Abstracts for Session 3

Transformative tourism science for a sustainable world: Critical reflections on tourism science’s ontological and ethical foundations

Title: Transformative Innovations for Sustainable Destination Development 

Author:  Marije Port

Affiliation: Uppsala University

In reaction to the corona pandemic many sustainable tourism scholars call for transformative research and research for transformation (among which Ateljevic, 2020; Gössling et al., 2020; Higgins-Desbiolles, 2020; Lew et al., 2020; Nepal, 2020). They state that the corona pandemic has created a window of opportunity, in which we can shift towards more sustainable practices, and an opportunity to learn and to rethink tourism. Lew et al. (2020) state that innovation plays an important role in this transformation. This research responds to these calls, and focuses on innovation by tourism actors on the island destination Gotland. On Gotland the narrative on development follows the line of ´business as usual´, as it strives at becoming a pilot island for sustainability through sustainable growth with the aim to attract more visitors and to foster revisitation. This is in line with the growth narrative and the focus on economic values by the UNWTO (Higgins-Desbiolles et al., 2019). This research aims at moving away from this narrative of business as usual, and enabling rethinking of tourism on Gotland. Therefore, it is placed within the framework of strong sustainability and degrowth. By doing this, the existing understandings of innovation as a means to create economic value - instead of reducing human impact on the environment (Westley et al. 2011) and communities - are challenged. To change the narrative around innovation in sustainable tourism development a transdisciplinary approach, wherein knowledge, theory and innovations are formed in collaboration with non-academic actors, will be used. It thus derives from the philosophical stance that research has transformative potential through the co-creation of knowledge, and that it should challenge the conceptual understandings embedded in the neoliberal capitalistic system to ensure sustainability.  

Title: Sustainable tourism in the new normal: learning from covid experience 

Author:  Ioanna Farsari, Marije Poort, and Ulrika Persson-Fischier

Affiliation: Dalarna University, Uppsala University

COVID-19 pandemic is often discussed as an imposed pause of humanity’s frantic growth and an opportunity to reflect on our choices and future paths (Gretzel et al., 2020; Ioannides and Gyimóthy, 2020. As the world is now focusing in mitigating the adverse impacts of the pandemic and bringing economy and tourism ‘back to business’, measures taken in the pressure of emergency to combat economic recession from COVID-19,  sustainability goals should not be overlooked or neglected (Hall et al., 2020).  At the same time, it is a period of transition and innovation; crises can be a disruption leading to innovations. This research develops around a new project funded by Tillväxtverket which focuses on eliciting the knowledge and the experience generated during the pandemic crisis to attain a more sustainable development of tourism in the “new normal” after the crisis. During the presentation, an overview of the project will be given and some preliminary results from interviews with companies in Dalarna and Gotland will be presented. We look onto how companies have responded to the pandemic so far and how they work with sustainability and climate change. The aim is to better understand vulnerability and resilience among tourism companies and contribute to a more sustainable tourism in the new normal. In this project we undertake a transformative approach which acknowledges the presence of diverse interests and tensions and which employs collaborative and disruptive methods to work with. It also integrates a transformative approach in analysing and discussing the preliminary results and the role of companies in climate change and sustainability in the new normal. Transformative approaches thus are integrated in the ontological as well as epistemological foundations of this research. Very importantly, methodologically we work with collaborative disruptive methods to trigger transformation in the system and enable a discussion with stakeholders around systemic changes in our understandings of development, vulnerability, climate change and sustainability.