Costs and benefits of environmental change: tourism industry's responses in Arctic Finland

ABSTRACT

Recent research has focused on the impacts of environmental change to tourism. In particular, the perceived costs of climate change have been increasingly studied. However, the relationship between costs and benefits resulting from the changing environmental conditions for the industry has been less examined. This paper identifies the locally observed changes in the natural and socio-economic environments and aims to analyse the financial costs and benefits to tourism businesses in two tourism-dependent communities in northern Finland. The specific focus is on adaptation and adaptive management in a tourist destination scale. Adaption is understood as an investment creating not only implementation costs, but potentially also benefits for tourism operations. Research materials were collected among tourism and tourism-related businesses through 41 semi-structured thematic interviews. Results indicate that the evaluated benefits of environmental change seem to exceed those of costs. This conforms to the on-going discourse of climate change–tourism relations associated with the Arctic region where both awareness and vulnerability to change are considered relatively high but the level of responses, i.e. adaptation, low. These results can help to further identify the most vulnerable sectors in tourism and assist entrepreneurs preparing for environmental and climate change. However, the paper concludes that while global environmental change, with specific adaptive management strategies, may create local short-term direct benefits for the industry, a long-term sustainability of tourism in the Arctic calls for mitigation responses to climate change.     

Cultural tourism between local and transnational identities: Jewish heritage in Syracuse,Italy

Abstract

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.     

旅游资源开发与保护中的制衡机制失衡与政府规制优化

旅游资源开发与保护中发生的种种矛盾,归根到底是相关利益者之间利益的冲突,为此政府必须建立平衡各方利益的制衡机制。我国制衡机制的失衡,突出表现为：企业的制衡力过于强大,原居民、社会组织、从业人员的制衡力过于微弱。制衡机制失衡必然导致利益分配失衡,强势方获得超额利润。建议从三方面优化规制：重构政府的旅游资源管理体系与制度,严格执行旅游资源开发项目的“审批权”;健全旅游资源开发与保护的法规,编制并严格执行旅游规划,提高依法规制的合法性、科学性与严肃性;推进相关利益者制衡机制建设,对旅游资源实行全民监督管理。     

Regional Planning in the Catalan Pyrenees: Strategies to Deal with Actors' Expectations,Perceived Uncertainties and Conflicts

Drawing on three case studies in the Catalan Pyrenees (Spain), this paper shows how interactions between planners and stakeholders influence expectations, uncertainties and conflicts during the planning process. Therewith, it provides further understanding of performance of regional planning beyond the formality of plans and policies. The case studies illustrate how planners' actions can either generate uncertainty, conflicts and frustration, or common understanding, agreements and positive expectations. With these insights, planners can be more conscious about the effects of their communicative strategies on the multiple perceptions of the planning process. Planners need to deal with interpretations of other actors, and they have to be aware of others' expectations and uncertainties. The positive effect of interactions has limitations because of the unavoidable existence of different perceptions and interests concerning a plan. Nevertheless, planners can generate even greater conflicts themselves if the perceptions from other stakeholders are ignored.     

试论灾害旅游的伦理均衡

灾害旅游作为汶川灾后重建的一种发展思路而受到关注,而这必然会涉及伦理问题。本文基于伦理学视角,用系统的方法分析了作为灾害旅游中矛盾双方的旅游者和旅游地在各方面表现出的冲突及伦理问题,即各自在道德和利益两方面的矛盾。通过伦理视角来审视灾害旅游的发展,具有一定创新性。本文认为,在灾害旅游的开发过程中,需要兼顾旅游者与旅游地,道德和利益之间的均衡关系;需要通过加强制度建设,用外在的力量来约束各利益主体的行为,并通过教育,以加强自律的方式引导各个利益主体的行为。     

Unintended effects of technology on climate change adaptation: an historical analysis of water conflicts below Andean Glaciers

Climate change adaptation measures can generate long-term unintended consequences, as this paper demonstrates through an empirical case study of water conflicts at Lake Parón in Peru’s Cordillera Blanca mountain range. This decade-long struggle culminated in 2008 when a coalition of local groups (stakeholders) from the Cruz de Mayo and Caraz communities in the Callejón de Huaylas seized control of the Lake Parón reservoir from a private multinational corporation, Duke Energy. This clash over Parón’s water in the Llullán and Santa River watersheds emerged much earlier than climatic-hydrologic models had predicted, and it occurred, this paper argues, largely because of previously successful climate adaptation measures. The drainage tunnel and floodgates originally installed at Parón in the 1980s to prevent a climate-related outburst flood led to unintended or perverse outcomes because these technological artifacts subsequently allowed a diversity of stakeholders—including rural subsistence farmers, urban residents, national park officials, tourism promoters, the state energy company Electroperú, and Duke Energy—to manage water differently depending on their priorities and the existing governance structures. Neoliberal reforms that altered state-society-environment relations in Peru played a key role in these changing stakeholder power dynamics that were reflected in the management of water infrastructure at Parón. Examining this water conflict that emerged from the unintended effects of climate adaptation demonstrates not only how technology and society are mutually constitutive, but also why the politics of technologies must be considered more carefully in the analysis of social-ecological systems, hydro-social cycles, and climate change adaptation.     

Pandemics,transformations and tourism: be careful what you wish for

Abstract

Disease outbreaks and pandemics have long played a role in societal and economic change. However, the nature of such change is selective, meaning that it is sometimes minimal and, at other times, and change or transformation may be unexpected, potentially even reinforcing contemporary paradigms. A comprehensive overview of pandemics and their effects is provided. This is used to help contextualise the COVID-19 pandemic, its impact on tourism and government, industry and consumer response. Drawing on the available literature, factors that will affect tourism and destination recovery are then identified. Some measures will continue or even expand present growth orientations in tourism while others may contribute to sustainability. It is concluded that that the selective nature of the effects of COVID-19 and the measures to contain it may lead to reorientation of tourism in some cases, but in others will contribute to policies reflecting the selfish nationalism of some countries. However, the response to planetary limits and sustainable tourism requires a global approach. Despite clear evidence of this necessity, the possibility for a comprehensive transformation of the tourism system remains extremely limited without a fundamental transformation of the entire planet.     

Embedding entrepreneurial regional innovation ecosystems: reflecting on the role of effectual entrepreneurial discovery processes

ABSTRACT

Collaboration between regional stakeholders is increasingly emphasized in innovation policy as a way to activate the inherent agency in a regional innovation system. Partnerships of diverse stakeholders have been identified as critical, being able to envisage and implement future pathways that in turn bring change to a region. Thus, the knowledge of various stakeholders is supposed to be combined in novel ways in order to define regional assets and possible future pathways. Nevertheless, it has been recognized that these agency activation approaches often fail to realize these long-term visions initially agreed by partners. We here draw on Sotarauta’s notion of policy ‘black holes’, where regional partners repeat past superficial successes rather than driving in to systemic change. We seek to understand the conditions under which regional stakeholders can build realistic and adaptable strategies that shift regional development trajectories. We explore this via a qualitative approach comparing entrepreneurial discovery processes in three peripheral regions, namely Twente (Netherlands), Aveiro (Portugal) and Lincolnshire (UK). We reflect on the potential value of more effectual (opportunistic/ flexible) approaches to entrepreneurial discovery. We argue that black hole problems may arise from the way agency activation strategies conceptualize long-term strategy development, if partners’ mind-sets are too causal and lacking flexibility to continually reorient strategies during implementation better towards these collective visions.     

隔离与融合:新疆喀纳斯景区旅游规划中的利益博弈

旅游规划是一个地区对于未来旅游业发展的一种项目计划和制度安排,因此,在旅游规划编制以及落实过程中会涉及到各相关利益方的博弈。在我国一些少数民族地区,未被工业化的社会形态和结构成为一种稀缺的吸引物,旅游业成为当地具有较强比较优势的经济产业。但在旅游开发规划中,当地居民的利益诉求往往被忽视。新疆喀纳斯旅游规划应用了居民区与旅游区相隔离的战略,在达到了功能分区的目的的同时也引起了相关利益方之间的利益博弈,引发了我们对于编制旅游规划的程序和实体改革方向的思考。     

中国旅游业更加可持续的发展:小步伐大策略

近年来,西方研究人员在撰写有关中国旅游的课题时,对可持续发展旅游业给予了特别的关注。"可持续发展旅游业"这一词可理解为为了达到社会文化、自然环境、以及旅游业经济增长这三点之间的和谐关系而努力发展的旅游业。本文回顾了全球各方力量对旅游业的塑造,并指出在创造积极的旅游前景时其可持续发展性所面临的挑战。对如何执行和研究可持续发展所采取的具体措施及对其的深度理解是当前研究的热点。通过五大路径,十种个人行为及四个组织模块建立可持续发展旅游业的主导思想。     

Identification of limits and barriers to climate change adaptation: case study of two islands in Torres Strait,Australia

Communities living on remote islands are often viewed as among the most exposed and vulnerable to climate change impacts. This study uses the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework to investigate how indigenous communities living on two physically different islands in Torres Strait, Australia, experience what they consider to be the impacts of climate change in relation to their daily lives. During this process, a series of natural, physical, and socio‐cultural limits and barriers to climate change adaptation were identified on Boigu, a low‐lying mud island inundated by the sea during high tides and storm surges. As a volcanic island, Erub's elevation is higher but significant community infrastructure, housing, and cultural sites are located on the low coastal fringe. No immediate limits to climate change adaptation were identified on Erub, but physical and socio‐cultural barriers were revealed. Limits to climate change adaptation occur when adaptation actions fail to protect the things valued by those affected, or few adaptation options are available. Barriers to climate change adaptation may be overcome if recognised and addressed but can become entrenched limits if they are ignored. Within the participating communities, such limits and barriers included (a) restricted adaptation options due to limited access to particular livelihood assets; (b) difficulty engaging with government processes to secure external support; and (c) people's place‐based values, which evoke a reluctance to relocate or retreat.     

Evolutionary economic geography: reflections from a sustainable tourism perspective

ABSTRACT

Evolutionary economic geography (EEG) is receiving increasing attention from tourism geographers with over 30 publications explicitly incorporating EEG into tourism between 2011 and 2016. Many of these contributions are conceptual, which is not surprising given the novelty of EEG within economic geography, in general, and tourism, in particular. However, a sizeable number of these are built on detailed case studies, using EEG as an analytical lens rather than as a conceptual point of departure. Thus, many tourism researchers have found that EEG has great potential for understanding change in tourism destinations. In this Research Frontiers paper I critically reflect on this early research of EEG in tourism geographies from a sustainable development perspective. In the cases presented, EEG offers a fresh understanding of two related challenges in each of two separate aspects of sustainable tourism development. First, pro-growth governance models can be disrupted by engaged local stakeholders in order to make tangible sustainability gains but these gains remain precarious over time as pro-growth governance models prove tenacious in the very long-term. Second, regional institutional legacies hamper new path emergence in two ways – through institutional inertia which keeps the region's focus on past success in other sectors and through the (possibly competing) institutional imperatives of the dominant and emerging tourism sub-sectors or sub-regions. These challenges are illustrated through two complementary Canadian cases drawn from the extant literature – the mass tourism destination of Niagara and the resort community of Whistler. I highlight how a sustainable tourism perspective can also help to critique EEG theory and empirics in line with other recent political economy critiques in economic geography. I conclude that sustainable tourism, at its best, is an established reflexive lens which will help to develop, validate, and challenge aspects of EEG theory within tourism studies, in particular, and economic geography, in general.     

Climate change vulnerability and adaptation research focusing on the Inuit subsistence sector in Canada: Directions for future research

The last decade has witnessed a proliferation of research into the human dimensions of climate change in the Arctic. Much of this work has examined impacts on subsistence hunting, fishing, and trapping among Canadian Inuit communities. This scholarship has developed a baseline understanding of vulnerability and adaptation, drawing upon interviews with community members and stakeholders to identify and characterize climatic risks and adaptive strategies. To further advance this baseline understanding, new methodologies are needed to complement existing research if we are to capture the dynamic nature of how climate change is experienced and responded to, and fully engage communities as equal partners. Longitudinal studies, community‐based monitoring, and targeted adaptation research offer significant promise to advance understanding. These methodologies provide a strong basis for developing meaningful partnerships with communities, the co‐production of knowledge, and empowerment for adaptation: essential components of community‐based participatory research.     

Archaeological Site Management and Local Involvement: A Case Study from Abu Rawash,Egypt

Abstract

Local involvement is an essential element of successful archaeological site management. Recognition of the role of the local community could make a great contribution in improving the present critical situation of many archaeological sites worldwide. In Egypt, where internationally renowned archaeological sites attract both academic and tourism interests, archaeological sites and monuments are suffering from different issues. Amongst the various causes is the failure to recognize the relationship between the sites and the present society — both the local community and other stakeholders — and this has negatively influenced the sites. Not only have the local communities been given limited access to knowledge, and limited opportunities to become involved in the archaeology, but also their attempts to pursue a better standard of living have been restricted for the sake of protecting the national heritage. In this article I use a case study from Abu Rawash to explore strategies that could encourage local involvement in site management, through capacity building and communication with the government and other stakeholders. Although local involvement may not provide a drastic improvement of an individual site's condition, the principle of local involvement should contribute to a general improvement in Egypt, where conservation efforts largely focus on physical materials and little attention is given to the society surrounding the archaeological remains.     

论区域旅游发展中旅游区与行政区的矛盾与融合

旅游区与行政区在区域划分目的、区域划分方式等方面存在着本质上的差异,这种差异造成了旅游区与行政区在区域旅游发展的运作与管理中的诸多矛盾,阻碍了区域旅游业的发展。本文阐述了旅游区与行政区的本质与差异,分析了旅游区与行政区在区域旅游发展中的矛盾,研究了如何消除这些矛盾,并通过利益的协调达到区域间的融合。     

国外旅游利益相关者研究综述与启示

本文在搜集分析相关文献的基础上,较为系统地对国外相关研究进行了归纳和评述,指出其研究内容主要集中于旅游利益相关者的界定及分类;旅游规划、管理与营销中的利益相关者问题;旅游环境伦理与可持续发展中的利益相关者问题;社区旅游及其协作中的利益相关者问题等多个方面,大多采用实证研究方法。最后本文探讨了国外研究对国内研究的启示,期望能够对国内相关研究产生一定的借鉴意义。     

Understanding local innovation systems in peripheral tourism destinations

Tourism destinations in peripheral areas are often large regions established by centralised government agencies to encourage collaboration between dispersed communities and foster innovation. Relatively little research attention has been paid to the impact that centrally defined destination boundaries have on whether and how small communities contribute to innovation at a regional level. This paper examines the case of Burra, a small town in rural South Australia. It analyses the networking, collaboration and knowledge exchange behaviour of tourism stakeholders in the context of the state-government-defined ‘Clare Valley’ tourism region. Data were drawn from a web-based social network analysis, in-depth interviews, historic document analysis and field observations. The study found that the local tourism system had limited aspirations and capabilities to collaborate with other towns in the region. Lack of regional engagement was only partially due to intra-regional competition and resistance to regional boundaries. More significant barriers included a local culture of operating in isolation, an embedded reliance on public sector leadership to manage systemic interactions, an aging system with limited ambition to change and an inability to harness in-migrants and externally based stakeholders to stimulate knowledge transfer. Changing the imposed destination boundaries would have limited impact on the operation of the local system. The paper concludes that effective regional destination development in peripheral areas needs to be better informed by more detailed understandings of local tourism systems and their capacities to engage.     

旅游污名：研究进展及展望

近年来,层出不穷的旅游乱象给整个旅游行业带来了极其负面的影响,使我国旅游行业遭受到了社会公众强加的污名。因此,如何避免旅游污名化现象的加剧以及如何对已被污名的旅游业进行去污名化,已成为我国旅游界亟待解决的课题。当前学术界关于旅游污名的重视远远不够,研究十分匮乏。本文对旅游污名研究进展进行了系统述评,将旅游污名划分为基于人地关系的旅游地方污名、基于群体关系的旅游者污名以及基于人际关系的旅游职业污名。在此基础上,指出应加强旅游污名的形成机制与综合治理研究、使用流动性方式开展旅游污名研究等方向。本文为理解及解决旅游污名问题提供可行的理论指导,对旅游研究及旅游发展均大有裨益。     

Tourism in changing natural environments

ABSTRACT

Natural environments and the human interactions that occur within, are continuously changing and evolving. However, increasingly, the impacts of climate change, natural and man-made disasters, economic instability, and other macro-environmental factors, have profound implications on local and global economies, fragile ecosystems, and human cultures and livelihoods. In response, tourism within these natural environments is also changing and evolving rapidly in both developed and developing regions. While at times this is spurred by new opportunities, it is often also the result of resource and user-conflicts and changing environmental circumstances. The articles in this special issue examine the numerous ways in which changes in the natural environment impact tourism, and how the tourism industry is responding and adapting to such changes. Detailed case study examination of human interactions within what are often fragile ecosystems can provide us with important insight on social and ecosystem resiliency, innovation and adaptation, and factors that drive tourism success. This was the focus of a session at the inaugural Tourism Naturally Conference, held in Alghero, Italy, 2–5 October 2016, and formed the basis for this collection of articles. From these contributions, what is evident is that while adaptation can be passive in nature, it can, and should ideally be much more proactive, with individuals and organizations seeking improved knowledge and learning. Such actions will contribute to greater resilience within the tourism industry, whether in response to climate change and its subsequent impacts, or an increasing scarcity of the natural resources upon which tourism relies.     

Tourism and cross-border regional development: insights in European contexts

This paper aims to structurally analyse the role of tourism in regional development processes in European cross-border regions with different historical development paths. Departing from an institutional perspective, the research is based on comparison of the position of tourism in region-building processes in the newly developing German–Czech cross-border region and the more ‘mature’ German–Belgian borderlands. Results indicate that the development of local cross-border tourism projects is no guarantee for positive destination-wide regional development impacts. In some cases, these projects may even reinforce asymmetrical socio-economic development directions of neighbouring borderlands. Rather, the socio-spatially equitable distribution of tourism benefits in cross-border contexts depends on several process-based aspects. These include the presence of ‘thick’ (cross-border) institutional arrangements, multi-scalar representation of tourism stakeholders in decision-making processes and a transversal position of tourism in regional development strategies. However, both with cross-border institutional ‘under-mobilization’ (Germany–Czech Republic) and with institutional ‘over-mobilization’ (Germany–Belgium), the informal network position of institutional brokers proved key for safeguarding the integrative character of tourism in the inevitably complex cross-border region-building process.