This session intends to discuss the role of proximity and intraregional aspects in the ways tourism works. In a context of intense mobilities, classic dichotomies such as tourist-resident, home-away or self-other are being challenged and several questions are arising as a result. What does exotic mean in a globalized context? Which is the relationship between everyday life and tourism? What are the implications of proximity and intraregional tourism for land planning and tourism policies? (How) can tourism play a role in connecting people and nearby places? Is there a future for ‘tourism without travel’? How does proximity tourism relate to local citizenship and community responsibilities? This session welcomes both theoretical and empirical papers aiming to share new approaches in the understanding of these phenomenons.

Argument

Tourism is often framed as an international phenomenon. However, in a global context, tourism behaviour can be understood as a manifestation of intraregional mobility. Interestingly, in a world of increased mobilities, classic dichotomies such as tourist-resident, home-away, host-guest and self-other become less relevant and increasingly challenged. This might lead to “exclusion and narrow acceptance in destination development and strategic tourism decision making on local, regional, national, and international levels” (Saraniemi and Kylänen, 2011: 140). Tourism scholars still have to develop a new vocabulary to deal with the blurring of tourism and everyday life. As already noted by Franklin and Crang, “[t]ourism studies has often privileged the exotic and strange, reflecting anthropological legacies, to speak of dramatic contrasts between visitors and locals” (2001: 8). Hereby, tourism research overlooks both the mundane of the exotic and the exotic of the everyday. Due to this international bias (Eijgelaar et al., 2008), more proximate tourist activities, where tourism is produced and consumed by people living within a region (Canavan, 2013) often remain under the radar. Yet, such tourism activities form a major part of the tourism as industry. Moreover, better understanding tourism through proximity can shed light on new ways tourism can play a role in local and regional development, but also challenges the assumption that we need to travel in order to find exotic places and experience otherness. Several questions arise. What does exotic mean in a globalized context, where places increasingly look similar? Which is the relationship between everyday life and tourism nowadays? What are the implications of proximity and intraregional tourism for land planning and tourism policies? (How) can tourism play a role in connecting people and nearby places? Is there a future for ‘tourism without travel’? How does proximity tourism relate to local citizenship and community responsibilities?

There is a need to discuss the role of proximity and intraregional aspects in the ways tourism works. Therefore, in this session of the RGS-IBG Annual International Conference 2015, sponsored by the Geographies of Leisure and Tourism Research Group (GLTRG), we are welcoming researchers to present both theoretical and empirical papers around the following topics:

• (Re)valuing everyday life through tourism
• Internal destination branding
• Local stakeholder involvement in intraregional tourism development
• Second home tourism and residential tourism
• Ambassadorship/living the brand/Tourism as citizenship
• The commodification of regional identities in tourism marketing and branding
• Re-interpretation of host-guest/tourist-resident binaries in proximity tourism
• Attitudes to proximate/intraregional tourism
• Sociological and psychological aspects of proximity and distance in tourism
• Intraregional tourism policy
• The role of familiarity in tourist experiences
• Proximity tourism from a temporal point of view (e.g. nearby city-breaks)
• Ethical aspects of proximity tourism versus distant/international tourism

References

• Canavan, B., 2013, “The Extent and Role of Domestic Tourism in a Small Island: The Case of the Isle of Man”. Journal of Travel Research, 52 (3): 340-352.
• Eijgelaar, E., Peeters, P. and Piket, P., 2008, “Domestic and international tourism in a globalized world”. Paper read at International Conference of International Tourism, at International Sociological Association, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India.
• Franklin, A. and Crang, M., 2001, “The trouble with tourism and travel theory”. Tourist studies, 1 (1): 5-22.
• Saraniemi, S. and Kylänen, M., 2011, “Problematizing the Concept of Tourism Destination: An Analysis of Different Theoretical Approaches”. Journal of Travel Research, 50 (2): 133-143.

Submission guidelines

Please send paper title, abstract of no more than 250 words, a short biography of maximum 100 words and full contact details to:

• Jelmer H.G. Jeuring (j.h.g.jeuring@rug.nl)
• Inmaculada Diaz Soria (inmaculada.diaz-soria@univ-tlse2.fr)

by 1st February 2015

Conference : 2-4 September 2015, Exeter, UK

Convenors

• Jelmer H.G. Jeuring (j.h.g.jeuring@rug.nl)
• Inmaculada Diaz Soria (inmaculada.diaz-soria@univ-tlse2.fr)