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Welsh and coal heritage may seem synonymous in the context of Welsh identities. One of seven national museums, Big Pit and its associated memory work reflect and shape the intertwined dynamic discourses of Wales and coal for visitors. We explore these discourses through a mixed methodology, highlighting the changing and transcalar nature of Wales itself, particularly the devolution of the tourism, heritage, and culture sector in 1997 from the UK Government to the Welsh Government. How have the discourses of National Museum Wales and Big Pit shifted in conjunction with devolutionary power transfers? This paper reflects upon the complicated and fluid discourses of Welshness within the museum's landscapes. Migration, the dialectic of capital industrialization, and the romanticization of the banal activity of work are all central to these discourses at the Big Pit. Transcalar relationships of tourism and heritage fuel and challenge these discourses as the Big Pit sits on the edge of a UK National Park, on the European Route of Industrial Heritage, and as a central institution of the Blaenavon Industrial Landscape UNESCO World Heritage Site. These interscalar and geopolitical relationships of memory, heritage, and tourism emerge from our multisensory analysis and speak to questions echoing across the United Kingdom and other multi-nation states navigating spatial and temporal shifts in the geopolitics of their tourism sectors. All industrial heritage sites navigate national identities in overt and covert ways. The relationships between resources, heritage sites, the state, and visitors shape the landscapes of industrial heritage sites and their embeddedness into community and national narratives. As Big Pit has transitioned from a small industrial heritage site managed by the UK-overseen National Museum of Wales towards a major tourist attraction and equal member of the seven-site Welsh-overseen National Museum Wales, we identify geopolitical shifts in coal and national heritage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is a tribute to Valene Smith, a prominent figure in the field of tourism research. The author reflects on their personal experiences with Valene and highlights her significant contributions to the field. Valene's work laid the foundation for various topics in tourism studies, such as cultural change, Indigenous tourism, and responsible tourism. She also played a crucial role in mentoring and supporting young scholars in the field. The article acknowledges Valene's lasting impact and expresses gratitude for her contributions. [Extracted from the article]

This article argues that Valene Smith's contributions were fundamental for mapping out the terrain for what was envisioned as an 'anthropology of tourism.' As the first major collection of anthropological research on the topic of tourism, Smith's 1977 volume Hosts and Guests offered a wide geographical range of ethnographically grounded studies of tourism, charted typologies, and chronicled tourism impacts, much as one would map a 'field of ethnological study'. This article addresses the role of Smiths's volume in legitimizing what had previously been an off-the-radar realm of anthropological study. It also traces one of the many legacies of Smith's landmark volume: the blossoming of a realm of tourism studies oriented toward examining the politics, performance, and negotiation of identities (including ethnicity, gender, nationalism, and heritage) in and beyond encounters between 'hosts' and 'guests.' Finally, the article addresses Smith's 2001 revised edition of the volume, Hosts and Guests Revisited, arguing that her essays in that volume presciently identified 21st-century realms of interest for tourism scholars, including space tourism, voluntourism, terrorism and tourism, and cyberspace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is a tribute to Dr. Valene Lucy Smith, a scholar and pioneer in the field of tourism studies. The author reflects on Valene's contributions and impact, highlighting her work as an indexer for the Annals of Tourism Research and her interest in museums. The article also discusses Valene's engagement with anthropology, conferences, ethnography, gender issues, geography, and her teaching and mentoring roles. Valene's frameworks, such as the "4 H's" and "Hosts and Guests," continue to guide research in tourism development. The article concludes with heartfelt praise for Valene's scholarship and influence in the field. [Extracted from the article]

In marking 400 years since the first enslaved Africans arrived to Jamestown, United States in 1619, the Ghana government through the Ghana Tourism Authority initiated the Year of Return 2019 (#YOR2019). The goal was to unite Africans in the diaspora with those on the continent, especially in Ghana, through a year-long calendar of commercial and commemorative slavery heritage tourism activities ranging from visits to slavery sites, healing ceremonies, theatre and musical performances, festivals, investment forums and relocation conferences. When a destination tourism product is rooted in a less-than-desirable past, how is 'balance' achieved between commercialization and commemoration? In exploring this conceptual question, we developed a methodological innovation utilizing the social media platform Twitter for data collection. Using a social media crawler coded in Python programming language, we scrapped tweets from the accounts of the Ghana Tourism Authority prior, during, and after the YOR2019 based on hashtag searches. After data cleaning, 1010 tweets were inductively analysed using NVIVO qualitative data analysis software. The findings revealed three emergent themes along a commodification-commemoration continuum: (1) the eventification and festivalisation of slavery heritage tourism, (2) celebrity co-production of YOR2019 experiences through social media and (3) pivoting from a predominantly slavery heritage destination to a destination that focuses on other touristic and business travel. Ultimately, YOR2019 marked a significant push by Ghana to move into a 'Beyond the Return' phase that pivots away from slavery heritage towards a more well-rounded tourism product for roots, leisure, and business travellers. The research established that commodification in slavery heritage tourism does not inherently destroy cultural meanings but provide new commemorative meanings for a new generation of Black travellers searching for more than just their roots. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 crisis severely disrupted the lives of hospitality and tourism workers worldwide. In Southern European cities, overly dependent on the visitor economy, a substantial part of the workforce plunged into uncertainty, adding to the rising challenge of housing affordability resulting from a rapid financialisation of real estate assets over the last decade. This paper examines how interactive service workers have coped with, resisted and negotiated such augmented and double-edged precarity during the COVID-19 crisis in Barcelona. From an intersectional perspective, the study deploys an assemblage-based analysis to trace the variety of ways through which capacities for sustaining labour and securing homes emerged during the pandemic. We foreground a topology of adaptation practices and different trajectories nested to critical events to reveal the many forms in which social precarity is produced and embodied in labour and housing spaces. The research findings suggest that pre-pandemic labour and housing conditions were linked to the awkward welfare arrangements and the forms of social protection during COVID-19, which in most cases created new conditions for precarity and hopelessness. Different contingencies were coped at the margin of institutional support, nuancing emerging geographies of precarity and (re)produced through residential deprivation and embracing informality. The desire to work in the tourism and cultural sectors while imagining where and how to dwell surfaced as a controversial negotiation that affected workers unequally and foregrounded the possibility spaces of the precarious geography of tourism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Few tourism sites possess the combined attributes of dark tourism and diaspora tourism, and journeys to these liminal spaces can unearth complex and nuanced emotions. While previous studies have added knowledge to the experiences of diaspora tourists, little is known about the liminal experiences at dark diaspora tourism sites. While most studies attempt to explore the experiences of tourists to destinations, there is neoteric interest in understanding the hermeneutics of these experiences by offering insights into the contextual interpretation of events. To investigate these, we integrate liminality and stimulus organism theories within a framework of interpretive phenomenology methodology. Forty interviews were conducted with dark diaspora tourists. The study revealed minor and major themes including enlightenment, visceral conflicts, identity dilemmas, and renegotiation of diasporic experiences. Ultimately, it is only by probing the interpretations of dark diaspora experiences from visitors' own narratives that deep concealed meanings to liminal experiences can be uncovered. The research indicates that experiences at dark diaspora sites vary and result in diverse effects on individuals' experiences and subsequent interpretations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Composing tourism In responding to the above question, Latour's work references political engagement and provides analysis of the possible avenues to take (Latour, [18]). Consequently, tourism researchers have started to explore alternative modes of travel and mobility that may sustain more response-able, caring tourism practices (see e.g. Huijbens, [9]) and engender proximity in tourism (Rantala et al., [28]). Three stops on the way Actor-network theory (ANT) One of Latour's most central contributions to tourism studies is his idea of actor-networks (Latour, [15]; Michael, [21]; see also Shimoyamada, [34]). [Extracted from the article]

Tourist homes, private residences that rented rooms to traveling guests, were once a popular form of tourist accommodation in the United States. Reaching their peak in the early 20th century, tourist homes largely became obsolete as hotels and motels were able to provide relatively inexpensive and standardized forms of hospitality. As a result of their meteoric rise and fall, and the private nature of the lodging, tourist homes have been neglected in studies of historical tourism and hospitality. However, tourist homes occupied an important position in providing welcome and other forms of hospitality to travelers, particularly Black Americans, in the first half of the 20th century, and this role deserves to be recovered and recognized. An exploration of tourist homes listed in the Green Book, a Black American-centric travel guide published during the Jim Crow Era, reveals that tourist homes not only lodged travelers overnight, but also significantly contributed to forms of mobile resistance against white supremacy. Specifically, through a conceptualization of hospitality as resistance, tourist homes enabled opportunities for Black Americans to gain economic and social capital through processes of welcoming and establishing 'Black counterpublic spaces'. Particularly through constructions of home-like environments, tourist homes presented spaces that served as moorings within larger mobility networks, countering white supremacist attempts to immobilize and disadvantage Black Americans. Given these contributions to resistance and Black mobility, tourist homes deserve to be included in studies of tourism, hospitality, and Black geographies as important sites of welcoming, resistance, and resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the enduring impact of Valene Smith's book "Hosts and Guests" on the study of tourism. The author specifically focuses on a chapter by Davydd J. Greenwood, which explores the concept of cultural commoditization in the context of tourism. The chapter examines the case of Alarde, a ritual practice in the Fuenterrabia community in the Spanish Basque country, and how it has been transformed into a commodity for tourists. The article highlights the negative consequences of this commoditization, including the loss of the ritual's traditional and historical meaning. Overall, the article emphasizes the need to consider the cultural significance of rituals and traditions when promoting tourism. [Extracted from the article]

Communities play a critical role in the development and maintenance of sustainable heritage tourism. However, conflicts often arise when these communities are ignored or marginalized in the heritage tourism development process. This paper examines whether the community located within the Honghe Hani Rice Terraces, a World Heritage Site in China, views the designation and subsequent tourism development as beneficial or not. The findings show that there are significant differences in opinion between the local Hani people and non-Local Hani and outsiders who live in the heritage area. The local Hani feel a greater sense of deprivation due to de-empowerment and economic inequalities as compared with non-Local Hani and outsiders. This deprivation has reduced their motivation to conserve their own heritage, while the non-local Hani feel a greater sense of gain and a newfound appreciation for their personal and collective heritage identity. Frequent interactions between the two groups have led to local Hani people resisting the heritage preservation responsibilities enforced upon them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This empirical study examines residents' decision-making process in preserving Jeju Batdam as a World Agricultural Heritage Site. Accordingly, it extends the model of goal-directed behavior (MGB) by including cultural worldview and sustainable intelligence as triggers of desire and behavioral intentions of residents to preserve the agricultural heritage tourism resources. This study collected 368 valid responses from residents using quota sampling method. Results revealed that the cultural worldview and sustainable intelligence play a significant role in influencing residents' behaviors toward the preservation of an agricultural heritage tourism resource (Batdam). Results also showed that attitude, positive and negative anticipated emotions, and perceived behavioral control increase desire, which stimulates residents' behavioral intention to preserve the heritage. Desire mediates the effects of attitude, perceived behavioral control, and positive and negative anticipated emotions on the residents' intention to preserve the heritage. Findings contribute to deepening the knowledge of sustainable agricultural heritage management by better understanding of residents' decision-making process in preserving heritage resources. The outcomes of this study also provide policy implications with sustainable development and management policies of agricultural heritage sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores senses of belonging of three Indo-European generations and examines how these are influenced by roots travel to contemporary Indonesia. We use the notion of roots tourism to refer to tourism to ancestral homelands to 'experience heritage at the personal level'. While the notion of roots tourism has gained scholarly attention, multiple diasporic generations are often studied as a single phenomenon. By analysing life story interviews with Indo-Europeans from the first, second and third generation within twenty-one families, this article examines the motivations, expectations, lived experiences and meanings of their travels. The multigenerational nature of the empirical data enables differentiation across diasporic generations, and highlights generational nuances and interlinkages in Indo-Europeans' senses of belonging, positions within larger colonial family histories and travel experiences. We argue that ancestries, and personal and collective memories of the colonial Dutch East Indies connect various Indo-European generations to contemporary Indonesia. The accounts reveal both personal and familial transformations, as travels potentially fostered engagements with own or familial traumatic pasts, disrupted familial practices of silences or sparked interests to travel or (re)discover one's Indonesian heritage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With increasing globalization and consumerism, heritage tourism has contributed to local economic development, while over-tourism may have impeded experienced locality by residents and facilitated cultural alienation. To compensate for the dearth of cross-case comparisons and spatial quantifications using big data of existing research, this study constructed an enriched framework of space production theory integrating historic-sociological analysis and spatial analysis to connect the process and outcomes of consumer space reproduction in historic districts in Old Beijing City. Following a historical analysis of social interrelationships in the consumer space reproduction process, binary consumer spaces, namely tourist- and resident-oriented, were distinguished based on points of interest. Case studies were adopted to reveal the heterogeneity of consumer space reproduction in touristification with the aim of addressing the current lack of case individuality in spatial and social analysis. The results reveal that (1) since the 1990s, multiple social forces with varying and interdependently influential perspectives on historic districts have combined to reshape consumer spaces in historic districts. (2) Capital and authority have dominated the touristification process, but residents' spatial power has been declining. (3) Although the old city is in danger of over-consumerism and cultural alienation, individual differences in spatial reproduction suggest multiple possibilities in terms of development models and reveal policy implications for sustainable heritage tourism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary society is characterized by intense mobility and the prevalence of visual culture, where representations are more important than experience. In that context, images are central to the tourist system, for they have the power to create expectations that motivate movements. This process is part of a cycle in which representations only take the value that society assigns to them and their meaning is constantly changing. There is a historical connection between tourism and such representations, from oral testimonies to digital photography and video. Be they captured or purchased, images are disseminated by visitors, thus perpetuating the cycle of production and diffusion of spatial representations. Such images ought to show how 'special' the visited location is. Because heritage items are usually unique, their images can be ideally suited to be representative of a territory and serve to entice tourists. Through numerous representations, a heritage artefact becomes a tourist attraction, and can become a territorial-synecdoche, formed by the strong association of an element (the referent) to an object (the territory). This can be such that referent becomes a substitute for the territory in the collective imagination. In tourism, an inductive territorial-synecdoche is easily accomplished through visual products, while a deductive synecdoche occurs through written texts. The danger is that such representations operate as a territorial-synecdoche by reducing the complexity of the tourist territory to a few icons, areas or experiences. Generally, in tourist destinations the infrastructure and services concentrate in certain areas, and those lying outside tourism's influence remain 'invisible' for visitors and governments. Therefore, the use of heritage items to represent places, although seemingly innocuous, may lead to the construction of a territorial-synecdoche with tangible adverse effects on other territories. Spatial representations not only shape tourist itineraries but also configure their territories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diaspora tourism has become a significant form of transnational mobility that underlies many issues in the field of tourism and migration studies. Despite a considerable body of research that focuses on tourism motivations of home return and its social functions in collective identities and meaning-making, the political roles of diaspora tourism in shaping ethnic bonds and transnational networks need to be further acknowledged. Since 2014, a group of Muslims from Kazakhstan have travelled to China to celebrate their return after over 140 years of displacement from their homeland. Interviews with local officials and residents in Xi'an illustrate the political factors of host governments and local Muslim communities in organising the formal group tourism events. Unlike informal and personal travel, such officially organised diaspora tourism does not serve as a simple act of homecoming. The host governments have used it as a political tool to shape transnational networks and domestic ethnic governance under the discourse of 'Belt and Road' initiative. To fulfil this political agenda, the official narrative of diaspora tourism involves a process of remembering and forgetting, and the creation of itineraries that authenticates the imagined ancestral homeland while effacing the unsettled past. The itinerary of tourism events and related cultural practices focuses on a shared ethno-religious identity and common interests of cultural and business exchange between the selected diaspora representatives and host communities. However, due to its political nature, the sustainability of diaspora tourism does not only relate to funding and resource management. Such organised diaspora tourism is also closely associated with the shifting ethnic and migration policies of the host nation-state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The framework of tourism: Towards a definition of tourism, tourist, and the tourist industry. By taking CES as the point of departure, this Special Section offers novel perspectives on enduring questions for tourism geographies regarding the practices, politics, and ethics of placemaking in tourism. In a time of rapidly shifting tourism geographies in which rising rents, the COVID-19 pandemic, and rural gentrification have triggered widespread urban-to-rural migration, placemaking in peripheral areas has become an increasingly critical research agenda for tourism geographers. [Extracted from the article]

Across the globe, conservation has been increasingly in conflict with other human activities. National parks are an important concept in nature protection and probably the most recognized institution in nature tourism worldwide. The concept of sustainable nature tourism became a part of the planning and management of Finnish national parks at the beginning of the new millennium. We analyze the environmental conflict and the idea and practices of sustainable nature tourism from a historical perspective in one Finnish national park: Koli. The main research question is how has the concept of sustainability been used to resolve the conflict between tourism and nature protection? Our perspective is based on the essence of sustainable nature tourism as humanity's interaction with the environment. The main data of the study consists of interviews with park managers and planners and archival material from local newspapers. In Koli, the history of the founding of the park and tourism development were strongly affected by diverse nature relationships between different actors. In the human-nature relationship perspective, it was a matter of how the land was to be utilized, on an anthropocentric or eco-centric basis. From the park management point of view, sustainable nature tourism was a conceptual and practical tool to diffuse the conflict. Experiences in Koli show how eco-utilitarian perspectives toward nature conservation can help to resolve conflict. Today the idea of sustainability has been adapted by large-scale tourism developers and earlier failed vast plans for Koli are alive again, only reconceptualized with the idea of sustainability. This kind of economy-based sustainability in turn pushes the idea of sustainable nature tourism further from nature itself and eco-centric perspectives and provides foundations for a new conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As readers will soon be aware, I admit that I find nothing positive from Brexit for people, civil society, economy, cultural lives, environmental survival, and social relations. A number of these chapters keep a close eye on the "development" of politics coincident with shifts in tourism: claims, promises, shifting over time. As such, tourism geographers will find the collection essential; as will those concerned with mobility studies; political and cultural geographies, and social policy studies to mention a few. [Extracted from the article]

Most of the chapters focus on the intersections between community-based tourism (chapters 3, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12), and agritourism (chapter 7) in their conceptualizations of sustainable and responsible rural tourism. Tourism and hospitality researchers and tourism stakeholders who focus on rural tourism and the development of responsible tourism in the Asian region should find this book useful. A range of rural tourism forms is introduced from a sustainable development standpoint: rural tourism policy, small-scale rural tourism, green growth tourism, agritourism, community-based tourism (CBT), ecotourism, and the difference between village tourism and countryside tourism contexts. [Extracted from the article]

The nexus of migration and tourism is well explored, and both phenomena possess push- and pull factors. Their influence and connections can be seen in one of the top tourist destinations in Europe, South Tyrol, a region located in Northern Italy, and one of its most important tourism hubs: Ortisei. The area is particularly interesting for researchers due to its long history of tourism and the multilingualism of the region. Our in-depth and exploratory research approach helps gain a better understanding of the complexity of the migration-tourism nexus from a local perspective. It confirms the attractiveness of the tourism sector for migrants, but also the impact of both phenomena on the region. The findings show that the presence of migrants in a destination is strongly connected to the inflow of (domestic and international) tourists and the touristic experiences offered at the local level. Therefore, tourism contributes to the generation of in-migration. The growing share of migrants working in the local tourist industry represents the most evident link between the two phenomena, supporting the tourism-led migration hypothesis. But the local perception of tourists and migrants as the 'other' and trust as a relational characteristic joins the two phenomena on a different level, as both are seen as 'non-local' groups. However, within a tourist destination, both migrants and tourists interrelate with the local community, thus shaping it. And even though the statistical categories prevail based on the length of or reason to stay, at second glance those boundaries blur, and the acceptance of 'new' populations groups living, working and visiting the destination seems to increase with their duration of stay. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since listing as a UNESCO World Heritage Site (WHS) in 1999, Hoi An Ancient Town in Vietnam has been transformed by tourism development with visitor numbers increasing more than sixteen-fold. Beyond positive economic impacts, tourism has generated considerable funds for conservation, with revenue assisting authentic restoration of the town's historic center. However, tourism impacts have provoked criticism linked to social sustainability, examined in this paper using the core-and-buffer-zone principle - a neo-normative spatial planning framework. Our longitudinal, mixed-method analysis from development and demographic perspectives combines interviews and census data with spatial planning guidelines and maps. Findings show that architectural renovations, accompanied by stricter regulations and hierarchical World Heritage Site zoning, legitimized rapid development of Hoi An's buffer zone in tandem with 'museumification' of the core, epitomized by the central clustering of traditional wooden architecture renovation projects. By 2010, population in the core had declined by 20% as 'adaptive re-use' of heritage buildings paved the way for conversion of private residences into shops or other services and the core transformed from living heritage into a tourism stage. Demographic and development trends reinforced the dual hierarchy, although attempts to mitigate museumification, including a series of craft villages around the perimeter, provided impetus for revitalization of the newly-expanded buffer zone. Our findings highlight certain implications of spatial zoning for social sustainability, pointing the way for better integration with adaptive re-use policies. Our study contributes to further the debate on social sustainability at a living heritage site by investigating the bipolarity between museumification of the core and concurrent development of the buffer zones. The implications of our study extend beyond the current context of developing Southeast Asia, as this paper draws parallels and expounds opportunities for more site-specific planning and management of World Heritage Sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Classic Anglo-European definitions of tourism as recreational travel have hindered more nuanced locally-grounded understandings of travel phenomena elsewhere in the world. Moreover, contemporary global labor and educational mobility have produced novel travel forms and behaviors that straddle the Western categories of "tourist" and "migrant." The purpose of this analysis is to examine Toraja (Indonesia) perspectives on travel which can be instructive for correcting the binary divides between tourism and migration that have long plagued dominant Western models of travel. Drawing from data culled from long-term qualitative fieldwork and online research, I convey three ethnographically-grounded stories of Toraja migrants on return visits to their homeland in order to destabilize Western-centrism in tourism studies. Research findings underscore contemporary travel understandings and practices that do not fit neatly with Western mutually exclusive categories of "tourism" and "migration." These Toraja practices encompass local historical patterns of travel for experiential/financial enrichment (merantau), migration and tourism. This study also advances tourism scholarship by highlighting the importance of local knowledge and demonstrating the value of ethnographic storytelling as a scholarly strategy for destabilizing orthodox Western-centric theoretical understands of tourism. The global significance of this place-based research is that tourism studies can be enriched by widening our lenses to also consider emigrants on return visits to their homelands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Difficult heritage, rooted in difficult knowledge, is not simply difficult because of traumatic content but also because of the responses it can provoke. These responses can include confusion, anxiety, and empathy for the fear and suffering of others. As such, difficult heritage sites can be problematic in tourism, which is typically characterized by expectations of fun and relaxation. Scholars recognize that the tourist experience is liminal in that tourists occupy a state of limbo outside of their normal places and lives. This article argues that difficult heritage can be a liminal experience within tourism by critically analysing tourist reviews of Bonaire's slave huts. The Caribbean island of Bonaire attracts cruise tourists and tourists interested in water sports like snorkelling and diving. Yet, these tourists may visit the slave hut sites as a secondary activity during their stay on the island. TripAdvisor reviewers describe feelings of being both out of time and out of place at the slave huts as they imagine the conditions the enslaved would have experienced, and they describe emotional responses ranging from sadness to revulsion. Additionally, reviewers reflect on their visit to the slave huts after 'resuming' their vacation, particularly focusing on the contrast between their experiences. The approach of liminality has the potential to better understand tourists' experiences of difficult heritage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tourism Geographies is a prominently ranked journal that emerged from activities of the Tourism Commission of the International Geographical Union. It is indexed in the 'Tourism, Leisure and Hospitality Management' and 'Geography, Planning and Development' fields in the Scopus database and published its 20th volume in 2018. A bibliometric assessment of the articles and authors who have contributed to Tourism Geographies over its first two decades highlights major trends and dominant issues covered by the journal's content. Key indicators include the most published and most cited authors and articles, the institutions and countries that those authors are affiliated with, other academic journals that are closely linked to the journal through citations, and the most used keywords in the journal. The Scopus database provides access to these basic bibliometric data, while the VOSviewer software enables graphical analyses and displays of co-citations, co-occurrences of keywords, and bibliographic couplings (shared references) across papers and authors. Overall, Tourism Geographies is closely linked to other leading journals indexed by Scopus in the 'Tourism' and 'Geography' fields and publishes papers from around the world. Research topics that have been most prominent in the journal include tourism development, tourist destinations, tourist attractions, heritage tourism, tourism perceptions, sustainable tourism, and travel behavior. Among the most viewed individual papers have been those addressing issues related to sustainability, poverty issues (related to tourism in poor areas, volunteering, sustainable tourism, and the environment), and community planning (sustainable tourism planning, tourist routes and movement, and new locations for tourism development). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Similar to tangible cultural heritage, traditional performing arts as intangible cultural heritage of humanity are valuable resources for the development of heritage tourism of a destination. However, there is very little research done in this area, leaving a blurred understanding of how to commodify and promote traditional performing arts as a heritage product. A good knowledge of performing arts heritage is key to commodify and promote it effectively. Cantonese opera is the traditional performing arts of Cantonese speakers in Macao, Hong Kong, and Guangdong Province of China. Its core attractiveness is investigated by exploring and evaluating its intrinsic and experiential attributes from cultural tourists' perspective. Based on the survey of 500 international tourists, the results have identified five dimensions of intrinsic and experiential attributes of Cantonese opera, including authenticity and nostalgia, artistic craftsmanship, convenient consumption, enjoyment, and cultural significance. The evaluation of these attributes reflects international tourists' perception of the core attractiveness of Cantonese opera. Moreover, the cultural and geographical distances between international tourists' residential places and Macao are found to influence tourists' perception of Cantonese opera significantly. Tourists with longer geographical distances from Macao are found to see Cantonese opera more attractive than those tourists with shorter geographical distances from Macao. The findings suggest some guidelines for the commodification and promotion of Cantonese opera as a tourism product for international tourists with different cultural backgrounds. Furthermore, the results advance the knowledge of the core attractiveness of performing arts heritage and add values to the literature of tourists' experiences with traditional performing arts as intangible cultural heritage of humanity. The five dimensions of attributes identified in the results also contribute to the future research of different types of performing arts heritage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the management of heritage and cultural tourism related to the complex identity of minority groups, where different components tend to produce different visions and practices. It highlights the impacts of globalized transnational networks and influences on political, cultural and religious identities and affiliations over long distances. In fact, diverse views, approaches, perceptions and representations may lead to disagreement and conflicts even within apparently compact ethnic or religious communities. The issues related to dissonant heritage management strategies and the related authorized heritage discourse, in terms of unbalanced power relations and diverging narratives, are considered. The theme of Jewish heritage tourism (J.H.T) is analysed, with a focus on the case of Syracuse, Italy. This historically cosmopolitan and multicultural city specializes in cultural tourism and tends to develop niche products, including J.H.T, in order to strengthen and diversify its international cultural destination status. Different components of the Jewish world, as well as non-Jewish stakeholders, practice different approaches to heritage tourism. Actors, discourses and reasons behind Jewish culture management and promotion will be highlighted and the reactions, perceptions and suggestions by the various stakeholders and groups involved will be portrayed, with the aim of contributing to the discussion about the complexity of niche heritage tourism processes in a multi-ethnic site. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The primary objective of this article is to review the potential of affordance theory for interpreting visitor interactions at sites with multiple and overlapping uses, including pilgrimage and tourism. Research at the nexus of tourism and pilgrimage is often limited by approaches that seek to categorize and differentiate visitors on the basis of intention, ideology, or identity. One implication of this divide is that research on sites of such visitation is also subject to binary interpretation, as sacred or secular. This author proposes an ecological approach to the pilgrim/tourist nexus, taking as its starting point the inter-relationship between site and visitor, drawing on affordance theory to explore visitor action, interaction, and meaning-making. Following a description of previous approaches to the interpretation of sacred space, affordance theory is outlined and applied to a heritage site that attracts pilgrims and tourists, as well as recreational visitors: Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts, USA. The theory of affordances is suggested as an opportunity to approach research and interpretation of sacred sites with a focus on the agency of place, the locus of meaning-making and the pilgrim/tourist nexus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many of today's pilgrim routes are not only conceived of as religious thoroughfares. They are also seen as historical and cultural routes and are embraced by heritage polices and the tourism industry. It follows from this that contemporary pilgrim routes are endowed with many meanings and expectations, both in the public and private spheres. While much research has focused its attention on the diversity of motives, experiences and symbolic meaning processes among those who embark on journeys along pilgrim routes, less attention has been paid to the varieties of stakeholders involved. By exploring how different types of stakeholders engage with a recently reinvented pilgrim route in Norway, it is shown how this route represents a contested space. Among various stakeholders involved in the development and the management of the pilgrimage, as well as stakeholders who take an interest in the material and symbolic benefits one could possibly draw from it, there are disagreements on what kind of heritage pilgrimage should represent. The differing approaches are basically represented by those who want to promote religious motivations, traditionalist outdoor recreation interests and stakeholders who primarily want to develop and market the pilgrim route in a touristic context. While distinctions between categories such as pilgrims and tourists, or vacationers and religious travellers, are becoming more and more blurred, opposing and partly intersecting discourses among stakeholders tend in this case to result in the upholding of these kinds of distinctions. This implies that travellers along pilgrim route are not left to themselves with their experiences and practices. While some stakeholders take an interest in what pilgrims are doing, in the sense that they want to profit from it, others are concerned about questions of whom a pilgrim is and for whom a pilgrim route is for. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The potential value of industrial heritage for developing tourism has attracted increasing attention worldwide. In China, there is an emerging trend of the reuse of industrial heritage sites to develop industrial heritage tourism as 'creative parks'. Studies have found that over-commodification is occurring while protection of the historical and cultural value of contemporary industrial heritage is neglected during the process of redevelopment. However, detailed research on the processes and mechanisms of over-commodification is limited. A qualitative approach is adopted to examine the development process of a typical industrial heritage tourism destination, Nanfeng Kiln District in Foshan, China. Through application of a creative destruction model, the relationships and interplay of a variety of actors in this process are uncovered. Mitchell's model of creative destruction is applied to explain the transformative process of tourist destinations whose development has occurred based on the commodification of heritage. It is found that the creative destruction model should be modified to include the roles of urban land policy and various governments, to reflect the politico-economic characteristics of China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the role of authenticity in understanding theories of tourism geographies. Topics discussed include spatialized place representations in tourism, the use of geographic perspectives in investigating tourism experiences, and the significance of authenticity in demonstrating the characteristic and inter-disciplinarity of tourism.

Issues arise when trying to understand the motivation of policymakers to preserve the assets of cultures that do not belong to the mainstream population. Tunbridge and Ashworth's seminal study on ‘Dissonant Heritage’ and Bennett's developmental model of intercultural sensitivity (DMIS model) provide a basis to evaluate both the motivations and the existence of a cultural dissonance. As there is a growing worldwide trend towards preserving and developing Jewish heritage tourism (JHT) this study examines Jewish heritage sites in three Macedonian cities endowed with rich Jewish history. Unlike previous studies concentrating on the notion of dissonant heritage, this research focuses on the motivation for preserving such sites, an issue hardly tackled before. Previous studies suggested the prevalence of six possible motives: guilt, facing harsh history, emphasis on dark tourism, revival of a harmonious past, respect, and economic benefits. Data were obtained via face-to-face interviews conducted with policy-makers from central and local governments. The interviews were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively in order to determine the leading motives for preservation. The findings indicate that by establishing and maintaining Jewish Heritage sites, stakeholders reflect sentiments of respect and admiration for the perished Jewish community and a longing for the revival of an elusive harmonious past. The potential economic benefits and dark tourism surfaced only as minor motives. Practically, JH preservation is used to revive dialogue with a forgotten past that may also contribute to urban tourism development in the future. Conceptually, the interviews did not reveal any indication of heritage dissonance, a finding that stands in sharp contrast to the dissonant heritage theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transylvania has not only a geographical location as a province of Romania but also a mental meaning as Dracula's land. Dracula has become an important brand name for Romania, attracting many tourists in recent years – especially after the fall of communism. The main dimensions of Dracula's castle (i.e. Bran Castle) experiences shared online by tourists were identified to ascertain the primary reasons for satisfaction and dissatisfaction with visits and to test whether narratives and satisfaction vary according to the occasion (i.e. Halloween). Quantitative (i.e. computer-based) and qualitative (i.e. narrative) content analyses were conducted on the Web reviews written by visitors. The results reveal that the experiences are multidimensional, and they include the following themes: ‘castle’, ‘visit’, ‘Dracula’, ‘inside’, ‘tourist’, ‘outside’, ‘trip’, ‘souvenirs’, ‘stairs’ and ‘Dracula's castle’. The main reasons for dissatisfaction are overcrowding, which is connected with the outside theme, and the disappointment of tourists regarding the old furniture, which is associated with the inside theme. The results also reveal that visitors are the most satisfied with their experience around the time of Halloween. The narratives shared online emphasise tourists’ need to associate their imaginings with this region and castle, giving their experiences greater meaning through this destination's image as Transylvania. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents the results of a study investigating power relations between the local community and the state in the rural tourism development process in Botswana. The study was carried out in Mmatshumu and Letlhakane villages of the Boteti sub-district in Botswana. These villages act as the administrative centres of a community-based culture and heritage tourism project at Lekhubu Island. The Island is, itself, located about 45 kilometres to the north east of these villages. A qualitative research approach, utilising seven focus group discussions with members of the community and 17 individual interviews with key informants was adopted. To understand the power relations between the state (through the TAC) and the local community, the study focused on; the extent to which members of the local community feel they control tourism development process in Lekhubu Island; perceived level of power yielded by the state in the tourism development process at Lekhubu Island as well as; the implications of power differentials between the state and community for tourism development at Lekhubu Island. The results show that, contrary to the popular narrative about devolution of power in community-based tourism, the state remains a very powerful player in the overall decision-making process. Furthermore, the formation of local management structures (i.e. Trust) appears to simply create new power nodes which in turn continues the same legacy of community disempowerment. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

With the increasing commodification of cultural heritage induced by tourism development, the perception of a ‘real’ travel experience often depends on what is defined as authentic, original and local. Visitors are becoming increasingly concerned about the authenticity of eco-cultural tourism practices when they visit culturally and environmentally remote regions. The purpose of this study is to examine the role performance plays in visitors' perception of authenticity of eco-cultural tourism experiences. Various theoretical foundations and aspects of visitors' perceptions of authenticity in cultural heritage tourism are considered. A grounded theory approach based on in-depth semi-structured interviews with several categories of visitors including 25 clients from two eco-tours in South and Central Kazakhstan and 29 Free Independent Travellers (FITs) was adopted to identify visitors' perception of authenticity of various aspects of their tourism experiences and the attributes of the visitors' performative aspects of their travels. Results reveal that the performative aspects contributing to the perceived authenticity of the visitors' eco-cultural experiences are spontaneous, existential and reciprocal relationships with their hosts in intimate tourism encounters. The findings contribute to literature regarding authenticity and cultural heritage tourism by exploring new directions in which to apply the concept of authenticity in eco-cultural tourism experiences and by theorising the link between performance-based touristic space and the perception of authenticity. This space becomes a basis for interaction and social exchange within the host–guest relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars have always been fascinated with cultural theme parks as tourism attractions or as vehicles for identity formations. With respect to the latter, the focus has been on how these consumption landscapes also portend spaces of representation that mobilize certain attributes of ethnic groups within territorial boundaries as a means to bind them together and link them to their terrains, although these ideological exercises are often times contested by the very people they seek to depict. Yet, comparably less emphasis has been paid on how local visitors can themselves draw upon their own cultural reserves to rethink the meanings of these spaces to make them more relatable. Drawing on participant ethnography and interviews with key staff and visitors, this paper examines how locals have sought to unmake and remake one such theme park, the Sarawak Cultural Village, to enhance resonancefor them and for other visitors, at times even going against intended narratives. In so doing, the paper extends current scholarship beyond seeing themed spaces just as places where the formal employment of heritage for identity-building may be contested; they are also where meanings can be (re)negotiated ‘from below’, proffering more possibilities for co-constructive heritage-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethnic neighborhood tourism (ENT) has the potential to not only alter the identity of the ethnic landscape but to also influence the distribution of power and economic benefits from tourism between ethnic groups. Such unequal distribution may foster divergent attitudes toward tourism between minority residents whose culture is at the center of ENT and those of the majority population whose cultural heritage is being overshadowed. With this in mind, this study compared the relationship between Japanese and Brazilian residents’ perceived empowerment from tourism and their attitudes toward tourism development in the ENT destination of Oizumi, Japan. Results revealed that even though the Brazilians perceived themselves to be more psychologically and socially empowered from ENT, the perceptions of empowerment among the Japanese were slightly better predictors of support for tourism and Japanese residents’ perceptions of tourism's contributions within the community. The findings suggest the importance of sociocultural determinants of resident attitudes especially among those who do not perceive economic benefits from tourism. The study also indicates the appropriateness of combining social exchange theory with more holistic theories to capture the complexities influencing resident attitudes toward tourism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines an unusual type of ‘cultural theme park’, one that is not based on simulating existing cultural diversity or historical places, but based in some senses on a ‘double simulation’. The theme park is based on an historical painting assumed to represent the North Song Dynasty period in Kaifeng, China; however, it is a representation that historians argue may never have existed. Utilising on-site interviews and participant observation, this paper traces the connections between the classic painting (清明上河图) and the actual historical landscape of Bianjing (the first simulation), and in so doing, unravels the links between the painting and the theme park (the second simulation) and the simulacra that are envisioned to form within the spaces of the theme park as a result of the interplay of simulations during theme park visits. The simulations and intended simulacra are ‘consumed’ to various degrees, suggesting that the representations of Kaifeng's historical past and culture have been impactful and (in)authenticity has not been an issue. Moreover, the theme park has served to entertain and, in some cases, inspire through playful appropriations of Kaifeng's past and culture. The resultant simulacra and its double simulations (in simulating both the real Bianjing and the neo-real landscape painting) contrast and simultaneously connect with rampant replications of the Occident in contemporary Chinese residential landscapes, townships and themed spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a case of Singapore's latest theme park, the Universal Studios Singapore (USS). While theme parks are commonly perceived as money-making entities providing entertainment to the masses, the study argues that heritage is an equally important dimension of a commercial theme park's development, identity and profile. As a heritage-rich environment, the USS is a tourism landscape shaped simultaneously by the forces of corporate heritage and local cultural considerations. ‘Glocalization’ – the interaction of global and local forces – offers a conceptual insight into understanding how themed environments are created and marketed as tourism destinations welcoming to all and yet distinctive to its community and locality. Caution, however, is also sounded as to whether an international attraction can or should ever be ‘too local’ at the risk of diluting its global brand name and broad-based appeal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a special issue on Theme Parks in Asia with reflections on how the various theoretical ideas on theming and theme parks that are found in the social science literature can help us to understand the proliferation of theming and theme parks in contemporary Asia. How does theming create a specific spatial and social form that has meaning in a transforming Asia? We trace here the rising importance of theming in places of consumption, education, entertainment and everyday life and argue that further attention is needed to understand the transformation of ideas of culture, nature and heritage within the context of theme park development in Asia. We look at arguments that suggest that theming is part of human cognitive processes, that it creates a frame that gives the content a particular order and meaning; we also consider theming within the context of theories of Disneyization and the ‘experience economy’ in leisure and tourism to explore how ‘new’ experience-based consumerism, and the designing of coherent ‘imagineered’ spaces, plays a role in ordering our social worlds. We also examine how debates over the authenticity or superficiality of theme parks, and more generally in cultural display and preservation, can take on new twists in Asia. We do this by drawing on a review of postmodernist perspectives on themed parks to show how theme parks in Asia can be better understood through nuanced inquiries into the ways cultural, natural and heritage images and icons are cited, referenced and projected, departing from a simple ‘copy’ versus ‘original’ dichotomy. Finally, we position and introduce the papers included in this special issue and suggest further possible research into such a fertile research field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whilst the relationship between diasporic communities and tourism has been explored in the tourism literature, it has generally been underpinned by a limited consideration of the notion of home. Based on ethnographic research with an Iranian diasporic community in the South Island of New Zealand, this paper explores the different ways in which this diaspora community engages with travel and tourism to (re)produce and taste ‘home’. It is argued that the notion of home should be viewed as incomplete, contingent and fleeting, rather than fixed and permanent, specifically within the tourism context. The concept of ‘moments of home’ is presented to illustrate how diasporic communities use travel and tourism to find, maintain or make home when away from their original homeland. Thus, ‘moments of home’ is proposed in order to allow a more complex and dynamic understanding of the relationship between diaspora tourism and home. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a knowledge domain, contemporary indigenous tourism is framed in reference to cultures conventionally recognized as ‘indigenous,’ and engages this almost exclusively from a supply-side perspective. This paper reimagines indigeneity and indigenous tourism as embracing also the other 94% of global population. From a utilitarian perspective, this inclusion of ‘nonconventional indigenous people’ harbors opportunities to advance the sustainability agenda by reconnecting modern mainstream cultures, through personal exposure in dispersed settings, with ancestral roots and associated sustainable livelihoods. Such reconnections are framed as a form of re-indigenization that may be especially attractive to ‘travel promiscuous’ diasporic populations such as those found in the ‘settler’ countries of Canada, United States, Australia, and New Zealand. Articulation of this concept could be facilitated by existing knowledge domains and products in heritage tourism, rural tourism, and urban tourism, as well as sustainable tourism. Rather than usurping conventional indigenous efforts to re-indigenize and re-empower, it is contended that the nonconventional dimension can coexist with and even reinforce the latter, while enriching the dimensions of indigenous tourism as a dynamic knowledge domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diaspora tourism is often considered a form of ‘homecoming,’ but for the children of immigrants who are born in the new country, the question remains as to whether they perceive their parents’ homeland as ‘home’ or destination. Moreover, advancements in transportation and communication technologies allow contemporary immigrants to maintain transnational ties to their homeland, which in turn may affect the nature of diaspora tourism. The purpose of this study is to understand the lived experience of second-generation immigrants when they travel to their ancestral homeland, and explore the extent to which second-generation transnationalism shapes their diaspora tourism experiences. Using a phenomenological approach, 26 second-generation Chinese-Americans who had the experience of traveling in China were interviewed. Four themes were identified from semi-structured interviews: language and appearance, search for authenticity, family history, and sense of ‘home.’ Proficiency in their parental language was found to be a main cause of negative experiences, yet occasionally a source of pride and attachment. Their search for authentic experiences was not unlike other tourists, while familial obligations sometimes limited their experience. Traveling back to the homeland not only allowed them to understand their parents and family history, but also reflect upon their life through experiencing contemporary China. Finally, as the transnational attachment of second-generation immigrants was not rooted in a specific locale, they could feel connected to the homeland without actually visiting their family's place of origin. Findings contribute to transnationalism and diaspora tourism literature by comparing first- and second-generation immigrants and identifying the difference between contemporary transmigrants and classic diaspora groups with regard to their diaspora tourism experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Authenticity is a constructive concept and the core principle for protection of cultural heritage, but it is also a controversial issue, along with its practice in different geographical and cultural contexts. Both the heritage management system and its authenticity principles are not indigenous, but were developed in western society and exported from western countries. As a result, conflicts arise with its implementation and therefore often lead to counterintuitive behaviors. This paper examines the heritage conservation process in the case of Hongcun by applying the social constructionism theory. The paper attempts to point out that both the heritage and the authenticity principles are socially constructed concepts and that the construction process is very much influenced by the power relationships involved. Authenticity in Hongcun is an implementation of the principle of material, static, and superficial style understandings, while less attention is paid to the non-material cultural heritage protection, which is especially reflected in the neglect and the development restrictions on local craft and folk art. The study shows that there is a need to be aware of the nature of the constructiveness and power relationships in the heritage management and to integrate local voices in the heritage conservation process to avoid conflicts and to achieve conservation goals. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The relationship between African Americans and tourism is a complex and conflicted one given the highly discriminatory history of hospitality in the USA and the inequalities that still characterize the industry. Yet, African American tourists are an increasingly important and profitable segment of the travel market and there are a growing number of destinations that are decidedly antiracist in their message. Social justice is attracting more attention from tourism scholars than in the past, but the African American experience remains underanalyzed, thus prompting the organization of this Special Issue. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A massive tourist infrastructure on southern heritage extends across the US South and a significant component of it focuses on nineteenth-century slavery. Southern heritage tourism reveals irrepressible dimensions of racialization, inextricably mediated by gender and class, and highlights the primary influence of the state. Many tourist sites are housed in former slave plantations and some contain the remains, restorations, reconstructions or replicas of antebellum slave cabins and slave quarters. This article describes and evaluates evidence collected from site observations carried out between 1995 and 2011, on the nature, role and functioning of slave cabins incorporated into these sites. It identifies three strategies for presenting slave cabins as part of heritage tourism—relative incorporation, marginalization and symbolic annihilation—each of which relegates slave cabins to the shadows of the big house. These representations reflect divergent heritage goals and continuing unequal access to resources on the part of different social groups. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The past two decades have witnessed momentous changes on the American South's heritage landscape. First, and most dramatically, ascendant civil rights museums have established themselves as bona fide heritage attractions. Second, and more subtly, a nascent movement on the part of plantation house museums is afoot to engage with the lives and labour of enslaved African Americans. The two trends are interrelated and the result is a regional heritage landscape that is more attuned to the dynamics of racial oppression than at any time in the past. Geographers and other tourism researchers have begun to document and analyse these changes, seeking to better understand the motives and implications that are reworking the region's heritage scene. The task remains, however, to develop a more nuanced understanding of audience reactions to the evolving content of southern heritage tourism. Drawn from two extent surveys of visitors to civil rights museums and a plantation museum, this article uses the concept of commemorative surrogation to interpret audience evaluations in order to better understand visitors’ assessment of the changing landscape of southern heritage tourism. Results of the analysis suggest that whereas concerns over deficient surrogation are held by visitors at both civil rights and plantation museums, charges of excessive surrogation are limited to civil rights museums. The implication for the cultural landscape is a potentially revived, searching assessment of the region's past. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

During the summers of 2006–2009, groups of U.S. college students completed a cross-disciplinary study abroad experience in Ghana, West Africa, entitled ‘Landscapes in Ecotourism.’ Beyond topical issues of community landscape design and sustainable tourism development, broad themes were explored including (a) cultural awareness of Ghana and Africa, (b) the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade (TAST), and (c) the concept of African Diaspora. This study sought to understand how the students’ sense of their own identity was impacted by being in Ghana, as a result of the activities undertaken in the study abroad course. Specifically, the students provided reflections on their ideas about race and heritage, their understanding of the TAST, and their perception of the African Diaspora. In most cases, the students noted an increased knowledge on these subjects through studying these topics in a Ghanaian spatial and cultural context. Additionally, they offered thoughtful reflection on issues of gender, race, class, and religion in Ghana, and while contrasting it with their own American experience, their own self-perception/self-identity was impacted through an expanded view of these constructs and how they play out in various socioeconomic and cultural contexts. The findings, particularly the distinct reflections of the African-American and Caucasian students, assist in understanding the interpretation of visitors’ internal responses to an international destination; in this case, a destination enshrined in a history of racial atrocities central to the nation's legacy has the potential to create tensions or transitions of identity in visitors as they situate their own lives in the sociohistorical context of their new surroundings. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]