Reconnecting the space of tourism and citizenship: the case of tourists’ hubris

Abstract

Purpose The rapid growth of tourism prior to the COVID-19 pandemic prompts the need for critical reflection of tourism’s “local-global” responsibility in the wake of that pandemic. Conceptually driven by the ancient Greek notion of hubris, this study reflects on the perception of tourists as actors disconnected from citizens’ necessities, safety and well-being. In so doing we develop further knowledge on the relationship between the spaces of tourism and citizenship and how this might build a sustainable future-proof tourism. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected daily for two weeks via three Google Alert queries set to mine Italian online news media contents immediately after the Italian Government’s adoption of mobility restrictions due to COVID-19. This study uses a thematic narrative analysis to examine the contents related to tourists during the COVID-19 outbreak. Findings The exploratory findings reveal how tourists are largely presented as taking over the space of local residents and, by breaking the rules set by national and local authorities, as disregarding those residents’ safety and well-being. Hence, they appear disconnected from any sense of belonging to a local or global community, and from a space to which they owe a duty of care. Originality/value By framing tourists as hubristic subjects ontologically belonging to a neoliberal leisure space disentangled from the citizenship space, this study establishes a novel theoretical grounding from which a sustainable future-proof tourism that is rooted in citizenship space can be rethought.

Global tourism in crisis: conceptual frameworks for research and practice

“…Apropos, national tourism destinations face a similar reorderingsome keeping their borders shut, subsidizing the domestic visitor economy, while others maintain open borders, risking an upsurge of COVID-19 cases to capture tourist expenditure (Tremblay-Huet and Lapointe, 2021). The pandemic crisis of 2020-2021 is reconnecting tourism to place-based roots, as Tomassini et al (2021) argue, leaving the paradigmatic tourist behind and reinscribing the tourist within citizenship and political responsibilityjoining the body touristic with the body politic.…”

“…Whose responsibility are systemic injustices (that are often hardly visible to tourists), such as socially and institutionally embedded racism against ethnic minorities and religious groups, oppression and exploitation of women and children, or historical injustices and dispossession from traditional lands due to imperialism or colonialism? "Justice Tourism" puts the onus on a few to act politically, but such efforts are often driven by humanitarian (moral) principles and disguise other issues and challenges (Guia, 2020;Tomassini et al, 2021).…”

“…Crisis situations drive reflection and prompts consideration of what must change. Tomassini et al (2021) query the role of tourists as actors, disconnected from citizenry that inhabits destinations and suggests that the Greek notion of hubris might help come to terms with adverse tourist-host interactions. The so-called disconnectedness of tourists from the "space of citizenship" is resultant of the "shift to neoliberal capitalism" that diminishes the sense of "local-global responsibility" (Tomassini et al, 2021, p. 4).…”

Future strategies for tourism destination management: post COVID-19 lessons observed from Borobudur, Indonesia

“…Many publications have been produced the past three years about the impacts of COVID-19 on the tourism and hospitality sector and whether this is a game changer or not (Cheer et al, 2021;Lew (Information about the authors can be found at the end of this article.) Papp et al, 2023;Tomassini et al, 2021;Yeoman, 2023). Given that the COVID pandemic is quite a recent phenomenon affecting tourism, most of these papers remain conceptual show scenarios, visions and potential outlooks.…”

Rethinking the space of tourism, its power-geometries, and spatial justice

“…The sociological space of tourism, together with its practices, are largely the product of modern western culture and the production systems of neoliberal capitalism (Bianchi, 2018;Higgins-Desbiolles, 2018). In such neoliberal space tourism has been discussed as disregarding the needs and well-being of the local community (Higgins-Desbiolles, 2019a, 2019bTomassini et al, 2021) urging a call to action to socialise tourism . Conversely, we understand and investigate tourism as mobility praxis in an unjust spatiality and as a lack of affective relationships.…”