ABSTRACT
Over the recent years, some authors have questioned the hegemony of mankind (Anthropocene) over nature. The recent virus outbreak known as COVID19 starts a new period known as "violence" where humans are forced to recede to the private sphere. The COVID19 pandemic not only alerted the health authorities but also disposed of extreme measures which included the close of borders, airspaces, as well as the imposition of lockdown and social distancing. Not only global commerce but also the tourism industry was placed on the brink of collapse. In this grim landscape, the problem of climate change is far from being solved. While steps to reverse the greenhouse gas emission should be taken globally coordinating efforts among nations, the current climate of tension without mentioning the geopolitical discrepancies (among countries) impedes the formation of global sustainable institutions to monitor and regulate the effects of climate change. The present article centers on a visual ethnography on the film Contagion, to lay the foundations towards a new understanding of ideology and its effects on ecological justice.
ABSTRACT
At the end of December 2019, a new virus outbreak baptized by scientists as COVID-19 (SARS-CoV2) paralyzed global commerce generating millionaire losses in the world. The virus was rapidly disseminated to the western cities through international travel and the tourism industry, a problem which led governments to cancel international flights while closing the airspace. The WHO (World Health Organization) recommended energetically the imposition of strict lockdowns and keeping social distancing as two valid forms to mitigate the pandemic. In the question of months, the virus wreaked havoc in the main economies of the world grinding the tourism and hospitality industries to an unparalleled halt. To put things straight, to date, more than 37 million people have been infected and one million have perished. Afrgentina, a southern Latin American country, which adopted a stricter and longer lockdown in the beginning, was gradually escalating to seventh place in the number of infected people (894.206) seconded by Peru and France. The socio-economic effects of COVID-19 on the tourism industry are not only manifold and complex but also denote a multifaceted dynamic. While some voices have alerted on the urgency to develop more resilient and eco-friendly forms of consumption, others have emphasized the need of changing the current research towards multidisciplinary methods. In the pre-pandemic days, tourists were valorized as an ambassador of "civilization," real global knights widely admired and objects of curiosity while nowadays tourists are negatively seen as potential enemies or carriers of a mortal disease, so to speak widely feared and demonized as never before. In this context, the present chapter discusses conceptually the effects and changes of the tourism industry in Argentina, particularly but with some broad strokes that illustrate the ways the industry is changing in the world. © 2023 Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic not only whipped the Western countries affecting seriously the GDP and the economic performance, but also interrogated on the nature of the tourism industry. The tourism industry was the main carrier but at the same time the main victim of the COVID-19. Having said this, the present proceeding concentrates efforts in discussing the effects of virus outbreak in the industry as well as laying the foundations towards a new understanding of safety and security in tourism. Over the recent years, the precautionary logic which culturally enrooted in the Western reasoning, punctuated on the importance to detect and eradicate those threats which affect the industry. This leading paradigm which opened the doors for the adoption of risk perception theory, so to speak just after the attacks to WTC (2001) set the pace to a new aradigm. Nowadays, as many specialists alert, the concept of precaution has been replaced by adaptancy. New forms of tourism such as Dark tourism, Thana tourism, post disaster tourism speak us of a new (morbid) taste where the "Others pain" situates as the main commodity to exchange. In my earlier book (Korstanje 2016), this epoch has been baptized as "thana-capitalism." These new forms or faces of the industry are mainly marked by a consumption given just after the tragedy takes hit. © 2023 Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
At the end of December of 2019, the world stopped because of a new virus outbreak originally reported in Wuhan, China. This virus was rapidly disseminated to the four continents situating as one of the worst pandemics the world faced in its history. Governments desperately urged for the adoption of radical measures that finely affected not only global commerce but the tourism industry. The WHO (World Health Organization) strongly recommended some restrictive measures such as quarantines or lockdowns to ban the public circulation, as well as social distancing and the closure of borders and the airspaces. All these measures led countries to the brink of an economic collapse. Economies that are dependent on tourism were more affected than others that keep alternative forms of production. The global world, as we know it, set the pace to a feudalized (if not fractured) world where each country closed their borders to "Other.” The present chapter interrogates what we dubbed as the "decline of hospitality, " a trend that originated just after 9/11. To some extent, the COVID-19 pandemic is not news, while it affirms the effects of the War on Terror. Far from being a foundational event, COVID-19 engages with the previous backdrop initiated just after 9/11. Now the War on Terror sets the pace of a war against a virus. This chapter describes the radical political shifts that happened in Argentina along with the pandemic while laying the foundations towards a new understanding of travel behavior. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.
ABSTRACT
Some authors have alerted on the state of crisis generated by Covid-19 in the tourism industry worldwide. The restrictive measures disposed by governments generated not only an unparalleled economic crisis but also serious social maladies in society and education (i.e., higher dropout rates and low academic grades). Needless to say that the tourism education was in crisis much time earlier than the Covid-19 pandemic. Echoing Sigala and Ratten, the authors hold the pungent thesis that Covid-19 introduced a new opportunity to reform the epistemology and the basis of the tourism education curricula. Centerd on the role played by pleasure and joy, which is boosted by the digital technologies, this chapter synthesizes the findings of PANCOE, a successful experiment conducted by the University of Palermo, Argentina, to reduce the dropout rates while improving students' academic performance. The experiment was drawn and applied in the years before and after the pandemic. Results show how pleasure plays a vital role giving students better opportunities in contexts of fear and deprivation. © 2023 by Alejandra Zuccoli and Maximiliano E. Korstanje.
ABSTRACT
Purpose: An increasing number of studies claim on the decline of hospitality in the West. These works focus on the lack of tolerance or expressions against foreigners as the clear sign that something is changing. Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic mainly marked a type of intolerance with the foreign tourists. This book chapter brings reflection on the plot of HBO Saga Westworld to understand the ways forms of hospitality in a post-modern world. Design/Methodology/Approach: The present book chapter is based on the technique of content analysis or film ethnography which dissects elements of films and movies. In so doing, film ethnography occupies a central position in the constellations of qualitative methods. Findings: The present piece is a critique on what specialists dubbed as robot tourism. Westworld shows not only the cautions policymakers should have on robot tourism but also how the depersonalisation process works. Basically, Westworld speaks us of a dystopian amusing park where rich guests travel to torture and victimise humanoids (hosts) who are unable to retaliate. Westworld brings reflection on the decline or the end of hospitality, at least as we know it. Originality/Value: Just after 9/11 some critical voices alerted Western hospitality was in decline. This chapter goes on in the same direction. Westworld brings the problems of free choice, the liberty as well as hospitality into the foreground. © 2022 Maximiliano E. Korstanje and Hugues Seraphin.
ABSTRACT
Purpose: The present conceptual paper evinces a new understanding of the present and future of the tourist city in a post-COVID-19 world. The pandemic has wreaked havoc in the tourism industry as well as global trade. The world, at least as we know, is debating the next recovery steps for 2023. Design/methodology/approach: In this conceptual paper, the authors explore the substantial shifts faced by the urban areas during and post-COVID-19 pandemic. The disposed [and imposed] restrictive measures have affected negatively not only mobilities but also the urban landscape. The tourist-city, at least as it was imagined by J. Urry, has invariably set the pace to a ghost-city. In this new landscape, citizens are confined to be at home. Findings: The tourist city has faced substantial changes. The authors dubbed the term ghost city to give some reflections on the radical changes urban zones are experiencing during 2020 and 2021. Classic notions as "the Other", "globalization" and the "city" are in motion. The borders of some nations are being re-drawn while some radicalized voices and movements flourish. Research limitations/implications: The authors introduce readers to the literature about the tourist city, which offers a perfect landscape for attraction, consumption and protest. The tourist city has been developed by scholars as a sign of a globalizing process that laid the foundations toward a new understanding of urban zones. Practical implications: The present paper discusses critically the problem of COVID-19 and its severe restriction of free circulation and the forms in which the city is lived and dwelled. We were pressed to live our proximity through the lens of a screen or using digital media. The basic rights that are historically characterized by the legal architecture of the nation-state - which is based on high mobilities and the right of traveling - were suddenly suspended. Originality/value: The authors deal with the problems of sociology to study the ghost city, which include not only the dilemmas revolving around the health passport but also the introduction of technology in formalizing the creation of a surveillance society that scrutinizes and, at the same time, entertains modern citizens, in a new culture where the "Other" becomes an undesired guest.
ABSTRACT
PurposeThe present conceptual paper evinces a new understanding of the present and future of the tourist city in a post-COVID-19 world. The pandemic has wreaked havoc in the tourism industry as well as global trade. The world, at least as we know, is debating the next recovery steps for 2023.Design/methodology/approachIn this conceptual paper, the authors explore the substantial shifts faced by the urban areas during and post-COVID-19 pandemic. The disposed [and imposed] restrictive measures have affected negatively not only mobilities but also the urban landscape. The tourist-city, at least as it was imagined by J. Urry, has invariably set the pace to a ghost-city. In this new landscape, citizens are confined to be at home.FindingsThe tourist city has faced substantial changes. The authors dubbed the term ghost city to give some reflections on the radical changes urban zones are experiencing during 2020 and 2021. Classic notions as "the Other, " "globalization " and the "city " are in motion. The borders of some nations are being re-drawn while some radicalized voices and movements flourish.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors introduce readers to the literature about the tourist city, which offers a perfect landscape for attraction, consumption and protest. The tourist city has been developed by scholars as a sign of a globalizing process that laid the foundations toward a new understanding of urban zones.Practical implicationsThe present paper discusses critically the problem of COVID-19 and its severe restriction of free circulation and the forms in which the city is lived and dwelled. We were pressed to live our proximity through the lens of a screen or using digital media. The basic rights that are historically characterized by the legal architecture of the nation-state - which is based on high mobilities and the right of traveling - were suddenly suspended.Originality/valueThe authors deal with the problems of sociology to study the ghost city, which include not only the dilemmas revolving around the health passport but also the introduction of technology in formalizing the creation of a surveillance society that scrutinizes and, at the same time, entertains modern citizens, in a new culture where the "Other " becomes an undesired guest.
ABSTRACT
In the light of a new millennium, the tourism industry has faced some (major) global risks which seriously affected its functioning, leading it to the brink of collapse. What is most important, after September of 2001, is that tourism security and safety not only captivated the attention of scholars but is also situated as a leading object of study within the fields of tourism research. The scourge of terrorism associated with the ecological crisis, recent natural disasters without mentioning virus outbreaks as Ebola, SARS or even COVID-19, and political instability place the tourism industry in jeopardy. It is safe to say that the ontological security of tourists occupied a central position in tourism research. Of course, the recent COVID-19 outbreak accelerated a socio-economic crisis in the service sub-sectors that paralyzed the global trade and the tourism industry. The imposition of severe lockdowns, social distancing as well as the borders and airspace closure speak us of a new normal or a feudalized world where tourists are feared or even demonized. In the days just after COVID-19, academia should debate the new guidelines of future research not only to enhance tourism security but to put the industry back on its feet again. The present book project is a selection of high-quality chapters, which are authored by well-renowned experts in tourism safety and security;all of them were invited to bring some reflections on the future of the discipline in a post-COVID-19 context. Authors come from different disciplines, cultures and nations, so the book offers a fertile ground towards an international platform for professionals, researchers, students or policymakers interested in the future of tourism. © 2022 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc.
ABSTRACT
The reign of terror ignited by 9/11 and the resulting War on Terror has accelerated the effects on social imaginary. Beyond the economic aftermaths, 9/11 recreated the conditions towards a monopoly of radicalized discourse, which was mainly oriented toward demonizing the "Non-Western Other." Terrorism allowed the introduction of a conspiracy plot that marked some minority ethnicities as an enemy living within. At the bottom, these narratives punctuated that Muslim communities hate the society they inhabit. Such discourse changed forever the ways the "Other" is imagined. The chapter deals with HBO Saga Westworld, a futurist and dystopian world where robots (hosts) are subjected to torture, violence, and even sadist practices at the hands of wealthy tourists (guests). The formula in "Robots We Must Trust" is placed under the critical lens of scrutiny. © 2022 by IGI Global. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Ulrich Beck, a German sociologist who does not need prior presentation, cast his diagnosis of risk society as a new emerging ethos where social class and hierarchies blurred before the figure of risk. Although he shed light on the post-industrial society of the 1990s, today, the society he studied seems pretty different. Hence, a new fresh insight should be placed. This chapter introduces readers to the conceptual foundations of Thana Capitalism, as it was critically debated in the author's book The Rise of Thana Capitalism and Tourism. The risk society sets the pace for a new facet of capitalism where the other's pain remains the main commodity to exchange. Far from being a more egalitarian society, as Beck said, in the days of Thana capitalism, a ruling elite governs the destiny of a precaritized workforce. The novel The Hunger Games represents perfectly how this society works. Additionally, the author brings some reflection on the connection of Thana capitalism and the spectacle beyond the recent COVID-19 pandemic. © 2022 by IGI Global. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Doubtless, COVID-19 has accelerated an economic financial crisis since 2008, affecting seriously not only the tourism industry but the global commerce. Governments have adopted different positions and programs to mitigate the economic aftermath of COVID-19. As never before in its history, tourism has been placed between the wall and the deep blue sea. Although the interests and studies evaluating the impact of COVID-19 have captivated the attention of countless scholars, less attention was given to the rent-a-car industry, which occupies a central position in the tourist system. As substitute competitors of train, bus, and airplanes, the rent-a-car organizations seem to be a quintessential actor of the tourist system. Of course, because we live in a world without tourists, empirical-based studies do not abound. To fill such a gap, the present chapter describes the economic downturn of a rent-a-car organization giving a firm empirical case. Although illustrative to some extent, the obtained outcome cannot be extrapolated to other universes or samples. © 2021, IGI Global.
ABSTRACT
With more than 120 million infected people and 2 million victims, Covid-19 [SARSCOv2] situates as one of the most devastating disasters of the twenty-first century. The pandemic virus not only disseminates through the tourism sector but also paradoxically the tourism is its main victim. Since global economies teetered on the brink of collapse, the vaccine ignites a hot-debate revolving around the vaccine passport which means a document issued to those inoculated tourists. It means that those tourists coming from richer countries who access rapidly to the vaccine will start to travel with health passports while others citizens who dwell in poor societies will be left in complete immobility.
ABSTRACT
In the present essay review, we bring some sociological reflections about the durable effects of the lockdown not only in tourism behaviour but also in society. In so doing, we pose some central questions oriented to understand the sense of new normality, where the social distancing marks human relations. We coin the term trivialisation of death to discuss the ideological dispositions revolving around the domestication of death. In parallel, a new debate around the idea of the tourist-gaze is amounted in the section to follow. In the pre-pandemic world, tourists were valorised as ambassadors of the civilised order, but now they appear to be demonised as potential carriers of a lethal decease, if not potential terrorists who lurk to attack anytime. To some extent, COVID19 -far from being a foundational event- reaffirms a logic that starts with 9/11 and the so-called War on Terror.
ABSTRACT
The nation's state and mobilities were inevitably entwined. British Sociologist John Urry coined the term tourist-gaze to describe the phenomenological world of tourists and travellers who are moved to meet unique and outstanding experiences. Although tourists are in quest of something new, what they gaze is previously shaped in a cultural matrix which punctuates what things can be gazed or avoided. The COVID-19 outbreak as well as the global pandemic altered not only the geopolitical relations but also the geographical borders. Governments adopted different travel bans and restrictions that affected negatively the tourism industry. The present essay-review centres efforts in understanding the substantial changes of travel behaviour in a new feudalised world. The term tourist-gaze, having said this, should be re-labelled as the wicked-gaze.
ABSTRACT
Similarly to the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11 of 2001, a foundational event that marked the turn of the century, the recent virus outbreak in Wuhan, China resonates heavily in the social imaginary of West. Both events have differences and of course commonalities. 9/11 epitomizes the struggle of Western civilization against an invisible enemy, terrorism, while now the target is a virus. Both emulate the doctrine of living with the enemy inside. Another commonality rests on the fact the same transport means that facilitate the state of emergency are paradoxically and at the same time mainly victims. Based on the invitation of well-renowned experts coming from four continents, the present book discusses critically the effects of COVID-19 as well as the global pandemic in society. To some extent, experts and colleagues of all pundits energetically emphasize the economic crisis of COVID-19 overlooking the durable effects in the societal background. This book intends to fill the gap giving a fresh insight which explains the role of social distancing and the lockdown in a new emerging society. Although chapters can be read separately, they are finely grounded into a common argumentation, as the pandemic affirms not only the geopolitical tensions of what Scambler dubbed as a fractured society but also starts a feudalization process where the Spectacle of Death prevails. © 2021 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
This preliminary chapter introduces readers to the content of the book;so to speak an editorial project oriented to discuss the durable effects of the global pandemic (COVID-19) in society. Although a whole portion of studies, books and publications aimed at exploring the economic consequences of the virus, less attention was given to the social maladies-i.e., racist and separatist discourses, violence and phobias-the COVID-19 certainly generates. The COVID-19 potentiates the fear of stranger closing the West in a philosophical dilemma. All restrictions and travel bans that nation-states dispose for stopping the contagion inscribe into a process that political scientists know as the "securitization process". The present chapter holds the thesis that COVID-19 affirms a tendency originated in 9/11 which accelerates the death of hospitality. In the new normality, the "Other" has become an undesired guest. © 2021 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.
ABSTRACT
The recent virus outbreak of COVID-19 (SARS-COV2), a new virus of the Coronavirous family has brought indescribable consequences for global commerce, mobilities and even for the industry of tourism. To some extent, some voices alerted on the idea probably tourism would be radically shifted, or scholars would witness the end of tourism as known before COVID-19. Most certainly, several studies will be published in the next years on the effects of this virus in the tourism and hospitality industry. This paper explores the changes and challenges of tourism research and epistemology in the years to come. Today ' s tourism research is based on the needs of asking (interviewing tourists) to test operational hypotheses. From this viewpoint, the tourist seems to be the main source of information towards the consolidation of tourism research. Of course, the lack of activity and the cancellations of flights and bookings, following this reasoning, entail the end of tourism research. This conceptual work focuses on the complex nature of tourism - as a resilient activity - as well as the rise of new forms of tourism which will surely interrogate the discipline.