- Email: [email protected]
Challenges in Tourism Research
Tourism Management 57 (2016) 10e11
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Tourism Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/tourman
Book review Challenges in Tourism Research, Aspects of Tourism Series, T.V. Singh (Ed.). Channel View Publications, Bristol (2015). 392pp., (Pbk.), £34.95 ISBN: 9781845415327; (Hbk.), £109.95 9781845415334 In this book, edited by T. V. Singh, 37 tourism academics have been invited to provide their own perspectives on 11 challenges in tourism research. These challenges were selected by the Editor on the basis that they have been, and are still, relevant. The objective of the book is to stimulate debate on each of these challenges. To do this, the book adopts the same format as a previous book edited by T. V. Singh in 2012, Critical Debates in Tourism. For each challenge, one academic has written what is called a ‘probe’ paper, which presents his/her understanding and evaluation of the challenge topic. This is followed by three or more discussant papers, each prepared by different academics, which both critique the probe author's contribution and presents the views of the individual discussants. The book starts with an Introduction by T. V. Singh which sets out the way in which the research challenges were identified and a brief overview of each of the challenges. This is followed by 11 chapters that follow the same format: a brief introductory ‘context setting’ explaining the focus of the chapter, the probe paper, the discussants' papers, a final response by the author of the probe paper to the discussants' papers, discussion questions and references. This chapter format is designed to bring about discussion, in print, between academics rather than each contribution standing in isolation. The search is not for a definitive answer on the challenge but an exposition of different perspectives, agreements and differences. In this, the book succeeds. The first four chapters focus on the challenges in researching and understanding tourists, their motivations and their experiences. The discussion is primarily on the challenge of understanding why tourists do what they do, the experiences they have, and how tourism researchers might move understanding forward (the probe topic statement is given first in italics): Ch. 1) “I am a traveller, you are a visitor, they are tourists. But who are the post tourists?” This chapter is about understanding the meaning of the tourist experience and whether post-modernist (post tourist) discourse has succeeded, or failed, in providing a solid conceptual basis for future tourism research. Ch. 2) “Is a tourist a secular pilgrim or a hedonist in search of pleasure?” This chapter examines the use of, and the appropriateness of the use of, the concept-metaphors of religious and secular pilgrimage in relation to the experiences of tourists. Ch. 3) “Do tourists travel for the discovery of self or to search for the ‘other’?” This chapter focuses on understanding tourism as a phenomenon and why individual identity and social conditions
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2016.05.003 0261-5177
have combined to make tourism an acceptable and desirable activity. The challenge is to establish why people travel rather than why they think they travel. Ch. 4) “Is volunteerism a new avatar of travelism?” This chapter extends on the previous one by exploring volunteer tourists' motives: whether they are driven by altruism or by self-interest. The next three chapters focus on the challenges for researchers in respect of the ways in which tourism is perceived and discussed. Effectively the question addressed in these chapters is whether tourism is good or bad. Within these chapters the role of academics in how tourism perceived is discussed. The three chapters are: Ch. 5) “Tourism's invulnerability: lies, damned lies and statistics.” The probe statement implies that tourism is vulnerable as an economic activity. The chapter explores whether this perceived vulnerability is real or whether it is the result of academics pushing the view that tourism is an actively globalising force both economically and culturally. Ch. 6) “Vanishing peripheries: does tourism consume places?” This chapter looks at the contested ‘concept’ of the periphery, whether a periphery is a fixed entity and what the characteristics of a periphery may be. The discussion is more on the nature of the periphery than on whether tourism/tourists consume it. Ch. 7) “Tourism is more sinned against than sinning.” This chapter looks at whether tourism is unfairly criticised and whether it is no more a sinner than other economic activities. The discussion evolves towards whether it is potentially academics who are the sinners because they have largely been anti-tourism (for whatever reason). The next three chapters focus on the challenges presented by three selected issues within tourism. The three chapters are: Ch. 8) “Is the concept of sustainability utopian: ideally perfect but hard to practice?” The contributors to the chapter agree that the notion of sustainability is not doing well. However, they disagree on why e whether it is a lack of knowledge or for political/economic reasons. In addition, there is a suggestion that this may be the fault of academics who have not supplied the required knowledge. Ch. 9) “What is wrong with the concept of carrying capacity?” This chapter explores the challenges of carrying capacity for researchers and practitioners alike. Essentially while there are emergent ideas of whether there are too many or too few tourists going beyond that and setting actual numbers and applying the concept is difficult.
Book review / Tourism Management 57 (2016) 10e11
Ch. 10) “Knowledge management in tourism, are the stakeholders research-averse?” This chapter focuses on the issues in, knowledge transfer and why it is important. The chapter explores whether, although the importance of knowledge might be recognised by businesses and academics, those two communities of practice are on different wavelengths. The final chapter is explained by the Editor as being a broad overview of the challenges faced by tourism researchers: Ch. 11) “Tourism for whom? The unmet challenge.” The contributors to this chapter focus on the question of what has tourism done for us. Each of the authors put forward their own personal views. The contributions cover three potential perspectives: ‘us’ as tourists, ‘us’ as destinations and ‘us’ as academics. In relation to the last ‘us’ the questions of what tourism has done for academics and what academics can do for tourism feature quite prominently. The book provides a discussion that goes from (1) whether postmodernist (post tourist) discourse has succeeded or failed in providing a solid conceptual basis for future tourism research, through (2) anti-tourist perceptions and critiques of tourism by academics, and (3) three problematic issues for researchers, to (4) an overarching synthesis of the unmet challenge for researchers. At
11
various times I wondered whether the challenges identified in the specification of the probes were the right ones. I also wondered why there were four chapters in the first grouping of chapters and why the number of contributors varied between probe topics. Finally, I wondered whether the wording of the some of the probe topics was not clear. Each of these queries could have been a basis for criticising the book. However, despite these mental queries, I found this a really interesting edited volume, particularly the juxtaposition of the views of the different academics on each challenge topic. As a result, for me, the book did what it set out to do - to bring about discussion between authors within the book and to raise questions in the mind of the reader. However, in addition for me, there was one unexpected but I think very relevant and important question raised at various points within the book. This was whether there is a need for change in the mindset of tourism academics/researchers. Such a change of mindset could include taking a more even balanced view of tourism, rather than automatically seeing it as a problem, and recognising what is needed to engage better with the tourism industry and policy makers. D.R. Vaughan Faculty of Management, Bournemouth University, UK E-mail address: [email protected].
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Tourism Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/tourman
Book review Challenges in Tourism Research, Aspects of Tourism Series, T.V. Singh (Ed.). Channel View Publications, Bristol (2015). 392pp., (Pbk.), £34.95 ISBN: 9781845415327; (Hbk.), £109.95 9781845415334 In this book, edited by T. V. Singh, 37 tourism academics have been invited to provide their own perspectives on 11 challenges in tourism research. These challenges were selected by the Editor on the basis that they have been, and are still, relevant. The objective of the book is to stimulate debate on each of these challenges. To do this, the book adopts the same format as a previous book edited by T. V. Singh in 2012, Critical Debates in Tourism. For each challenge, one academic has written what is called a ‘probe’ paper, which presents his/her understanding and evaluation of the challenge topic. This is followed by three or more discussant papers, each prepared by different academics, which both critique the probe author's contribution and presents the views of the individual discussants. The book starts with an Introduction by T. V. Singh which sets out the way in which the research challenges were identified and a brief overview of each of the challenges. This is followed by 11 chapters that follow the same format: a brief introductory ‘context setting’ explaining the focus of the chapter, the probe paper, the discussants' papers, a final response by the author of the probe paper to the discussants' papers, discussion questions and references. This chapter format is designed to bring about discussion, in print, between academics rather than each contribution standing in isolation. The search is not for a definitive answer on the challenge but an exposition of different perspectives, agreements and differences. In this, the book succeeds. The first four chapters focus on the challenges in researching and understanding tourists, their motivations and their experiences. The discussion is primarily on the challenge of understanding why tourists do what they do, the experiences they have, and how tourism researchers might move understanding forward (the probe topic statement is given first in italics): Ch. 1) “I am a traveller, you are a visitor, they are tourists. But who are the post tourists?” This chapter is about understanding the meaning of the tourist experience and whether post-modernist (post tourist) discourse has succeeded, or failed, in providing a solid conceptual basis for future tourism research. Ch. 2) “Is a tourist a secular pilgrim or a hedonist in search of pleasure?” This chapter examines the use of, and the appropriateness of the use of, the concept-metaphors of religious and secular pilgrimage in relation to the experiences of tourists. Ch. 3) “Do tourists travel for the discovery of self or to search for the ‘other’?” This chapter focuses on understanding tourism as a phenomenon and why individual identity and social conditions
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2016.05.003 0261-5177
have combined to make tourism an acceptable and desirable activity. The challenge is to establish why people travel rather than why they think they travel. Ch. 4) “Is volunteerism a new avatar of travelism?” This chapter extends on the previous one by exploring volunteer tourists' motives: whether they are driven by altruism or by self-interest. The next three chapters focus on the challenges for researchers in respect of the ways in which tourism is perceived and discussed. Effectively the question addressed in these chapters is whether tourism is good or bad. Within these chapters the role of academics in how tourism perceived is discussed. The three chapters are: Ch. 5) “Tourism's invulnerability: lies, damned lies and statistics.” The probe statement implies that tourism is vulnerable as an economic activity. The chapter explores whether this perceived vulnerability is real or whether it is the result of academics pushing the view that tourism is an actively globalising force both economically and culturally. Ch. 6) “Vanishing peripheries: does tourism consume places?” This chapter looks at the contested ‘concept’ of the periphery, whether a periphery is a fixed entity and what the characteristics of a periphery may be. The discussion is more on the nature of the periphery than on whether tourism/tourists consume it. Ch. 7) “Tourism is more sinned against than sinning.” This chapter looks at whether tourism is unfairly criticised and whether it is no more a sinner than other economic activities. The discussion evolves towards whether it is potentially academics who are the sinners because they have largely been anti-tourism (for whatever reason). The next three chapters focus on the challenges presented by three selected issues within tourism. The three chapters are: Ch. 8) “Is the concept of sustainability utopian: ideally perfect but hard to practice?” The contributors to the chapter agree that the notion of sustainability is not doing well. However, they disagree on why e whether it is a lack of knowledge or for political/economic reasons. In addition, there is a suggestion that this may be the fault of academics who have not supplied the required knowledge. Ch. 9) “What is wrong with the concept of carrying capacity?” This chapter explores the challenges of carrying capacity for researchers and practitioners alike. Essentially while there are emergent ideas of whether there are too many or too few tourists going beyond that and setting actual numbers and applying the concept is difficult.
Book review / Tourism Management 57 (2016) 10e11
Ch. 10) “Knowledge management in tourism, are the stakeholders research-averse?” This chapter focuses on the issues in, knowledge transfer and why it is important. The chapter explores whether, although the importance of knowledge might be recognised by businesses and academics, those two communities of practice are on different wavelengths. The final chapter is explained by the Editor as being a broad overview of the challenges faced by tourism researchers: Ch. 11) “Tourism for whom? The unmet challenge.” The contributors to this chapter focus on the question of what has tourism done for us. Each of the authors put forward their own personal views. The contributions cover three potential perspectives: ‘us’ as tourists, ‘us’ as destinations and ‘us’ as academics. In relation to the last ‘us’ the questions of what tourism has done for academics and what academics can do for tourism feature quite prominently. The book provides a discussion that goes from (1) whether postmodernist (post tourist) discourse has succeeded or failed in providing a solid conceptual basis for future tourism research, through (2) anti-tourist perceptions and critiques of tourism by academics, and (3) three problematic issues for researchers, to (4) an overarching synthesis of the unmet challenge for researchers. At
11
various times I wondered whether the challenges identified in the specification of the probes were the right ones. I also wondered why there were four chapters in the first grouping of chapters and why the number of contributors varied between probe topics. Finally, I wondered whether the wording of the some of the probe topics was not clear. Each of these queries could have been a basis for criticising the book. However, despite these mental queries, I found this a really interesting edited volume, particularly the juxtaposition of the views of the different academics on each challenge topic. As a result, for me, the book did what it set out to do - to bring about discussion between authors within the book and to raise questions in the mind of the reader. However, in addition for me, there was one unexpected but I think very relevant and important question raised at various points within the book. This was whether there is a need for change in the mindset of tourism academics/researchers. Such a change of mindset could include taking a more even balanced view of tourism, rather than automatically seeing it as a problem, and recognising what is needed to engage better with the tourism industry and policy makers. D.R. Vaughan Faculty of Management, Bournemouth University, UK E-mail address: [email protected].