“Us” and the “others”: Ethnic minorities in greece

Research findings concerning two ethnic minority groups in Greece focus on employment experiences of Albanian migrant workers and the type of tourist who chooses to “go native” in this host society. It is argued that although both these groups are found in low-paid occupations, the Western “tourist-worker” is treated more favorably by the host country than the Albanians. The latter not only experience exploitation and discrimination in employment but are scapegoated in various games played in the political arena. The paper shows Albanians trapped in conditions of inferiority, immobility and ultra-exploitation, as substantiated by ethnographic data collected during fieldwork in two Greek cities.     

‘Dutch don’t dance’ – leisure experiences and sense of belonging among Polish migrants in the Netherlands

The influx of migrants in Western Europe raises questions about the potential of leisure spaces and activities to support processes of social inclusion and to allow migrants to develop a sense of belonging. Discussions are ongoing about how this potential is realised or not. In this paper, I propose that the perspective of leisure activities as ritual may help to untangle how leisure spaces and practices build solidarity and a sense of belonging. The paper draws on interviews with Polish migrants to the Netherlands about leisure activities they undertake. Specifically, the paper will examine dance clubs as spaces and going out as activity in which migrants enter into contact with locals. It will show how these spaces and activities ultimately fail as potential sites for developing a sense of belonging.     

Ethnic minority tourism in China – Han perspectives of Tuva figures in a landscape

Ethnic or indigenous tourism has attracted significant academic research, but with the exception of Taiwan's minorities much of the research in the English language journals has been dominated by the perspective of western tourists gazing upon the minorities. Additionally such studies have tended to be quantitative in nature. This paper studies the attitudes of Han tourists towards the Tuva minority of Kanas Scenic Area and reports results derived from 650 respondents. Equivalencies with western-based research are found, with about only 11 per cent of tourists having any significant interest in minority cultures, although evidence exists that Tuva and their Kazakh neighbours contribute to destination image as figures in the landscape – a landscape that is attractive to Han tourists for aesthetic and relaxation reasons. However, while simpler analysis is found to be effective in creating clusters, a causal model fails due to issues of auto-correlation and multi-collinearity, which problems may be pertinent in other studies that report the gaze of a majority on the culture of the minority. The implications of both findings and research method are discussed.     

‘Therapy of the Green Leaf’: Public Responses to the Provision of Forest and Woodland Recreation in Twentieth Century Britain

This paper examines the largely unexplored formative years in the development of forest and woodland recreation in Britain during the twentieth century, with a particular focus from 1940 to 1970, when many of the institutional and infrastructural developments were made by both public and private sectors, laying the foundations for modern mass recreation. The paper is founded on archival research in public and private archival holdings. It makes a plea for greater recognition of the value of understanding the past, as contemporary policy makers plan for a sustainable future for British woods and forests. The paper reveals how the current balance required between the demands of people and nature is nothing new; it has a rich and complex history. The paper notes that after decades of public interest in forest and woodland recreation, public values and preferences are now being pushed to the fore in woodland management issues. How much public opinion will shape the sustainable future of our forests remains a controversial question.     

Women's leisure: divergence,reconceptualization and change — the case of the Netherlands

This paper consists of two sections. In the first, theoretical, section I explore the questions of divergence and reconceptualization of women's leisure with notions derived from Giddens's structuration theory. In the second section these theoretical notions are used to structure empirical findings from the Netherlands. This results in three different types of women's leisure. The traditional family type has a long history, while the modern family type and the individualistic type are rather new. Each type can be characterised by a specific division of leisure into own time, leisured caring time and leisured labour time and by a specific time-space behaviour. Both the modern family type and the individualistic type are strongly related to women's growing participation in the labour market, which for the former type goes hand-in-hand with an unequal gender division of work. The expectation is that, rather than the individualistic type, the modern family type will become most widespread in the Netherlands and that therefore unequal gender relations in the labour, caring and leisure domain will endure.     

Warfare tourism experiences and national identity: The case of Airborne Museum ‘Hartenstein’ in Oosterbeek,the Netherlands

This paper examines through an analysis of Dutch warfare tourism whether there is a relationship between the subjective perceived salience of Dutch identity and heritage tourists' motives, emotions and overall satisfaction. Using a social identity theory framework, this study provides a view of motives for Dutch warfare heritage tourism and the ways in which this specific variant of heritage tourism evokes different emotions and satisfaction evaluations in visitors. Specifically, we found that visitors who identified strongly as ‘being Dutch’ (the ‘in-group’) have stronger self-enhancement motives compared to those who identify less strongly, and that edutainment features strongly in the museum experience. Visitors seeking initiative/recognition express feelings of disappointment suggesting that the museum's symbolic function as a place of national in-group identity could be more highlighted. We demonstrate that an affirmative and engaged experience can manifest at nationally symbolic sites through positive historical narratives and entertainment, and through ‘in-group’ self-enhancement activities.     

Collaboration and meta-organisation in event tourism – Effects of the Olympic Agenda 2020 on planning the 2026 Winter Olympics

Mega-events such as the Olympic Games are often seen as the most prestigious tourism events in the world. However, public support for such mega-events has decreased over the past decades. To counteract this negative trend, the International Olympic Committee launched the Olympic Agenda 2020 and later amendments. With Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo (Italy) hosting the Winter Olympic Games in 2026, two independent tourist destinations will be required to collaborate and share resources in multi-contextual environments as they become members of a meta-organisation. Moreover, they will have to implement the requirements of the Olympic Agenda 2020. Building on meta-organisation theory and 35 semi-structured interviews, our findings highlight the organisational challenges in times of increased awareness of sustainability and positive legacy expectations. Our research makes recommendations for the further organisation of the 2026 Winter Olympic Games in six areas of action that require the attention of professionals and the support of academics.     

Beyond irrationality and the ultras: some notes on female English rugby union fans and the ‘feminised’ sports crowd

In the Academy, female fandom is often conceived of in ways which consciously exclude sport, and women are often marginalised by research on sports fandom. There is also little convincing qualitative research on the experience of mainstream female sports spectators, despite competing claims about the meaning and nature of today’s alleged ‘feminised’ sports crowds. Much of the qualitative work which does exist in this field focuses on younger male soccer fans and pathologises, the experience of female spectators. Instead, in this paper we explore the experiences of mainstream female fans from a sport which is much under‐researched, English rugby union. Drawing on qualitative data from semi‐structured interviews with female rugby union fans from Leicester, we explore these women’s fan experiences in the context of claims about the recent ‘feminisation’ of the late‐modern sports crowd. We focus empirically on three key issues: the early sports encounters of female spectators and their possible links with fandom; changes in women’s access to leisure time and to spectator sport; and women’s shifting experiences of watching rugby union in the new ‘professional’ era of the game. We end with a call for more qualitative work on the changing experience of female sports fans and for more theoretical and empirical work on the supposed ‘feminised’ sporting cultures of late‐modernity.     

Usage of the concept of culture and heritage in the United Arab Emirates – an analysis of Sharjah heritage area

Under the forces of an oil-based economy and the fast paced change, nationals in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and other Gulf states are becoming very keen to preserve, represent and invent a distinct ‘national’ culture and heritage. Fears of ‘loss’ of identity and concerns about ‘global’ culture are powerful social forces. Heritage revival has become a significant social, cultural and political process in the UAE, the most public sign of this being the development of ‘Heritage Villages’. This analysis explores themes of heritage revival and the preservation, representation and construction of culture in the UAE with specific analysis of the Sharjah Heritage Area (SHA). It will be shown that heritage revival in the UAE is both a symbolic and practical negation of globalization. Heritage revival is also increasingly an affirmation of the fast paced development of international business and tourism in the Emirates which is the focus of economic diversification. SHA will first be examined as a museum exhibitionary complex combining museum, festival and shopping. The representation, performance, negotiation and interplay of local/global and old/new culture at the SHA will be outlined in the context of transnationalism and the oil-propelled modernization.     

Among the piranhas: the troubling lifespan of ethnic tropes in “tribal” tourism to Vietnam

This article presents findings from mixed-method research into ethnic tourism in Vietnam. Drawing on critical discourse analysis and ethnographic research carried out in Sapa, northern Vietnam, the article examines how minority Indigenous groups are represented in ways that reproduce certain racial and gendered tropes that are drawn upon by tourists before, during and after actual tours. Findings from the study suggest that ethnic tourism is having a marginalising effect on minority ethnic women, who are becoming excluded from social, symbolic and economic space for behaviour that is deemed inauthentic. Tourists are drawing on a narrow range of Orientalist tropes throughout different stages of their participation in ethnic tourism and are carrying forward their pre-conceptions into tourism environments. Therefore, the ways in which indigeneity is packaged for tourists and the ways that tourists “authenticate” ethnicity inform their desires, which then shape their behaviour and interactions with locals. By bringing together ideas about authentication and gendered Orientalism and Othering, the analysis shows that the power play and its effects on Indigenous groups are considerable and troubling, with the whims and desires of tourists steering tourism organisation, including the surveillance and controlling of Indigenous women traders in and around the town.     

Opportunities and challenges in the contribution of wine routes to wine tourism in Italy – A stakeholders' perspective of development

Wine tourism in Italy, the largest wine producing country in the world, has achieved outstanding performance over recent years. However, various institutional, managerial, and professional delays in the field impede Italy from developing its full potential as a wine tourism destination, most likely because of the still unsatisfactory engagement of all possible stakeholders. A recent step forward has been the specific amendment regarding wine tourism provided by the 2018 Budget Law, anticipating regulatory norms for the sector. In this scenario, Italian wine routes, established by Law No. 268/1999 and consolidated by the law on vines and wine (Law No. 238/2016), should play a key role in the governance and management of the local wine tourism industry. However, the state of the industry presents opportunities and (above all) challenges. Our research contributes to exploring this scenario, providing evidence from the field and potential guidelines for development through territorial stakeholders' engagement.     

Eco-tourism and luxury – the case of Al Maha,Dubai

This paper examines the issues raised by Al Maha in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a 27 km² resort within the 225 km² Dubai Desert Conservation Zone that offers luxurious accommodation in 40 suites, each with its own swimming pool. Its appeal is based on luxury, but it also offers insights into desert culture, heritage and the fauna and flora of the Arabian Desert. Much of that desert has become severely degraded by 200 years of camel grazing. Al Maha claims eco-tourism status through its desert regeneration programme. Is eco-tourism compatible with luxury? Given an official Emirati ecological perspective of desert greening, is desert reclamation consistent with wider UAE greening policies? Does ecologically motivated reclamation based on revenue from luxury-based tourism condone ecologically unaware tourist behavior?     

Protected areas,conservation and tourism – financing the sustainable dream

Many commentators suggest that tourism could help fund the ever growing number of protected areas. The traditional reliance on government sources to support protected areas is increasingly untenable, in both the developed and developing world. This paper reviews the relationship between tourism and protected areas to assess opportunities for sustainable funding to assure effective stewardship. It explores a range of innovative and creative alternative funding mechanisms which could be consistent with a positive evolving relationship between tourism and protected areas. An outline classification of four protected area archetypes for management and funding purposes is suggested, based on a combination of visitation and biodiversity levels. To service the management of those four types, a series of non-government revenue streams are explored such as payments for ecosystem service (ES), environmental mortgages, intrinsic value funding, carbon abatement funding and research dividend funding. Issues discussed include: the willingness to pay on the part of potential visitors, the potential impact of fees on visitation, “quarantining” particularly valuable ecosystems from visitation and intrinsic value funding, the unpredictability of environmental mortgages and the potential stability of ES payments. Further research is required in data analysis and into the design of land tenure systems and regulatory mechanisms.     

Transnationalizing industrial heritage valorizations in Germany and China – and addressing inherent dark sides

ABSTRACT

Industrial heritage valorizations are usually characterized by two pervasive trends: Firstly, there is an understandable, but extremely narrow, focus on national histories of industrialization, thus excluding what has always been a constitutive element of any industrialization path after the initial industrial revolution in England: transboundary flows of hardware, capital, knowledge, people or power. Secondly, there is an almost exclusive concentration on the individual achievements of entrepreneurs, engineers and architects in times of peace and industrial progress. Current industrial heritage valorizations only rarely adequately reflect the other side of industrialization phases or patterns, that is, their disquieting stories of war, occupation, other forms of imposed foreign influence, disasters, social unrest and the suffering of individuals or groups triggered by, or leading to, crises, failures, relocations and destruction. Taking these blind spots as its starting point, this paper explores more inclusive ways of representing industrial heritage. Based on the concept of geo-historically entangled processes of transnationalization and case studies from Germany and China, the authors argue that the industrial landscapes reflect both former and current transboundary industrialization processes representing two or more nations’ painful and dissonant, but common, heritage. This should be mirrored more appropriately and consistently in industrial heritage tourism approaches and interpretation strategies.