Methodological complexities in investigating the transformative - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Methodological complexities in investigating the transformative potential of conscious tourism Tomljenović, Renata Ateljević, Irena

This project has been fully supported by the Croatian Science Foundation, under the project no. 6164.

10th Critical Tourism Studies conference Opatija, 26th to 30th June, 2015

TOURISM ...

... transformational force for achieving world-wide sustainability –embedded in current political and social context ….

• EC „tourism helps to strengthen

the feeling of European citizenship by embodying contacts and exchanges between citizens regardless of differences in language, culture and traditions” (2010)

• European Tourism Forum (2013)

„Tourism as a force for economic growth, social change and welfare”

… since it involves great movement of people and money

• It is an important economic

activity

• It is a social force – 1 billion

travellers in 2012 creating even more contacts with hosts and fellow travellers

This project has been fully supported by the Croatian Science Foundation, under the project

• no. 6164.

CURRENT KNOWLEDGE

• transformative power of tourism ignored in political and

scholarly arena and engaging in issues of true sustainability is not considered serious scholarship (Webel, 2007)

• studies on transformative power of tourism fragmented

(Pritchard, Morgan, Ateljevic 2011)

– Economic impact studies – economic contribution and competitiveness overshadows social aspects of tourism – Socio-cultural impact studies – monitoring impact/introducing remedial actions (planning framework); those grounded in sociology/anthropology focused on negative impacts – all ignore tourism potential to enhance well-being, QOL and social interaction – Tourist/consumer (demand-side) studies – focus on practical issues of motivation, satisfaction, experiences, decision making models; lack of insight into the process of personal changes undergone by tourists – Tourism studies in general – nurture isolationist approach studying tourism in its own right, based on rational, positivistic approach; transformation engaging with emotions, hopes and feeling devalued as they fall outside market parameters

This project has been fully supported by the Croatian Science Foundation, under the project

• no. 6164.

ENVIRONMENT

Over the last 50 years eco-system changed more rapidly than at any time in recorded human history (World

Watch Institute)

This project has been fully supported by the Croatian Science Foundation, under the project

• no. 6164.

ECONOMY

• unrestricted growth strains our

natural resources

• reach – poor divide with 86 man(!)

controlling 50% of world’s wealth with the gap increasing (Shiva, 2015)

• millions of working poor – youth

unemployment, longer working age, multi-generational households, food vouchers - realities of developed nations

This project has been fully supported by the Croatian Science Foundation, under the project

• no. 6164.

WHAT ABOUT US?

• happy on prozac
• cancer and

depression

• Increasing job stress and burnouts
• Pointless rat race
• Lack of jobs security and high

personal debts

• Lack of family security and

increasing divorce rates;

• Social alienation and the lack of

community –

• Lack of spirituality and increasing

existential questions on meaning of life

Poverty and Inequalities Consumerism Unhappiness Obesity

This project has been fully supported by the Croatian Science Foundation, under the project

• no. 6164.

CALL FOR CHANGE…. PARADIGM SHIFT

• from the rational / positivistic world view of economic

efficiency to ...

• Transmodern paradigm – the new mind set: planetary

citizenship of interdependence and biosphere politics, partnership model of caring economics, egalitarian and respectful vision for all living beings, spiritual (non-religious), circular, hopeful (Ateljević 2009, 2011) The significant problems we have - cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which - we have created them.

Albert Einstein

This project has been fully supported by the Croatian Science Foundation, under the project

• no. 6164.

Transformation

• ‘At the dawn of the Third Millennium, human civilization

finds itself in a seeming paradox

• f

gargantuan proportions. On the

• ne

hand, industrial and technological growth is destroying much of Nature, endangering

• urselves,

and threatening

• ur
• descendants. On the other hand, we must accelerate our

industrial and technological development, or the forces we have already unleashed will wreak even greater havoc on the world for generations to come. We cannot go on, and we cannot stop. We must transform’. (Alan

Atkisson (2006) ‘Sustainability is Long Dead

• Long

Live Sustainability’ In Keiner, M. The Future of Sustainability, pp.231- 243).

THEORETHICAL FRAMEWORK

• Tourism as a social force

– theme reinvigorated by the post 9/11 security and political challenges, economic and financial collapses and threats posed by climate change – Spurred by the ‘critical turn’ studies (Ateljevic, Pritchard, Morgan) rejecting positivistic paradigm

Tourism and peace

• Peace as presence of justice,

harmony, equity, freedom, wholeness, personal dignity, society well-being – fruitful theoretical foundation for tourism study (Heassly 2010) empirically under-explored Transmodern paradigm

• New world vision – new value

set

• Cultural creatives ( Ray and

Anderson)

• LOHAS market segment
• Out of which emerged:
• transmodern tourists

(Ateljević)

• Consious travellers (Pollock)

Transformative travel

• Within confines of tourism

emerged an idea that a particular (transformative) travel experience will alter the long- term thinking of individuals to produce social change and delivers ideals of sustainable living and development

This project has been fully supported by the Croatian Science Foundation, under the project

• no. 6164.

TRANS-TOURISM: Objective

To critically investigate the role of tourism in attaining the vision for sustainable world of peace and harmony and to develop tools and options in order to provide policy proposals and practical models to harness the transformative power of tourism

This project has been fully supported by the Croatian Science Foundation, under the project

• no. 6164.

• Methodological complexities

– Tautology - are participants in transformative travel experiences already transformed? – Research focused on attitudes but there is a weak link between attitudes and behaviour; how likely that the exposure to new perspective will lead to the behavioural change? – Taking immediate post-trip measurement likely to fail to capture any behavioural change? – For transformative travellers to become sustainability ambassadors – do they pass on new values, attitudes and behaviour to the members of their social circles? – If tourism is a transformative social force then transformative tourism practices need to be built into the mainstream tourism experiences – an issue completely neglected.

RESEARCH CHALLENGES

This project has been fully supported by the Croatian Science Foundation, under the project

• no. 6164.

TRANS-TOURISM: METHODOLOGY

• Mixed – method approach, combining quantitative and qualitative

methods

• Target groups:

a) Cultural creatives - to investigate the impact of travel (if any) on their transformation b) Transformational tourism entrepreneurs (motivation, business practices, key success factors) c) Tourism stakeholders – for mainstreaming transformative travel practices

• Geographical scope – European countries:

a) UK b) Germany c) Hungary d) Croatia

This project has been fully supported by the Croatian Science Foundation, under the project

• no. 6164.

TRANS-TOURISM: METHODOLOGY (cont.)

• Primary data collection:

a) A survey of cultural creatives b) Discussion forum for those cultural creatives claiming transformation through travel c) In-depth interviews with transformational travel providers (12; 4 each in Hungary and Croatia, 2 each in UK and Germany) d) Participant observation in transformative travel experience (1 Croatia, 1 Hungary) e) Longitudinal ethnographic research of those partaking in transformative travel (in-depth interviews, diaries) f) In-depth interviews with national policy makers and tourism industry leaders for the mainstreaming in Croatia

This project has been fully supported by the Croatian Science Foundation, under the project

• no. 6164.

Thank you! renata.tomljenovic@izgzt.hr irena.ateljevic@iztzg.hr www.transtourism.hr www.iztzg.hr

This project has been fully supported by the Croatian Science Foundation, under the project

• no. 6164.