Tourism 22 and Beyond – Perspectives from Tourism and Events

Professor Emma Wood, Dr Miju Choi, Dr Jane Turner and PhD candidate Hien Thu Bui recently attended the ATLAS 2022 conference as special track convenors. They also presented their research findings as part of the conference theme ‘Tourism 22 and Beyond - What Matters Now to the Global Tourist?’. The conference was held in Cork, Ireland, 6-9 September, 2022.

As researchers we are all actively involved in scholarly research embedded within tourism and events. Our research interests, whilst varied, all focus upon the broader themes covered within the ATLAS 2022 conference - to embrace experiences of the past but move forward to enjoy and make new memories. Within this broad remit, the conference provided the perfect opportunity to share our current research, connect with new and old colleagues and fully appreciate the value of being physically present at a conference. 

Specialising in the impact of events on social change within communities and on shared memory creation, Emma presented the preliminary findings of a collaborative project on ‘Shared festival experiences: The power and purpose of remembering together’. Early findings from the current project appear particularly pertinent for the design of the post-experience journey and in understanding more generally how social needs are met through negotiation of shared memories.

With a keen interest in destination management, tourists’ perceptions of behaviour in response to advanced technologies, and the sharing economy, Miju was well placed to host a special track that explored tourism SMEs from a variety of theoretical and methodological perspectives. The day-long ‘Resilience of Tourism Small-Medium Enterprises: Upskilling and Reskilling’ special track was not only host to a range of papers focussing upon tourism education, innovation in hospitality and entrepreneurial marketing in tourism, but also to the ‘best conference paper’.

Hosted by the Special Interest Group for Climate Change and Tourism, Jane co-chaired the well-attended special track on ‘Tourism in the new normal: accelerating climate change or embodying crisis?’. Presenters from across Europe and the US offered their research perspectives on climate change and tourism. Jane also presented findings of an ongoing collaborative research project with colleagues from the University of Zagreb, Bocconi University and Leeds Beckett University focussing upon local responses to adaptation and communication of climate change using a Croatian region as a case study. The research seeks to support destination managers and tourism stakeholders in adapting to climate change.

Nearing the end of her PhD journey, Hien very much welcomed the opportunity to present the research on ‘Covid-19 and tourist confidence: Lessons from all-inclusive hotels’. The research is based on part of Hien’s qualitative data collection for her PhD. The research illuminates the impact of Covid-19 on tourist confidence in all-inclusive hotels and provides suggestions on hoteliers’ practical approaches to improving tourist confidence. Hien highly appreciated the informative and thought-provoking PhD seminar hosted as part of the conference and looks forward to future opportunities to present her PhD research on the asymmetric effect of service attributes on tourist satisfaction in all-inclusive holidays and/or other research projects in an ATLAS conference when appropriate. 

The ATLAS conference 2022 in Cork, Ireland importantly marked its return to in-person meetings after being postponed in 2020, and hosted online in 2021. This opportunity to meaningfully connect with delegates from around the world reminded us of the real value of physical events. 

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