ArcTour Special Issue on Regenerative Tourism

Call for Papers Special Issue on

Regenerative Tourism in Arctic and Nordic Geographies

 

Guest Editors:

Jessica Aquino, Associate Professor, Hólar University, Department of Rural Tourism

Magdalena Falter, PhD, University of Iceland, Department of Geography and Tourism Studies, Institute of Life and Environmental Sciences

Francesc Fusté-Forné, Associate Professor, University of Girona, Department of Business (Catalonia, Spain); Centre for Innovation and Research in Culture and Living in the Arctic (CIRCLA), Aalborg University (Denmark); Sustainability and Resilience Institute New Zealand (New Zealand)

 

Aim and scope of the special issue

Tourism in Arctic and Nordic areas also take place in rural communities. For example, in rural Iceland many communities where tourism takes place can have fewer than 500 residents, and in some areas even fewer than 50. Many of these smaller communities across the region have experienced rounds of economic restructuring, for instance shifting from extractive industries to tourism. For this special issue, we focus on the Arctic and Nordic geographies because of the environmental and social impacts of climate change—while these being perceived by many as the last frontier of tourism (Huijbens, 2022). Furthermore, focusing on the Arctic and Nordic helps the exchange of shared experiences to seek common solutions.

Tourism has been used as a form of community revitalization or to facilitate economic diversification for resiliency. Tourism entrepreneurs in the Arctic and the Nordic also tend to be small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) or micro-sized (SMiEs) (Aquino et al., in press). Although it is known that tourism has both positive and negative effects on local communities, much of the tourism management plans come from local efforts and remain sporadic and non-coordinated (Hussain and Fusté-Forné, 2021). Furthermore, in the light of increasing global warming and environmental damage, the discussion about regenerative tourism is gaining more focus in the current body of tourism literature.

Regenerative tourism in Arctic and Nordic geographies means that much of the movement towards regenerative tourism comes from grassroot efforts and SMEs and SMiEs. The concept of regenerative tourism can at its base be seen in the context of ‘reframing  civilization(s)’ (Escobar, 2021) and is influenced by discussions around regenerative agriculture (Becken & Kaur, 2022), regenerative design (Lyle, 1994; Owen, 2007), regenerative development (Bellato et al., 2022) regenerative economies (Andreucci et al., 2021; Pollock, 2015), and regenerative thinking (Gibbons, 2020; Pollock, 2019); along with indigenous approaches to wellbeing and worldviews (Mcenhill et al., 2020; Sheldon, 2020). Since COVID-19 there has been more reflection on the way we think of tourism to ‘(re)establish nature connectedness’ and restoration (Becken & Kaur, 2022), for mindful futures (Fusté-Forné and Hussain, 2023).

Despite several attempts to define regenerative tourism, the concept remains blurry, perchance by its nature and onto-epistemological principles. Still questions need to be posed, such as how is regenerative tourism contextualized within a cultural and social context such as the Arctic and Nordic regions? There is an argument that regenerative tourism evolved because of the inadequacies of the concept of sustainable tourism to minimize the negative impacts of tourism (Mathisen et al., 2021; Villa & Šulc, 2021     ). How would regenerative tourism address these inadequacies and mobilize communities for tourism that is transformative (Pung et al., 2020)? There is a lack of concrete understanding of the essential components of regenerative tourism and further philosophical contextualization, empirical research, and case studies are needed.

With this special issue we aim to explore how and in what ways tourism can become regenerative within Arctic and Nordic geographies. More concrete, the special issue calls for manuscripts that investigate the onto-epistemological premises of regenerative tourism in the Arctic and Nordic regions, motivations of the actors involved and the practices by which tourism becomes regenerative (or not).

We particularly encourage submissions that examine regenerative tourism as a concept for philosophical and practical considerations in the context of coastal and rural, Arctic and Nordic tourism and hospitality. The proposed topics may include but are not limited to the following:

  • Regenerative tourism in an Arctic and Nordic context
  • Regenerative tourism in small communities
  • Contextualizing the meaning of regenerative tourism
  • The future of sustainable tourism
  • Philosophical considerations for regenerative tourism
  • Regenerative economy
  • Regenerative development
  • Regenerative tourists
  • Citizen scientists as a form of regenerative tourism
  • Community well-being and social regeneration
  • Regenerative nature-based tourism and social transformations
  • Regenerative practices
  • Community-based efforts for regenerative tourism
  • Sustainability, responsibility, and regenerative tourism
  • Challenges and constraints of regenerative tourism
  • Small and micro-sized tourism entrepreneurs and regenerative tourism

 

Timeline  
  • Submission of full papers: December 31, 2024
  • Submit via email to: jessica@holar.is / francesc.fusteforne@udg.edu

  • Papers will be published (online only) when they are ready

  • Publication of Special Issue (online only): July 31, 2025 (tentative)

Authors can submit full papers from April-December 2024 and papers will be published online when they are ready
The special issue will conclude with an editorial along with full articles (6-8.000 words) and research notes (2-3,000 words).

 

Submission guidelines

Upon acceptance for review, papers are to be submitted to the submission portal of the Journal of Arctic Tourism. Please see the submission guidelines at the journal’s website.

 

Publication process

Submissions will be subject to double blind peer review in accordance with the Journal of Arctic Tourism guidelines for authors and editorial policies.

 

Review process

Each paper submitted for publication consideration is subjected to the standard reviewing process of Journal of Arctic Tourism. Based on the recommendations of the reviewers, decisions will be made whether particular submissions will be accepted, revised or rejected.

 

References

Aquino, J., Falter, M., & Atladóttir, Ó. Ý. (in press). Creating a network for Nordic Regenerative Tourism: A Case Study of a Pilot Project. In P. Blinnikka, G. Þ. Gunnarsdóttir, M. Tunkkari-Eskelinen, & Å. Grahn (Eds.), Responsible Tourism Best Practices in the Nordic Countries. Jamk Publications.

Andreucci, M. B., Marvuglia, A., Baltov, M., & Hansen, P. (2021). Rethinking Sustainability Towards a Regenerative Economy. In M. B. Andreucci, A. Marvuglia, M. Baltov, & P. Hansen (Eds.), Future City (Vol. 15). Springer.

Becken, S., & Kaur, J. (2022). Anchoring “tourism value” within a regenerative tourism paradigm – a government perspective. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 30(1), 52–68.

Bellato, L., Frantzeskaki, N., & Nygaard, C. A. (2022). Regenerative tourism: a conceptual framework leveraging theory and practice. Tourism Geographies, 1–21.

Escobar, A. (2021). Reframing civilization(s): from critique to transitions. Globalizations, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/14747731.2021.2002673

Fusté-Forné, F., & Hussain, A. (2023). Regenerative leisure and tourism: a pathway for mindful futures. Leisure/Loisir, 1-12.

Gibbons, L. V. (2020). Regenerative—The New Sustainable? Sustainability, 12(13), 5483.

Huijbens, E. H. (2022). The Arctic as the Last Frontier: Tourism. In M. Finger & G. Rekvig (Eds.), Global Arctic: An Introduction to the Multifaceted Dynamics of the Arctic (pp. 129-146). Springer.

Hussain, A., & Fusté-Forné, F. (2021). Post-pandemic recovery: A case of domestic tourism in Akaroa (South Island, New Zealand). World, 2(1), 127-138.

Lyle, J. T. (1994). Regenerative design for sustainable development. Wiley.

Mathisen, L., Søreng, S. U., & Lyrek, T. J. J. o. T. F. (2022). The reciprocity of soil, soul and society: the heart of developing regenerative tourism activities. (ahead-of-print).

Mcenhill, L., Jorgensen, E. S., & Urlich, S. C. (2020). Paying it forward and back: Regenerative tourism as part of place. https://researcharchive.lincoln.ac.nz/handle/10182/13854

Owen, C. (2007). Regenerative Tourism: A Case Study of the Resort Town Yulara. Open House International, 32(4), 42–53.

Pollock, A. (2015). Social Entrepreneurship in Tourism: The Conscious Travel Approach. In Tourism Innovation Partnership for Social Entrepreneurship. http://www.conscious.travel/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Conscious-Tourism-TIPSE-2016-1.pdf

Pollock, A. (2019). Regenerative Tourism: The Natural Maturation of Sustainability. Activate the Future. https://medium.com/activate-the-future/regenerative-tourism-the-natural-maturation-of-sustainability-26e6507d0fcb

Pung, J. M., Gnoth, J., & Del Chiappa, G. (2020). Tourist transformation: Towards a conceptual model. Annals of Tourism Research, 81, 102885.

Sheldon, P. J. (2020). Designing tourism experiences for inner transformation. Annals of Tourism Research, 83, 102935.

Villa, Ž. K.-D., & Šulc, I. (2021). Cultural Heritage, Tourism and the UN Sustainable Development Goals: The Case of Croatia. In M. B. Andreucci, A. Marvuglia, M. Baltov, & P. Hansen (Eds.), Rethinking Sustainability Towards a Regenerative Economy (pp. 341–358). Springer.