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ATLAS Special Interest Group
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Launch of the SIG Tourism Geographies Research GroupThe inaugural seminar of the ATLAS Tourism Geographies SIG was hosted in Bristol, UK by the Centre for Leisure, Tourism and Society (CeLTS) at the University of the West of England, Bristol on 6th March 2008. The event was entitled Tourism Geographies: Space, Place and Lifestyle Mobilitiesand was hosted in conjunction with the Geography of Leisure and Tourism Research Group of the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) and the International Geographical Union (IGU) Commission on the Geography of Tourism, Leisure and Global Change.
The Tourism Geographies SIG convenors decided to stage such an event having noted an increase in academic attention to lifestyle-related mobility and the use, creation and (re)presentation of space and place in tourism - pushing the geographical analysis of tourism activity to the fore. As such, the main aim of the event was to review of the state of the art in tourism geographies and create a debate forum. It was felt that there had not been much discussion to date reflecting the cultural turn in geography (in particular, culture and space in terms of encounter, embodiment, [inter]subjectivities, lifestyle and identity in tourism) not to mention the spatial turn in social sciences more generally, which now calls for fresh examination of existing debates in tourism (Crang, 2004, 2006; Sheller and Urry, 2006). In addition, the recent excellent report by Chris Gibson of the University of Wollongong (Gibson, 2008) in Progress in Human Geography was key in setting the context for the event, insofar as it is a generally positive piece which, among other things, highlights tourism geography's inherent 'criticality, pervasiveness and scope to catalyse cutting-edge research' (p.13).
Thirty five participants attended the seminar, most of whom were UK-based academic researchers working in the field of tourism geographies although intrepid researchers from Belgium, Finland, Hungary, Latvia and Spain also made it to Bristol especially for the event. As well as attracting some well-known, established researchers working in the tourism geographies area, there was also a strong representation of PhD candidates which very much added to the discussion-based atmosphere of the day.
Following an opening session from CeLTS Director Professor Cara Aitchison and seminar organisers Dr Julie Wilson and Dr María Angeles Casado-Díaz, the first academic session of the day was a highly thought-provoking presentation from Professor Richard Butler from Strathclyde University entitled 'Tourism Geographies - Geographies of Tourism - Where the Bloody Hell are You/We?'. Continuing this analytical review of the state of the field, Dr Tim Gale of CeLTS presented his research on urban beaches, virtual worlds and 'the end of tourism' and Dr Jim Butcher of Canterbury Christ Church University gave a presentation on life politics and 'ethical' tourism.
In the first afternoon session, Adi Weidenfeld (University of Exeter), Susanna Curtin (Bournemouth University) and Dr Sheena Carlisle-Gaye (University of Wales Institute, Cardiff) gave some excellent insights from their recent research, ranging from competition, cooperation and knowledge transfer between visitor attractions to tourist-wildlife encounters and the conflicting dynamics of beach tourism in The Gambia. Unfortunately, scheduled presentations from Stephen Page (Stirling; keynote), Gordon Waitt (Wollongong) and Antonio Paolo Russo / Salvador Anton Clavé (Rovira i Virgili Tarragona) did not go ahead at the last minute and we hope to be able to include these in future ATLAS TG SIG events.
The second afternoon session was a participative round table panel debate on the current state of research and scholarship in tourism geographies, chaired by Dr Greg Richards of CeLTS. The panel comprised four very prominent names in the field of tourism geographies - Prof. Jarkko Saarinen of the University of Oulu and chair of the IGU Commission on the Geography of Tourism, Leisure and Global Change; Dr Jacky Tivers of Nottingham Trent University and chair of the Geography of Leisure and Tourism Research Group (IBG-RGS); Dr Erlet Cater of the University of Reading and tourism adviser to the Royal Geographical Society and Prof. Kevin Hannam of the University of Sunderland and editor of the journal 'Mobilities'.
Following these brief individual inputs from each panellist, the discussion was opened up to the floor leading to some salient and timely debate among participants. In the final session of the day, CeLTS director Prof. Cara Aitchison provided an insightful and detailed round-up of the day's presentations and discussions.
After the close of the academic sessions, an informal meeting was held of the new ATLAS Tourism Geographies SIG where the potential activities of the group were discussed and interest was flagged for the hosting of future TG SIG events.
Finally, there was an early evening wine reception to celebrate the CeLTS book launch. We would like to thank everyone who attended the day and especially thanks to the CeLTS team - Cara Aitchison, Tim Gale, Stroma Cole, Greg Richards, Sally Everett, Jennifer Hill, Fiona Jordan, Anja Dalton and Julie Triggle. Thanks also to Elinor Robertson / Channel View Publications and IB Tauris Publishers for supporting the event.
As well as hosting this ATLAS event, CeLTS was also recently jointly awarded an ESRC grant for a Seminar Series on 'Tourism, Inequality and Social Justice' along with UWIC and Stirling, the first seminar of which was hosted at UWE in February of this year. For more information on future events or other CeLTS activities, please visit www.celts.uwe.ac.uk
For further information about the ATLAS Tourism Geographies SIG or to join the group please contact us (details below). We would be delighted to hear from any ATLAS members with an interest in the geographical / spatial / mobilities aspects of tourism or indeed from those who would like to be involved in this new SIG in some way.
ATLAS Tourism Geographies SIG convenors:
Julie Wilson: Julie.Wilson@uwe.ac.uk / Julie.Wilson@uab.cat
María Angeles Casado-Díaz: Maria.Casado-Diaz@uwe.ac.uk
References
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