collapse of formal tourism sector yet emerging illegal cross-border tourist flow, and (c) phase three (2012-present)- resurrection and transition of border tourism. It illustrates the border-making agency of tourism, arguing tourism development at the border can be viewed as a re-bordering force. It analyzes an evolutionary process of changing power structures, namely a dominant control of local states and market forces, a partial power shift towards national state and border communities, and a new dominance by the Chinese state. • The subject relates to border tourism in China using the Xishuangbanna-Myanmar border as a case. • The historical uniqueness of Chinese border tourism is described. • An evolutionary process of changing power structures is assessed. • The research is based on periods of immersion in local village culture. • Border tourism in China is shown to possess a fluidity of meaning over the last 30 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • A conceptual framework for the geopolitical encounters of tourism is established. • A theoretical intersection between tourism, geopolitics, and encounter is identified. • The tourism encounter shapes geopolitical discourse and practice at multiple scales. • The geopolitics of temporal, bodily and identity encounters are examined. • Nation-building, development, and territorialization are geopolitical tourism practices. Abstract This article presents a conceptual framework for examining the tourism encounter as a geopolitical encounter. In establishing this framework, we identify the theoretical intersection of tourism, geopolitics, and encounter in order to conceptualize how experience reflects and shapes power relations at national, regional, and global scales. We examine three dimensions—long central to tourism analysis—of the geopolitical tourism encounter: temporal encounters, bodily encounters and identity encounters. In doing so, we demonstrate the significance of tourism in the everyday dimensions of geopolitical discourse and practice. This article offers a critical lens through which scholars can theorize the geopolitical drivers and implications of the tourism encounter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Studies perceived India and China rivalry at a World Heritage site in Nepal. • Importance of geopolitics in the articulation of heritage in tourism settings. • Heritage and tourism practices are mediated by political processes of representation. • Demonstrates that tourism at times can act as a non-state actor in geopolitics. Abstract This study explores the intricacies of geopolitical imagination at a heritage attraction in Nepal, when a Chinese NGO proposed an investment project to develop it as tourism hub. It seeks to investigate the discourses and reasons deployed by Nepali tourism stakeholders in explaining the Chinese plan. The study applies qualitative methodology and the primary data which were collected through 20 semi-structured interviews. The study shows that in articulating the project aim, the agency of national actors is shaped by the regional power struggle and a 'nationalist' sentiment originated from perceived threat to the heritage in question. The finding is useful in understanding the complexities of geopolitical constraints that can influence tourism development projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes how air pollution disclosure reshapes tourism in China. We show, in theory, that air pollution information may change tourism activities, depending on the pollution level disclosed. Using the difference-in-differences approach and panel data across 297 cities, our empirical analyses confirm significant positive effects of air pollution information disclosure. The impact, however, is moderated by the level of air pollution. Only cities with low air pollution are happy with disclosing the information while in cities with high air pollution, disclosing air pollution may exert negative effects. Overall, the results indicate that air pollution reduces information transparency's positive impact on tourism. This urges tourism managers to use the instrument of environmental information to reduce pollution and boost local tourism. [Display omitted] • This paper assesses the impact of air pollution disclosing on tourism in China. • Domestic tourism has developed a lot in Chinese cities between 2000 and 2013. • Air pollution disclosing imposes a net positive impact on local tourism. • The effect of air pollution disclosing is negatively moderated by air pollution. • Environmental information transparency is a useful tool to boost local tourism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most social network analyses conducted in hospitality and tourism studies are merely descriptive. Despite the recent popularity of exponential-family of random graph models (ERGMs) in various scientific investigations, no studies have utilized these inferential methods of network analysis in hospitality and tourism studies. In some contexts, the power of these methods is undeniably superior to those of conventional statistical tests. Accordingly, in the current study, by using the controversial subject of tourism-peace, I demonstrated how ERGMs can be used in hypotheses testing and statistical modeling in hospitality and tourism context. The results of this study suggest that a change of perspective in tourism-peace discourse from tourism as a peacemaker to tourism as a peacekeeper can be a valid approach concerning the long-lasting debates on the relationship between tourism and peace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities play a pivotal role in progressing cultural tourism, embracing everyday life, where particular cityscapes afford a diversity of cultural practices. The ethnographic storying of two city public artworks presents a backcloth of historical, cultural and religio-political outlooks. Public art and idiosyncratic atmospherics provide conflicting narratives of how pubic art attends wider religion-tourism concerns. Both public artworks observe 'together-apart' imaginings of a past-present legacy. This study traces their effect, through researcher short vignettes, visual culture and poetic reflection. This study contributes to the religion-tourism nexus, drawing on political, cultural, religious and social perspectives, which underpin these urban tourism sites. Public art has to make sense, have cultural competence and resonate with citizens. • Public Art plays a pivotal role in progressing cultural tourism. • Public Art as community building. • Public art should emerge from a community consensus and have purpose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Counterfactual reasoning is a high-level causality-based cognitive approach. • Prior AI tourism research often overlooked potential causal effects in data. • AI-based counterfactual reasoning captures causal effects for tourism big data. • AI-based counterfactual reasoning complements experimental design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growth of neuroscience studies within tourism has been relatively slow, with limited well-executed studies and little interdisciplinarity. The aim of this review is to stimulate the use of neuroscience within tourism research. It first discusses the synergies to be gained by combining neuroscience with social science, exploring the usefulness and suitability of using neuroscience within tourism. An evaluation of review articles that have critiqued individual applications of neuroscience in tourism is presented, followed by a comprehensive overview of neuroscience methods. We discuss the theoretical relevance of neuroscience and its potential themes for a tourism neuroscience research agenda. This discussion is based on a selective review of wider neuroscience of relevance to tourism, including affective neuroscience, neuromarketing, neuroeconomics and neuromanagement. • Brings social science and neuroscience closer together. • Set out a truly interdisciplinary research agenda for tourism scholarship. • Takes a "review of the reviews" approach to critique existing review articles. • Explores the theoretical relevance and contribution of neuroscience in tourism. • Reviews affective neuroscience, neuromarketing, neuroeconomics and neuromanagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing visibility of gay tourism in digital media generates debates around certain practices that are not tied to heteronormativity, as is the case with cruising. This study explores the contradictions generated by cruising as a potential tourist resource based on debates reproduced in digital media. Specifically, it examines one of the most important international LGBT+ tourist destinations, Maspalomas, and one of the best-known settings for this type of practice: the Maspalomas sand dunes. • The practice of cruising is a motivation for some gay men to choose a destination. • The visibilization of cruising is considered as a threat to other types of tourism. • There is a media debate on the practice of gay cruising in touristic areas • The practice of gay sex in Maspalomas Dunes is presented by media as a moral problem • Ecology and environment protection are new arguments to oppose gay cruising. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disinformation poses a formidable threat to the tourism industry, but empirical studies remain limited. Recognizing this escalating crisis, this study undertakes a theoretically grounded cross-country investigation of political disinformation and its crippling consequences on the travel and tourism sector. While the pre-pandemic analysis from 2018 constituting 160 countries demonstrates the impact of foreign disinformation on the sector's performance, a supplemental analysis from 2021 comprising 117 countries highlights domestic disinformation emerging as a greater threat over disinformation from foreign operatives. Qualitative insights are presented for specific configurations. The study overcomes theoretical vagueness around disinformation as a phenomenon and provides a robust theoretical foundation anchored on agenda-building and soft power theories for the understanding of disinformation and its impact on tourism performance. [Display omitted] • The impact of disinformation on tourism is widely acknowledged in the literature. • Despite the escalating crisis, empirical research on this issue remains limited. • A cross-country investigation on impact of political disinformation is conducted. • The analysis reveals the growing threat that disinformation poses to the sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses a political ecology approach to examine the relationship between tourism and groundwater in southwest Nicaragua. Tourism remains a growing industry; however, adequate provisions of freshwater are necessary to sustain the production and reproduction of tourism and it remains uncertain if groundwater supplies can keep pace with demand. Integrating the findings of groundwater monitoring, geological mapping, and ethnographic and survey research from a representative stretch of Pacific coastline, this paper shows that diminishing recharge and increased groundwater consumption is creating a conflict between stakeholders with various levels of knowledge, power, and access. It concludes that marginalization is attributable to the nexus of a political promotion of tourism, poorly enforced state water policies, insufficient water research, and climatic variability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UNWTO (2019) declares education a key element of women's empowerment. This article attempts to explore this issue, asking if higher education in tourism can promote women's empowerment in Balinese society. Our research, conducted from 2019 to 2021, subscribes to a post-colonial perspective. We build an intercultural approach based on the collaboration between French and Balinese researchers. We adopt a structuralist constructivist approach and employ a mixed method. Our study confirms that access to tourism higher education is a vector for women's empowerment in Bali. Yet this structural change is still highly contingent on the support of men. There is a growing gap between administrative rules, tending toward gender equality, and traditional community in which women remain under men's authority. • Intercultural research based on French and Balinese research collaboration • Structuralist constructivist approach and mixed methods • Tourism higher education is a vector for women's empowerment in Bali. • Structural change is still highly contingent on men's support. • Cultural resistance, especially within traditional village organisation [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This commentary examines how events-related research has and increasingly contributes to tourism studies, and how these lines of argument have evolved over the last thirty years, primarily in Annals of Tourism Research. I explicate the theoretical features of events, how previous work has conceptualized them, and why events are unique organizational settings to contribute to theory development. This is particularly significant as events are increasingly delivered in public, cultural and tourist spaces – an extra-territorial shift with implications for the future study and practice of tourism. I close by calling for a more plural conception of events, inclusive of world events, which share similar conceptual features to cultural and sporting events that typically dominate social analysis in event and tourism studies. • Explores how events-related research has and increasingly contributes to tourism studies • Explicates theoretical features of events and how previous work has conceptualized them • Argues why events are unique organizational settings to contribute to theory development • Illustrates how events are increasingly permeating into public, cultural and tourist spaces • Presents future research areas related to events and tourism studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work proposes identity theory as a novel theoretical lens for understanding frontline employees' responses to customer incivility in tourism and hospitality. We advance pertinent research by demonstrating that customer incivility constitutes a dual identity threat (individual/collective threat) for frontline employees. Two experimental studies reveal that: customer incivility towards frontline employees' individual identity affects their psychological responses more adversely than their citizenship behavior; non-monetary rewards are more effective at reducing the adverse effects of customer incivility on frontline employees' psychological responses (than monetary rewards); finally, allowing frontline employees to choose the reward they deem most appropriate enhances both their psychological responses and citizenship behavior. Based on these results a four-step process is proposed to help managers dealing with customer incivility. [Display omitted] • Assess the impact of customer incivility on frontline employees' identity • Customer threats to both individual and collective identities are explored. • Employees' responses vary based on the identity level that is affected • Rewards mitigate the harmful effect of customer incivility on employees. • Reward choice reduces the adverse effect of customer incivility on employees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Travellers are significantly underinsured. • The current state of the travel insurance market is inefficient. • Travel presents unique problems to traveller risk perceptions. • More research required to better understand traveler insurance purchasing behavior. Recent research has found that, in general, travellers are significantly underinsured when travelling abroad. Travel is a unique market among insurance products as there are factors that exacerbate the uncertainty from the consumers' perspective, such as variable time periods of being insured, variable forms of coverage and scale, level of knowledge of the risks at the destination and the activities to be undertaken. We view the current state of the travel insurance market as inefficient as consumers are deemed generally misinformed and unaware of the intricacies of the products on offer and, we argue, behave sub-optimally due to behavioural patterns and perceptions regarding travel. In this commentary, we discuss issues that are unique to travel insurance products which may distort consumer perceptions and highlight a research agenda to address these issues and improve efficiency in the market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study theoretically and methodologically advances the underexplored literature accounting for the social impact generated by the job inclusion of persons with disabilities within the hospitality sector. A theoretical framework based on Amartya Sen's capability approach and the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health informs the participatory process we used to define the most salient inputs, outputs, outcomes, and impacts in a Social Return On Investment (SROI) analysis applied to the operations of a social enterprise, Albergo Etico. The resulting theoretical discussion and empirical application of the capability approach integrated with SROI analysis enables the operationalization of the capability approach in tourism studies, providing a cohesive understanding of disability and an effective reporting of the impacts of job inclusion. [Display omitted] • An increasing demand to measure and report multidimensional impacts of tourism • A growing tourism literature on psychological well-being, inclusion, and disability • Research on the work inclusion of persons with disabilities in tourism supply-side • Integration of the Capability Approach into Social Return On Investment analyses • Theoretical and methodological aspects of work inclusion in the hospitality sector [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study evaluates bibliometric studies in tourism, depicts emerging themes, and offers critical discussions for theory development and future research. To achieve this aim, 190 papers with bibliometric analyses from leading hospitality and tourism journals were selected and critically analyzed. The research findings reveal that bibliometric articles published in these journals significantly increased after 2008. However, systematic review studies emerged as the major group, and relatively few studies utilized evaluative bibliometric and relational bibliometric studies. Study results suggest that paucity still exists, particularly in relational bibliometric studies in tourism. This is one of the first studies in this area that offers critical discussions and suggestions related to theory development and future research in this research vein. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this article is to (re)theorize tourism from a practice-based perspective by introducing the notion of “tourism as practice”. It aims to familiarize newcomers with different theories of practice and their current connections and future perspectives for tourism research. The paper is a theoretical endeavor supported by an epistemology of practice and empirical works that use practice theories to understand the nature of tourism. I advocate that tourism is a set of organizing practices wherein concepts such as “home” and “away”, “tourist” and “non-tourist”, may not be seen as dualisms but as part of a plenum. Tourism as practice also holds that mobility and performativity are not two distinct “paradigms” but rather core elements of tourism’s practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research examines the development from educational to commercial tourism in Britain between the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century by questioning whether this reflected a transformed understanding of the role of travel within society. It focuses on the Polytechnic Touring Association (PTA), a London-based originally philanthropic travel organisation that became a commercial firm. During this period the PTA moved from the project of contributing to the education of citizens to the market-led imperative of ‘harnessing’ a consumer desire. In examining this transformation via the PTA’s changing approach to the visual promotion of its Swiss tours, we suggest that the development of the tourism industry in Britain should also be explored in relation to changing ideas about travel’s contribution to social formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]