Tourism and final wish making: the discourse of terminal illness and travel

ABSTRACT

This paper identifies a new discourse about tourism, that of final wish making. The website communications of charitable foundations whose dedicated purpose is to grant final wishes for adults with a terminal illness and their families were examined using critical discourse analysis. Specifically, the aim of this study was to understand how these charitable organisations construct, communicate and mediate meanings around terminal illness and travel for these individuals. Our study found that, promoted as a final wish in one’s life, tourism is framed as a transformational concept that is beneficial in the imminent time before death, as a legacy for life, and after death. Our analysis indicated implications around the memory-making potential of tourism and the differential power relations between final wish organisers and vulnerable individuals with a terminal illness. The paper calls for further research exploring the marginalisation of the terminally ill through tourism, but equally the potential of tourism to include the most vulnerable tourists in their final days.

KEYWORDS:

• Tourism for all
• terminal illness
• memory-making
• critical discourse analysis
• charity
• marginalisation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Edith Cowan University Markets and Services Research Centre Grant: [17608.6176].

Notes on contributors

G. B. Willson

Gregory B. Willson is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Business and Law at Edith Cowan University, Australia. Dr Willson has published high quality research focusing on spiritual tourism and specifically, the personal meaning that individuals derive from tourism experiences. His current research interest focuses on enhancing the tourism experience for individuals with ill-health. Dr Willson has received teaching awards based on his collaboration with not-for-profit organisations and is an active volunteer in his community.

A. J. McIntosh

Alison J. McIntosh is Professor of Tourism in the School of Hospitality and Tourism at Auckland University of Technology (AUT), New Zealand. Professor McIntosh is known internationally for her work as a critical tourism scholar. Her research prioritises otherwise unheard voices, personal dimensions, distinct types of tourism encounters, and tourism in marginalised contexts. She is an active advocate of social change through meaningful research-community partnerships. In 2019, she established AUT's Tourism For All New Zealand Research Group to champion accessible and inclusive tourism.

C. Cockburn-Wootten

Cheryl Cockburn-Wootten is Associate Professor and is a critical scholar, interested in the communicative aspects of managing the act of organising for change. Much of her work has focused on under-examined areas, adopting critical management communication theories to examine aspects of organising for change within issues such as inhospitable workplaces, accessibility/disability, refugee-background, and migrant communities. Her research interests and teaching fall within the community stakeholder engagement area, with a focus on tourism, critical hospitality, equity, dignity, accessibility, and refugee-background communities.