- Email: [email protected]
Response to ‘tourism citations in other disciplines’
Annals of Tourism Research 53 (2015) 99–104
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Annals of Tourism Research journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/atoures
COMMENTARIES
Response to ‘tourism citations in other disciplines’ Irmgard Bauer James Cook University, Australia
I have read with great interest the recent Research Notes by Wardle and Buckley (2014) where the authors examine if tourism research satisfies the characteristics of a mature field of study (‘the third phase’) based on citations, hence recognition, in other academic disciplines. The disciplines investigated were psychology, sociology, biology, geography and economics. I would like to draw attention to the authors’ omission of medicine and health from the list of non-tourism disciplines. To date, the link between tourism and health, especially travel medicine, has been largely overlooked and, consequently, there is little tourism literature mentioned in health publications. Travel Medicine as a medical specialty has existed for almost 25 years. However, it still is more ‘medicine’ than ‘travel’ with very little insight into the travellers apart from their role as being in need of health preparation and, unfortunately, sometimes returning as a patient. Yet, travellers (prepared by travel health professionals) travel in the context of tourism, not in the context of medicine. Understanding basic tourism aspects, theories, models and so on, or at least being aware of such a context, gives Travel Medicine a ‘home’ and allows travel health professionals to prepare travellers not just based on medical textbook instructions but on an understanding, for example, of how tourists think, what motivates them and why they risk-behave the way they do (food, sex, activities). The same applies to medical care during travel or to post-travel care if travellers return ill or injured. Coming from a health background, my interest in links between tourism and local health began in the mid-1990s. It has taken years since then for this field of study to be recognized in travel health fields. To understand these links, I have included tourism literature in my articles published by journals such as Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease; Culture, Health & Sexuality; and Journal of Travel Medicine (for examples see: Bauer, 2014, 2012, 2008ab, 2007; Bauer & Puotinen, 2002; Cabada et al., 2007). Medical journals and scientific conference committees are slowly accepting ‘‘non-conformist’’ manuscripts on tourism’s health impacts. A recent editorial in the Journal of Travel Medicine by a tourism academic (Filep, 2014) came, therefore, as a welcomed surprise. I have also found including tourism aspects in medical conference presentations particularly useful because important concepts, portrayed in appealing ways and linked to the health topic at hand, can create interest in previously unfamiliar topics.
E-mail address: [email protected] http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2015.04.007 0160-7383/Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Commentaries / Annals of Tourism Research 53 (2015) 99–104
Perhaps we should read each other’s publications more. Tourism academics are possibly unfamiliar with publications such as the Journal of Travel Medicine, Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease, Wilderness and Environmental Medicine, but also journals covering, for example, health geography, GIS and health, public health, or environmental health to name but a few. Such journals, however, provide not only important tourism-related information but represent a good outlet for relevant tourism research. Health professionals would benefit from perusing a selected range of tourism literature to appreciate the context in which travel health and medicine happens. The professional organisation International Society of Travel Medicine (ISTM) is also a great starting point for tourism academics to build links and explore collaboration, including presentations at its international conferences. However, there is no need to wait until tourism literature is used more in travel medicine and vice versa. Another way to link the disciplines is to conduct research together. Innumerable un-researched areas need the expertise of both disciplines to find an answer. There have been studies combining tourism and health (either through collaborating researchers or within a study by one researcher) but the numbers appear low not least because it is difficult to identify such individual pieces of work. There are further ways to work together and draw from each other’s expertise. In universities where health degrees and tourism degrees are offered, students from both disciplines could enrol in a common elective subject ‘‘Tourism and Health’’ at undergraduate and/or postgraduate levels; overcoming administrative hurdles, such co-study could also happen between universities. This approach would foster an appreciation for and openness to the other discipline and prepare students for multi-disciplinary collaboration in their professional lives. The same can be suggested for cooperation in destination countries, especially in tourism hotspots around the world, at the university level, at the grassroots level, and between both, with health and tourism academics, health professionals and tour operators and agencies. Finally, academics from both disciplines who are interested in tourism’s health aspects or the health of travellers could form interest groups either within their home institution or across universities for exchange and cooperation. Talking to each other is always a good starting point. Without people who travel, tourism—academia and industry—would not exist. Travel medicine would be pointless without travellers/tourists. Both disciplines focus on the very same individual. I cannot imagine a more compelling reason for cooperation. References Bauer, I. (2007). Understanding sexual relationships between tourists and locals in Cuzco/Peru. Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease, 5(5), 287–294. Bauer, I. (2008a). The health impact of tourism on local and indigenous populations in resource-poor countries. Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease, 6(5), 276–291. Bauer, I. (2008b). ‘They don’t just come for Machu Picchu’: Locals’ views of tourist-local sexual relationships in Cuzco, Peru. Culture, Health & Sexuality, 10(6), 611–624. Bauer, I. (2012). Australian senior adventure travellers to Peru: Maximising older tourists’ travel health experience. Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease, 10(2), 59–68. Bauer, I. (2014). Romance tourism or female sex tourism? Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease, 12(1), 20–28. Bauer, I., & Puotinen, M. (2002). Geographical information systems (GIS) and travel health. Journal of Travel Medicine, 9(6), 306–314. Cabada, M., Maldonado, F., Gonzalez, E., Bauer, I., Verdonck, K., Seas, C., & Gotuzzo, E. (2007). Sexual behavior, knowledge of STI prevention, and prevalence of serum markers for sexually transmitted infections among tour guides in Cuzco/Peru. Journal of Travel Medicine, 14(3), 151–157. Filep, S. (2014). Consider prescribing tourism (editorial). Journal of Travel Medicine, 21(3), 150–152. Wardle, C., & Buckley, R. (2014). Tourism citations in other disciplines. Annals of Tourism Research, 46, 166–168.
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Annals of Tourism Research journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/atoures
COMMENTARIES
Response to ‘tourism citations in other disciplines’ Irmgard Bauer James Cook University, Australia
I have read with great interest the recent Research Notes by Wardle and Buckley (2014) where the authors examine if tourism research satisfies the characteristics of a mature field of study (‘the third phase’) based on citations, hence recognition, in other academic disciplines. The disciplines investigated were psychology, sociology, biology, geography and economics. I would like to draw attention to the authors’ omission of medicine and health from the list of non-tourism disciplines. To date, the link between tourism and health, especially travel medicine, has been largely overlooked and, consequently, there is little tourism literature mentioned in health publications. Travel Medicine as a medical specialty has existed for almost 25 years. However, it still is more ‘medicine’ than ‘travel’ with very little insight into the travellers apart from their role as being in need of health preparation and, unfortunately, sometimes returning as a patient. Yet, travellers (prepared by travel health professionals) travel in the context of tourism, not in the context of medicine. Understanding basic tourism aspects, theories, models and so on, or at least being aware of such a context, gives Travel Medicine a ‘home’ and allows travel health professionals to prepare travellers not just based on medical textbook instructions but on an understanding, for example, of how tourists think, what motivates them and why they risk-behave the way they do (food, sex, activities). The same applies to medical care during travel or to post-travel care if travellers return ill or injured. Coming from a health background, my interest in links between tourism and local health began in the mid-1990s. It has taken years since then for this field of study to be recognized in travel health fields. To understand these links, I have included tourism literature in my articles published by journals such as Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease; Culture, Health & Sexuality; and Journal of Travel Medicine (for examples see: Bauer, 2014, 2012, 2008ab, 2007; Bauer & Puotinen, 2002; Cabada et al., 2007). Medical journals and scientific conference committees are slowly accepting ‘‘non-conformist’’ manuscripts on tourism’s health impacts. A recent editorial in the Journal of Travel Medicine by a tourism academic (Filep, 2014) came, therefore, as a welcomed surprise. I have also found including tourism aspects in medical conference presentations particularly useful because important concepts, portrayed in appealing ways and linked to the health topic at hand, can create interest in previously unfamiliar topics.
E-mail address: [email protected] http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2015.04.007 0160-7383/Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
100
Commentaries / Annals of Tourism Research 53 (2015) 99–104
Perhaps we should read each other’s publications more. Tourism academics are possibly unfamiliar with publications such as the Journal of Travel Medicine, Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease, Wilderness and Environmental Medicine, but also journals covering, for example, health geography, GIS and health, public health, or environmental health to name but a few. Such journals, however, provide not only important tourism-related information but represent a good outlet for relevant tourism research. Health professionals would benefit from perusing a selected range of tourism literature to appreciate the context in which travel health and medicine happens. The professional organisation International Society of Travel Medicine (ISTM) is also a great starting point for tourism academics to build links and explore collaboration, including presentations at its international conferences. However, there is no need to wait until tourism literature is used more in travel medicine and vice versa. Another way to link the disciplines is to conduct research together. Innumerable un-researched areas need the expertise of both disciplines to find an answer. There have been studies combining tourism and health (either through collaborating researchers or within a study by one researcher) but the numbers appear low not least because it is difficult to identify such individual pieces of work. There are further ways to work together and draw from each other’s expertise. In universities where health degrees and tourism degrees are offered, students from both disciplines could enrol in a common elective subject ‘‘Tourism and Health’’ at undergraduate and/or postgraduate levels; overcoming administrative hurdles, such co-study could also happen between universities. This approach would foster an appreciation for and openness to the other discipline and prepare students for multi-disciplinary collaboration in their professional lives. The same can be suggested for cooperation in destination countries, especially in tourism hotspots around the world, at the university level, at the grassroots level, and between both, with health and tourism academics, health professionals and tour operators and agencies. Finally, academics from both disciplines who are interested in tourism’s health aspects or the health of travellers could form interest groups either within their home institution or across universities for exchange and cooperation. Talking to each other is always a good starting point. Without people who travel, tourism—academia and industry—would not exist. Travel medicine would be pointless without travellers/tourists. Both disciplines focus on the very same individual. I cannot imagine a more compelling reason for cooperation. References Bauer, I. (2007). Understanding sexual relationships between tourists and locals in Cuzco/Peru. Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease, 5(5), 287–294. Bauer, I. (2008a). The health impact of tourism on local and indigenous populations in resource-poor countries. Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease, 6(5), 276–291. Bauer, I. (2008b). ‘They don’t just come for Machu Picchu’: Locals’ views of tourist-local sexual relationships in Cuzco, Peru. Culture, Health & Sexuality, 10(6), 611–624. Bauer, I. (2012). Australian senior adventure travellers to Peru: Maximising older tourists’ travel health experience. Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease, 10(2), 59–68. Bauer, I. (2014). Romance tourism or female sex tourism? Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease, 12(1), 20–28. Bauer, I., & Puotinen, M. (2002). Geographical information systems (GIS) and travel health. Journal of Travel Medicine, 9(6), 306–314. Cabada, M., Maldonado, F., Gonzalez, E., Bauer, I., Verdonck, K., Seas, C., & Gotuzzo, E. (2007). Sexual behavior, knowledge of STI prevention, and prevalence of serum markers for sexually transmitted infections among tour guides in Cuzco/Peru. Journal of Travel Medicine, 14(3), 151–157. Filep, S. (2014). Consider prescribing tourism (editorial). Journal of Travel Medicine, 21(3), 150–152. Wardle, C., & Buckley, R. (2014). Tourism citations in other disciplines. Annals of Tourism Research, 46, 166–168.