Enclaves in tourism: producing and governing exclusive spaces for tourism

Abstract

Exclusively planned tourism destinations, such as all-inclusive resorts, gated resort communities, private cruise liner-owned islands and privatized beaches, have increased over the last few decades. Researchers have analyzed these kinds of tourism environments as enclaves, which are typically driven by external forces and actors, strongly supported by globalization and the current neoliberal market economy. Existing research shows that tourism enclaves are characterized by active border-making, power issues and material and/or symbolic separation from the surrounding socio-cultural realities, leading to weak linkages with host communities and the local economy. Tourism enclaves involve power inequalities, injustices and unsustainable practices that often have serious negative impacts on local socio-economic development. The articles of the special issue focus on tourism enclaves in different theoretical and geographical contexts and they contribute to our understanding of how these exclusive spaces are created and transformed and how they shape places and place identities. The individual research articles are contextualized and discussed with the key theoretical perspectives and empirical findings on tourism enclaves. Future research needs include analysis of linkages and flows of labor, goods, ideas and capital in different scales; policymaking, planning and regulations; environmental impacts; and locals’ land and resource access in the respect of bordering, privatization and land grabbing. By focusing on these topics, the tourism industry could be guided towards more responsible and sustainable development path.     

Topologies of tourism enclaves

Abstract

Research on tourism enclaves has relied mainly on topographical understandings of the phenomenon. The focus has been on the ontic, that which is or exists instead of the relational qualities or properties of tourism enclaves. Topographical conceptions thus tend to simplify enclavic processes and attributes that are much more complex than meets the eye. In this article, we make the case for topological understandings of tourism enclaves, based on a relational ontology, as a complement. We thereby strive to offer more nuanced conceptions of tourism enclaves. We depart from Agamben’s political ontology to illustrate our claim. Seen topologically, tourism enclaves are not simply spaces marked-off from the norm, but rather constituents of the norm. Tourism enclaves need to be theorized as ‘prototypes’ or ‘laboratories’ of new subjectivities (ways of being, relating, and experiencing the world). The tourist thus emerges as a model figure of biopolitics in the contemporary, the norm rather than the exception. The tourist is not that which is abandoned by the sovereign in the manner of Agamben, but rather a free exilant, a subject that self-willingly chooses abandonment. We deploy topological concepts, like Agamben’s the ban, the camp, and state of exception. Such a conception, we argue, widens the ontological register or horizon of tourism theory.     

Geographies of tourism development and planning

ABSTRACT

Development and planning have long been a focus of tourism geographers. Although the ideas of development and planning are complex and challenging to define and study, there is a strong agreement on the academic and societal relevance of their research in tourism geographies: tourism is a growth industry which requires holistic and future-oriented planning measures that minimize the negative externalities of tourism and guide the industry's growth towards a development path. A brief overview of early phases and current directions of development and planning approaches in geographical tourism research shows how traditional approaches are still relevant. There is, however, a need to recognize distinct contextual and historical dimensions around the geographies of tourism development and planning in versatile research contexts. These historic and contextual elements influence the present and future characteristics and power relations of tourism in place and can help us to understand how tourism works with localities and localities with tourism.     

从域外领土到飞地社区：人文地理学中的飞地研究进展

飞地是一个经典的地理学概念,也是一个重要的空间分析视角。目前国内关于飞地的研究日益增多,但对其内涵的梳理仍显不足,多种定义并存,并出现概念泛化的现象。在此背景下,本文对已有的飞地概念及其内涵进行了梳理,指出从域外领土、经济飞地到飞地社区的内涵演变历程,并根据飞地的宗主地-东道地关系,将其划分为行政飞地、经济飞地、飞地社区和飞地国家4种类型。本文研究指出,飞地概念的核心是其宗主地-东道地-飞地的三方构图,依托这一视角可以对当前的异域领土、经济飞地、乃至城市内部的族裔聚居区进行多尺度的空间分析,从飞地的不同功能出发,可以对其展开多维度的地理学透视,为进一步的实证研究和相关政策实施提供参考。     

Moral assemblages of volunteer tourism development in Cusco,Peru

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we develop a conceptual approach from which to examine the moral landscape of volunteer tourism development in Cusco, Peru. Drawing from recent work on assemblage theory in geography and tourism studies, we explore how assemblage thinking can facilitate new understandings of volunteer tourism development. Using assemblage as an analytical framework allows us to understand volunteer tourism as a series of relational, processual, unequal and mobile practices. These practices, we argue, are constituted through a broader aggregation of human and non-human actors that co-construct moral landscapes of place. Thus, reconsidering volunteer tourism as assemblage allows for more inclusive and nuanced understandings of how geopolitical discourses as well as historical, political, economic and cultural conjunctures mediate volunteer tourism development, planning and policy. Finally, this paper calls for further research that integrates assemblage theory and tourism planning and development.     

Sovereignty and statelessness in the border enclaves of India and Bangladesh

This article investigates the 198 political enclaves along the northern section of the border between India and Bangladesh. The enclaves are a remnant of the partition of British India in 1947 and are effectively stateless spaces because most are small and located several kilometers within their host country, which has prevented any administrative contact with their home country. Drawing on interviews with current enclave residents, this article describes the creation of the enclaves and analyzes the disputes that prevented their normalization over the past 60 years. The enclaves provide an important site for scrutinizing the connections between bordering practices and sovereignty claims. They also demonstrate both the social benefits the sovereign state system has brought through the establishment of law and order and the devastating consequences it has caused by territorializing those basic social protections. The article concludes that the failure to exchange the enclaves displays the powerful role nationalist homeland narratives play in institutionalizing the concepts of sovereignty and territorial integrity, often at the expense of human rights.     

A geographical approach to trust in tourism

Abstract

Within tourism research, trust has largely been conceptualised from psychological perspectives, allowing insights into the mechanisms through which resident/stakeholder relations generate trust. Whilst this work is valuable in understanding dynamics of trust relations, such focus has meant less attention and has been given to the ways space influences trust in tourism contexts. Thus, a geographical approach is put forth to understanding trust in tourism. Through observation and semi-structured interviews concerned with the implementation of a community tourism project in southwest China, insights are provided illustrating how trust is inscribed in place. It is shown that in the Chinese context, cultural place-based specificities relating to pre-existing governance structures, social hierarchies, and the intersection of power, knowledge and trust influence the (in)abilities of NGOs to develop trust with specific residents. More meaningful dialogue between tourism research and geographical conceptualisations of trust is called for – as a way to attend to spatial and scalar differences in understanding of trust within tourism contexts.     

Evolving enclave urbanism in China and its socio-spatial implications: the case of Guangzhou

Enclave urbanism has deep historical roots in China, from the earliest forms of enclave residence, i.e. the walled city and courtyard housing, to the contemporary intricate mosaic of enclaves comprising danwei (work unit) compounds, gated commodity housing estates and migrant enclaves. Yet the evolution of enclave urbanism is not simply a convergence with Western urban forms, nor is it a process of historical succession or cultural inertia. The story of enclave urbanism is far more complicated. Exploring China's evolving urban enclaves and their socio-economic implications would add much richness and diversity to the international debates on enclave urbanism. The first half of the paper discusses the evolving processes and dynamics of China's enclave urbanism, with special reference to Guangzhou. The complex dynamics of China's enclave urbanism are evolving around various socio-economic, cultural, institutional and political forces, within which institutional arrangements for urban spatial organisation and social control are playing a fundamental role. To present a fuller picture of the plural socio-spatial connotations of China's enclave urbanism, the second half of the paper unpacks the heterogeneity of urban fabrics and examines how different social groups perceive and represent the social aspects of their lives. Featuring a high degree of heterogeneity within and between different types of neighbourhoods, enclave urbanism in China has entailed a complex relationship between urban form and social fabric. In addition, for various social groups, urban enclave living is endowed with very different social meanings. In gated commodity housing estates, enclave living is an expression of a safe, high-quality and privileged lifestyle. In urban villages, it is a compromise choice involving makeshift urban living resulting from suppressed rights to the city. And, in danwei compounds, it is a lingering lifestyle to which people used to be collectively assigned with no exercise of their own choice and from which they are now emotionally estranged.     

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.     

Sanctions and tourism: effects,complexities and research

Abstract

Despite the growing use of sanctions as a post-Cold War foreign policy instrument, there is limited research on sanctions in a tourism context despite their substantial impact on destinations and tourist flows. Although there is significant research on sanctions in political science, international relations, economics, and public policy, very few studies explicitly examine the effect of sanctions on tourism. This study therefore examines the intricate geopolitical relationship between sanctions and tourism via a scoping review of relevant literature. Each of the four main types of sanctions that were identified: financial, sectoral, diplomatic and individual, have different implications for tourism at various scales. The findings show that tourism is profoundly affected by sanctions impacting tourism and hospitality businesses and destination image, severely restricting international travel, and disrupting financial investment and supply chains. More comprehensive sanctions may lead to substantial economic and personal hardship in destinations as well as indirect effects including decline in the value of currency and inflationary pressures. Nevertheless, despite the development of smart and targeted sanctions they rarely affect the coercive capacity of the targeted government and induce political behavioural change. Resistive economies can develop in response to sanctions in which domestic tourism assumes greater significance as a result of reductions in international mobility. Some destinations facing sanctions also focus on specific international markets from non-sanctioning countries as well as a country’s diaspora. Overall, the study of sanctions deepens knowledge of the interrelationships between geopolitics, foreign policy and tourism and its ramifications for destinations. Significant gaps in knowledge for future research include the role of domestic politics in influencing sanctions policy, the selection of tourism as a specific target for sanctions, and the development of destination adaptation strategies to sanctions.     

Networking and learning for tourism innovation: evidence from the Western Cape

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the nature of networking and learning by tourism firms in relation to accessing knowledge for innovation. In particular, the nature of tourism learning and networking, geography of networking linkages, and systemic characteristics of relationships between tourism firms, government agencies, higher education institutions, and other organisations in the Western Cape tourism system are examined. The analysis draws on 182 tourism firm, tourism system, and contextual interviews. This investigation demonstrates that even though tourism firms mostly use internal resources for innovation, external, non-local knowledge is significant for enhancing novel innovation. It is disclosed that whilst local network linkages are dense, loose, and of importance for business and marketing purposes, extra-regional network relationships are imperative for learning in relation to innovation. As further observed, network linkages between local and regional actors for supporting tourism innovation in the Western Cape are generally weak which points to the underdevelopment of local and regional innovation networks or systems. The paper provides planning recommendations for enhancing the competitiveness of tourism firms towards fostering development and growth in the regional tourism economy. Specifically, support for stimulating learning networks as well as strengthening systemic relationships in the Western Cape tourism system are recommended. It is underscored that strategic relationships with non-local partners need to be nurtured towards fostering tourism innovation and enhancing regional competitiveness.     

Reconnecting tourism after COVID-19: the paradox of alterity in tourism areas

Abstract

One of the transformations induced by the almost complete halt of tourism due to the COVID-19 pandemic has been a turning of the tourism sectors to a greater orientation towards their host communities. The enclavic tendencies of tourism areas, along with a multilayered approach to alterity gives insight into ongoing changes in the Quebec, Canada, tourism industry that have been enhanced by the COVID-19 pandemic. These changes points to a relinking of tourism to the needs of the host communities as part of a survival strategy in a time when there are no tourists, and could become, in the long run, a resilience strategy. On the other hand, there is a possibility of a reinforcement of the alterity and a further delinking of tourism in a “6?foot-tourism world” where sanitary safety would be at the core of a closed and controlled tourism development.     

Reconsidering global mobility – distancing from mass cruise tourism in the aftermath of COVID-19

Abstract

The mass cruise tourism industry (MCTI) is inscribed in a neoliberal production of tourism space that promotes the economic, sociocultural and environmental marginalization of cruise destinations. With cruise tourism halted as a result of the COVID-19, but likely to resume in 2021, I question the relevance of this form of tourism and propose future development alternatives aligned with deglobalisation and degrowth of the industry. Power relations with destinations communities can be critiqued using the concepts of global mobility and local mobility to show that the former, imperative for the deployment of mass cruise tourism, is a weakness for the industry in a post-pandemic perspective of reduced mobility. Destinations must use the industry’s dependence on global mobility as leverage to transform the balance of power in their favor and promote local mobility. They must embrace radical solutions to take control of their territory to favor a transition from “Growth for development” to “Degrowth for liveability”. Host territories, relying on national and regional governance, should gradually ban or restrict the arrival of mega-cruise ships, implement policies that promote the development of a niche cruise tourism industry (NCTI) with small ships and develop a fleet controlled by local actors.     

Selling bubbles at sea: pleasurable enclosure or unwanted confinement?

ABSTRACT

The insularity of super-sized cruise ships is simultaneously part of their appeal and a problem. Seagoing tourism enclaves offer a world of fantasy, consumption, familiarity, and diversion. However, problems encountered by passengers with respect to seasickness, boredom, and a sense of entrapment are noted within a range of publications. Selling the desirable aspects of cruise-ship enclosure co-exists with attempts to address the unease, discomfort, and uncertainty associated with bounded domains. These two currents, to use a nautical metaphor, characterize – or steer – the way in which shipboard experiences are sold to passengers. The concept of place marketing can be related to the thrust of the currents. Place marketing has been widely addressed in relation to urban and rural areas but not tourism enclaves such as cruise ships. The insular cruise-ship environment – a contained, consumption-driven place – is sold to (prospective) passengers in different ways. Those who study place marketing have yet to address dissimilar, but complementary, promotional messages (or currents) that are used to sell resort-style environments. Commercial imperatives explain the actions of cruise-ship companies with respect to selling the enclosed nature of their vessels, especially to North American consumers. The way in which place marketers manage place-based images – a response to intensified intercity or inter-town competition – mirrors the careful management of the promotion of shipboard spaces, often a response to intense competition within the cruise industry and part of initiatives designed to attract first-time passengers. This study addresses a research question: How are different but congruous promotional messages deployed as part of efforts to sell shipboard spaces?     

Tourism's labour geographies: Bringing tourism into work and work into tourism

ABSTRACT

Geographers have certainly contributed actively to the extant scholarly literature relating to tourism work and workers. Nevertheless, with few notable exceptions, most of this research has been piecemeal and case-based demonstrating unawareness of broader theoretical discussions and debates within the emerging sub-field of labour geography. For this special issue, a total of eight papers have been selected, most of which deal to varying degrees with labour mobilities, a theme that mainstream labour geographers themselves have largely avoided in the past. Additionally, the thorny issue of setting the intellectual boundaries between what constitutes work and leisure in contexts such as volunteer tourism is taken up in some of the discussions. Our aim with this special issue is to encourage the development of closer intellectual connections between labour geography and the study of tourism work and workers and their everyday mobilities.     

The Mainland Chinese market for nature tourism in Hong Kong

ABSTRACT

Nature tourism has been emerged as an ecologically sensitive form of tourism in developed and developing countries. A large influx of tourists would have both benefits and adverse impacts on these destinations. With an increasing influence of Chinese market in many destinations and tourism activities worldwide, it is important to understand the perceptions and preferences of Chinese tourists toward natural attributes so that proper approaches to destination planning and marketing can be derived to better attract these segments of tourists and sustainably manage tourism resources. The results of an empirical study of a sample of Mainland citizens (n = 430) to Hong Kong's nature areas show that (1) they exert a high degree of interest in participating in nature tourism; (2) female and older people are more interested in visiting natural environment; (3) these potential nature tourists from China prefer going to places in association with sea views, and engaging in photo-taking, non-commercial activities and less artificial elements; and (4) the nature tourism attributes form two factors related to aspects of educational needs and relaxation (an experiential factor), and nature-oriented but also convenient (a functional factor). These considerations can lead to the development of ecotourism products that are better suited to meeting the interests of mainland Chinese tourists, while also enriching the host experience.     

Change within the change: pregnancy,liminality and adventure tourism in Mexico

Abstract

Despite the growing number of pregnant women engaging in outdoor adventure activities, very few studies have explored pregnancy or the specific needs and challenges of pregnant women in tourism research. To fill this gap in the literature, we examine the participation of pregnant women in adventure tourism through the theoretical lens of liminality. Conceptualising pregnancy as a liminal stage in which women are ‘suspended’ between two statuses, opens diverse possibilities to delve into women’s experiences of embodiment, bodily image and control. In this sense, pregnancy is understood as an ‘internal change’, which adds specific challenges to women’s practice of adventure tourism, including bodily changes and different perceptions of risk-taking. Similarly, the context of adventure tourism provides an ideal space to reflect on liminal transitions and the ‘outside changes’ that pregnant women go through in the predominantly masculinised spaces that characterise this tourism segment. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 35 Mexican women who actively pursue adventure tourism and who had engaged in these activities during at least one pregnancy. The analysis indicates the importance of norms and social expectations experienced by pregnant women when doing adventure tourism. The concept of the ‘rhizomatic body’ proved to be a valuable tool when looking at the social taboos, prohibitions and rules that apply to pregnant women in specific sociocultural contexts (in this case, Mexico). By reframing and reconceptualising pregnant women and their practice of adventure activities, the social construction of pregnancy is elucidated. Finally, the study contributes to the understanding of alternative models and experiences of being a woman in gendered spaces, while shedding light on relevant behavioural patterns among pregnant tourists and the sociocultural impacts of these patterns.     

Different typologies of ‘co-working spaces’ and the contemporary dynamics of local economic development in Rome

ABSTRACT

Co-working spaces of different types are emerging as new economic and social intermediaries in the contemporary process of urban regeneration and urban economic growth. Despite their relevance, literature still fails to explore their role in the surrounding local economy. This paper intends to fill that gap, providing empirical evidence from the city of Rome and suggesting new policy perspectives. First, a taxonomy of the different spaces is provided, assessing their role in the related socio-economic ecosystem. Three main typologies have been identified: CWS1 acting as a ‘social incubator’ with an educational role and closer links to local authorities, CWS2 or ‘start-up incubator’ providing economic and technical support to the entrepreneurs-to-be, CWS3 or ‘real estate incubator’ which are mainly a commercial product. Their locational patterns are then discussed, highlighting the planning implication of their settlement in some in-between urban peripheral areas of Rome. Finally, suggestions for the creation of public/private partnerships or ‘social leases’ are proposed, foreseeing the integration of such spaces in the local offer of amenities. The current research paves the way for further discussion on the renewal of cities’ governance tools, processes of urban regeneration and policies tackling the new urban entrepreneurial class.     

COVID-19, indigenous peoples and tourism: a view from New Zealand

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic’s impact is predicted to be long-lasting with intergenerational impacts for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. Indigenous peoples offer untapped potential for understanding how we are shaping resilient solutions to COVID-19 and similar threats in the future. In New Zealand, the Māori people occupy diverse leadership and occupational roles throughout society. As a result of the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi (Te Tiriti o Waitangi) they are recognised, through Acts of Parliament, as government partners who work in governance and planning processes, including the COVID-19 response. Such recognition can result in the inclusion of Māori values such as whanaungatanga (kinship and belonging), kaitiakitanga (environmental guardianship and responsibility) and manaakitanga (respect, care, and hospitality) within policy and Acts of Parliament. Māori leaders and spokespeople are stressing that environmental and social welfare needs of all communities should be prioritised as part of the COVID-19 solution and that tourism responses cannot be separated from social needs. Government responses and planning efforts that incorporate diverse cultural values ensure more equitable futures and positive experiences for tourism providers, travellers and the hosts. In this way Indigenous-informed approaches would positively contribute to transforming business, health and education for a more positive global society.