Envisioning an inclusive tourism for an equitable future

ABSTRACT

Based on the collection of 15 studies in the special issue on ‘Empowering Marginalised Groups for Inclusive Tourism’ for this journal, this article highlights the issues experienced by hosts, suppliers, and other beneficiaries of the tourism ecosystem from a critical lens. Drawing on the implications collated from the 15 contributions and the reflections of the five guest editors, this article presents deliberations concerning priorities and the broader trajectory of designing inclusive tourism for an equitable future.

KEYWORDS:

• Inclusion
• marginalisation
• empowerment
• modes of marginalisation
• margins

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Prachi Thakur

Prachi Thakur is a tourism and gender researcher who examines how structural changes can lead to more inclusion of traditionally marginalized groups. She is a two-time TEDx speaker and diversity strategist who co-wrote the regional report for Asia and the Pacific on Gender in Tourism for UNWTO in 2022. She has trained women across multiple organizations to build their way forward through her critical conversation program. Dr. Thakur's primary research interests revolve around diversity training, inclusion, and social sustainability.

Catheryn Khoo

Catheryn Khoo holds a PhD in Marketing and has worked in Malaysia, United States and now Australia. She was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Florida, Associate Professor at Taylor's University Malaysia, and Associate Professor at Griffith University Australia before taking up the current position as Professor at Torrens University Australia, and to start her own consultancy, FirstClass.co. She is the Editor-in-Chief of Tourism Management Perspectives; and Series Editor for the "Perspectives on Asian Tourism” published by Springer. She is also the founder of Women Academics in Tourism (WAiT); Consultant to the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO); and Special Advisor to World Women Tourism. Catheryn has published several books and over 100 research articles on hospitality and tourism management. She has appeared in, and been cited by, international media including TV, radio, and newspapers.

Paolo Mura

Paolo Mura is a Professor in the College of Interdisciplinary Studies at Zayed University, Abu Dhabi, UAE. He holds a PhD in Tourism from the University of Otago, New Zealand. His research areas explore tourist experiences and behavior, including gendered experiences and representations in tourism, traveling subcultures, expressions of art in tourism, and critical and qualitative approaches to research. He is the co-editor of a book series entitled Perspectives on Asian Tourism, published by Springer, and one of the managing editors of Tourism Management Perspectives. Paolo enjoys supervising postgraduate students and has supervised to completion 10 PhD students and over 20 master's students.

Jess Sanggeyong Je

Jess Sanggyeong Je is a Ph.D. candidate at Griffith University, Australia's Department of Tourism, Sport and Hotel Management. She is interested in social sustainability, gendered employment issues, and the CSR framework. Recently, her paper was awarded as the Best Hospitality & Society Paper at CAUTHE 2022 conference. For her Ph.D. thesis, she is examining the effectiveness of gender equality initiatives in hospitality organizations with a critical realism approach under the guidance of Dr. Elaine Chiao Ling Yang, Prof. Leonie Lockstone-Binney, and Prof. Catheryn Khoo.

Mona Ji Hyun Yang

Mona ji Hyun Yang is a qualitative researcher and consultant specializing in sustainable and inclusive tourism and empowering marginalized groups. She is passionate about promoting socially vulnerable groups' rights in tourism. Her passion led her to explore tourism impacts on host children in developing countries, using innovative visual research methods, for her doctoral research project. Mona has attended several international conferences as a keynote speaker, panelist and presenter on empowering marginalized groups. She has published several journal articles on marginalized groups in renowned journals.