Tourism Geographies Podcast24 Feb 2023

What western tourism concepts obscure: intersections of migration and tourism in Indonesia

Jaeyeon Choe speaks with Kathleen Adams about her recent reesearch.

Abstract

Classic Anglo-European definitions of tourism as recreational travel have hindered more nuanced locally-grounded understandings of travel phenomena elsewhere in the world. Moreover, contemporary global labor and educational mobility have produced novel travel forms and behaviors that straddle the Western categories of “tourist” and “migrant.” The purpose of this analysis is to examine Toraja (Indonesia) perspectives on travel which can be instructive for correcting the binary divides between tourism and migration that have long plagued dominant Western models of travel. Drawing from data culled from long-term qualitative fieldwork and online research, I convey three ethnographically-grounded stories of Toraja migrants on return visits to their homeland in order to destabilize Western-centrism in tourism studies. Research findings underscore contemporary travel understandings and practices that do not fit neatly with Western mutually exclusive categories of “tourism” and “migration.” These Toraja practices encompass local historical patterns of travel for experiential/financial enrichment (merantau), migration and tourism. This study also advances tourism scholarship by highlighting the importance of local knowledge and demonstrating the value of ethnographic storytelling as a scholarly strategy for destabilizing orthodox Western-centric theoretical understands of tourism. The global significance of this place-based research is that tourism studies can be enriched by widening our lenses to also consider emigrants on return visits to their homelands.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(150)

Critical localisms and commons governance in occupied surfscapes

https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2025.2594716AbstractThe niche field of critical surf studies examines localism as a ubiquitous phenomenon wherein experiences of place and belonging are negotiated thr...

30 Apr 27min

Hawai’i is shifting toward regenerative tourism, yet extractive logics persist

https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2025.2582648AbstractMass-tourism destinations are under criticism for intensifying climate risk, biodiversity loss, and social inequities, yet practical alternatives r...

24 Apr 40min

Cultural performance in the Okinawan urban soundscape: music, sound, tourism

https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2025.2578620AbstractOkinawa prefecture is an archipelago in southwestern Japan. This article examines the urban musical soundscape of Kokusai Street in Naha City, Okin...

17 Apr 39min

Navigating the Galápagos paradox: tourism growth management discourses in protected areas

https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2025.2582669AbstractIn tourism literature and practice, pro-growth tourism management discourses argue that tourism growth can decouple from its negative impacts throu...

10 Apr 39min

Tourism destination development: the tourism area life cycle model

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14616688.2024.2325932AbstractThe tourist area life cycle has been in existence for over four decades since its publication in The Canadian Geographer and w...

3 Apr 57min

Polar tourism and the changing geographies of the Arctic and the Antarctic regions

https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2025.2462777AbstractThe polar areas have long endured as an exotic playground for adventure in the wilderness. Tourism figures have remained low and hence the regions ...

27 Mar 41min

Macro level geoarbitrage and digital nomad policymaking in Portugal

https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2025.2598624AbstractPortugal has become one of the most popular countries for digital nomadism in Europe, with Lisbon being a top-rated destination. The global digital...

20 Mar 30min

Tourism, creative destruction, and the political economy of urban transformation in Beirut

https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2025.2580393AbstractThis paper combines Schumpeter’s creative destruction concept with Harvey’s urban capital circulation theory to investigate the influence of politi...

13 Mar 35min