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

Figures & data

Table 1. The final wish organisers that met the inclusion criteria of the study.

Final wish organiser	Website	Facilitates tourism as a final wish	Eligibility*	Website availability	Country	Slogan	Background
Dream Foundation	www.dreamfoundation.org	Yes	Adults with terminal illness	Publicly available in English language	USA	‘Giving life to final dreams’.	No such dream granting agency existed for adults. Establishment inspired by late partner.
Bucket List Wishes	www.bucketlistwishes.org.uk	Yes	Adults with terminal illness
	Publicly available in English language	UK	‘Grant a wish. Make a memory’.	Established to honour the founder’s mother who created a bucket list on being diagnosed with a terminal illness.
Bucket List Foundation	https://www.bucketlistfoundation.org/	Yes	Seniors with terminal illness	Publicly available in English language	USA	‘Granting wishes to terminally ill seniors’.	Aims to grant wishes to terminally ill senior citizens to inspire hope and quality of life for a generation that has given so much to ours.
Dreamweaver Foundation	https://dreamweaver.org/	Yes	Seniors with terminal illness	Publicly available in English language	USA	‘It’s never too late to dream’. ‘Realizing dreams. Connecting hope’.	Dreamweaver Foundation is dedicated to fulfilling the dreams of seniors who are terminally ill, making their life-long dreams come true through incredible experiences they will never forget.
The Bucket List Project Foundation	https://www.thebucketlistproject.com/	Yes	Adults 18+with terminal illness	Publicly available in English language	USA	No slogan visible.	Inspired by first Bucket List Project wish recipient, Kenny Kozikowski. Their goal is ‘to bring joy by providing a memorable experience’. Their mission is to continue the legacy of compassion and to never have to deny an end-of-life wish request.
Dreams2Live4	https://dreams2live4.org.au/	Yes	Adults living with metastatic cancer	Publicly available in English language	Australia	‘A dream granted every 48 h’.	Founded by metastatic cancer patient, Annie Robinson, who understood the need to ‘treat the soul as well as the disease’.
Race4Life	https://race4life.org.nz/	Yes	Adults 18 + who are palliative care patients	Publicly available in English language	New Zealand	‘Fulfilling wishes of palliative care patients’.	First established in 2015; this is the only Trust in New Zealand that has the specific brief of fulfilling the wishes of palliative care patients 18 + .

*Eligibility based on a terminal illness prognosis; that is, the illness will result in death. The diagnosis period may vary based on the circumstances of individual wish recipients.

Table 2. The presence of tourism related keywords in final wish organisers’ website communications.

Category	Keyword(s) contained in the category	Number of webpages featuring keyword	% of total webpages featuring keyword	Number of times the keyword featured
Tourism and Travel	Travel, tourism, leisure, recreation, holiday, vacation, trip	110	31.5	219
Transportation	Transport, bus, helicopter, limousine, taxi, flight, ferry, train, cruise	87	24.9	174
Accommodation	Accommodation, hotel, motel, resort, campground, apartment	54	15.4	100
Attractions	Attraction, sport, concert, event, theatre, musical, performance, zoo, aquarium	68	19.5	165
Place/Destination	Nature, environment, beach, garden, forest, river, ocean, lake, park	91	26.1	190

Table 3. Most common keywords used in the website communications.

Category	Keyword(s)	Number of webpages featuring keyword	% of total webpages featuring keyword	Number of times the keyword was featured
Dream element	Dream/dreaming/dreams/dreamed	278	79.7	1923
	Wish/wished/wishes/wishing	140	40.1	1364
Family connectedness	Family/families	200	57.3	601
	Love/loved	172	49.3	481
	Connect/connection/connected/connecting	49	14.0	55
	Precious/cherished	54	15.5	63
	Grandparent/son/daughter/mother/father/child/children	25	7.2	32
Last chance	Last/final	107	30.7	188
	Urgent/quick/haste(ly, ily)	78	22.3	135
	Terminal/terminally	94	26.9	113
	Dead/died/death/dying	62	17.8	70
	Bucket	40	11.5	412
Legacy	Memory(ies)	135	38.7	195
	Trust/trustworthy/trusted	42	12.0	85
	Forever/eternity/eternal/lasting/endless/immortal	40	11.5	49
	Legacy/honour(honor)	33	9.5	49
	Spirit/spirituality	16	2.9	21
	Heaven/god/afterlife	6	1.7	16

Table 4. Key features of homepage images portraying people.

Image Feature	Featured	Not Featured	% of homepages – Featured
People are happy	84	37	69.4
People are looking directly at camera	83	38	68.6
People are engaging in a tourism/recreation experience	76	45	62.9
Two or more people of apparent generational difference	59	62	48.8
Couples who appear to be in a married/de facto relationship	22	99	18.2
Black and white image portraying people	19	102	15.7

Figure 1. Dream Foundation's Logo.