Call for abstracts ´Recovery and Resilience in Tourism Planning and Development: Sustainable Pathways for Transforming Tourism in Africa´open until 31st of May
“Recovery and Resilience in Tourism Planning and Development: Sustainable Pathways for Transforming Tourism in Africa” abstracts can be submitted until 31st of May, and the deadline for manuscripts is 31st of October.
Special Issue editors are Professor Jarkko Saarinen, the leader of FRONT research programme, University of Oulu, Finland, and Professor Tembi Tichaawa, School of Tourism and Hospitality at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa.
The background for ´Recovery and Resilience in Tourism Planning and Development: Sustainable Pathways for Transforming Tourism in Africa´
For a long time, tourism has been considered as a highly resilient industry. Since the 1950s, global tourism has been on a constant growth path that has made the industry one of the world's largest economic sectors. As a result, tourism's global and regional economic and employment impacts have become extremely important. However, the COVID-19 pandemic changed – at least temporally – the course of tourism growth and development.
Instead of being resilient, the tourism industry was increasingly perceived as a highly vulnerable sector to external pressures and shocks, such as the outbreak of the pandemic. In addition, past and current research has indicated that the industry is vulnerable to many other elements in its’ operational environment. These elements include climate and environmental change, natural disasters and economic and geopolitical changes and instabilities.
A need for recovery strategies and building resilience for the future industry and tourism-dependent regional economies and communities
All this has activated a need for recovery strategies and building better resilience for the future industry and tourism-dependent regional economies and communities. This need is highly urgent in Africa where tourism has been used for various developmental purposes by governments and international agencies. The United Nations, for example, has highlighted the role of tourism for poverty alleviation and more widely for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Agenda 2030. In order for global tourism to deliver its local and regional developmental promises, the industry needs to have good adaptive and recovery capacities and resilience. However, tourism development comes also with its own risks for host regions and communities, calling for sustainability in tourism development.
Ideally, resilience building would help the industry and tourism-dependent regional economies in Africa to undergo recovery transitions in a sustainable manner and cope and adapt to future changes. This transformation calls for developments and sustainability innovations in tourism research, education, learning, training, development policies, strategies and governance.
Instructions for the manuscripts
This special issue welcomes theoretical and/or empirical research contributions on recovery and resilience in tourism planning and development, leading to sustainable pathways for transforming the tourism industry in Africa. The proposed topics may include but are not limited to the following:
- Tourism resilience and recovery needs
- Industry and destination responses for shocks and crises
- Tourism mobilities and transportation
- Digitalisation and technological solutions for resilient tourism
- Role of communities in tourism resilience building
- Inclusive resilience in tourism and vulnerable populations
- Resilience and sustainable tourism development
- Tourism policies and governance
- Security and politics in tourism recovery
- Geopolitical changes and resilience
- Biosecurity and resilience
- Marketing and recovery
- Climate and environmental change impacts for resilience
- Innovations for recovery and resilience
- Critical perspectives to resilience in tourism
- Degrowth needs for future tourism
Read more and submit your abstract and manuscript on the page of the Tourism Planning & Development.