Italian Journal of Marketing - Call for Papers - Special Issue: Regenerative Tourism - Theories, Methods, and Practices in a Marketing Perspective
Researchers and practitioners have widely concurred that tourism significantly contributes to economic growth (Brida et al., 2016). Over time, the initial focus on the economic impact of tourism activity has evolved, thus embracing a triple-bottom perspective that simultaneously focuses on the economic, environmental, and socio-cultural externalities that tourism generates on places, local communities, and societies (Asmelash & Kumar, 2019; Ko, 2001; Steer & Wade‐Gery, 1993). The twenty-first century has brought new challenges for tourism. Climate change, global warming, food and water security, human health, and wellbeing, over-tourism/under-tourism, and crises of different types (economic, health, natural, social, etc.), and the imperative of becoming net zero carbon generate new threats and create an uncertain tourism environment affecting societies, destinations, businesses, and individuals (as consumers, travelers, visitors, residents, and even workers).
Academicians and practitioners are now more conscious that the future is disclosing new challenges confronting sustainable tourism, quality of life, and wellbeing (Uysal et al., 2016). More specifically, it is now becoming evident that we are urgently called to confront the current transformation of our societies, as well as the transformation of tourism (Higham & Miller, 2017) and tourists' behavior (Pung et al., 2020; Pung et al., 2022). It is, in fact, indisputable that tourism and travel have an undeniable transformative power, stretching beyond individuals and affecting spaces, places, ecosystems, and societies (Lean, 2009). In this broader vein, academia is currently going further, deepening the scientific debate around whether, how, and to what extent tourism can positively influences multiple human and non-human wellbeing and give back to the hosting destination by acting as a system that can self-heal and regenerate (Becken & Kaur, 2021). All this gave rise to the so-called "regenerative tourism," a term coined to underline the need to assess tourism activity not only in terms of cost-benefit analysis and/or the value it generates but also with respect to the different types of the human and non-human values underpinning it (Becken & Kaur, 2022; Bellato et a., 2022; Cave et al., 2022). Whereas sustainable tourism is a matter of meeting present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs, the state of mind underpinning regenerative tourism can be summarized in "Leaving the place behind, better than before" (Aleshinloye, 2021; Zaman et al., 2023). However, the scientific debate about regenerative tourism is still emerging, theoretically and empirically, thus urging further studies aiming to explore this somewhat overlooked research area.
This special issue welcomes original, theoretical, and empirical works related, but not limited, to the following topics:
- Transformative tourism and wellbeing
- Definitions and meaning of regenerative tourism
- Regenerative tourism and its impact on tourists' transformation and wellbeing
- Regenerative traveling and residents' support of tourism development
- The effect of regenerative tourism on the host-guest interaction
- Tourism businesses' awareness of regenerative tourism and attitude toward it
- Destination management and regenerative tourism
- Transformative and regenerative tourism: supply and demand perspectives
- Regenerative leadership, employer branding, and workers' wellbeing
- Regenerative tourism and circular economy
- Digital technologies for net zero carbon
- Regenerative tourism and climate neutrality
- Regenerative tourism and tourism memorability
The special issue welcomes theoretical and empirical studies applying any methodological approach, including qualitative, quantitative, mixed, and multimethod. Furthermore, it also encourages the submission of studies adopting interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches.
For further information or any inquiry on this call, please contact the guest editors:
Giacomo Del Chiappa, University of Sassari, Italy gdelchiappa@uniss.it (this opens in a new tab)
Fabiola Sfodera, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy fabiola.sfodera@uniroma1.it (this opens in a new tab)
Serena Volo, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy Serena.Volo@unibz.it (this opens in a new tab)
Paper submission/selection
Please submit at https://www.editorialmanager.com/itjm/default2.aspx (this opens in a new tab) and kindly select “S.I.: Regenerative Tourism” when you reach the “Additional Information” step in the submission process.
All papers need to strictly adhere to the specific guidelines of the journal (see: (this opens in a new tab)https://www.springer.com/journal/43039/submission-guidelines (this opens in a new tab)).
Key dates
Opening of the submission platform: December 1, 2023
Deadline for submissions of full papers: April 30, 2024
Tentative publication: Fall 2024
Main references
Aleshinloye, K. D., Woosnam, K. M., Tasci, A. D., & Ramkissoon, H. (2021). Antecedents and outcomes of resident empowerment through tourism. Journal of Travel Research, 61(3), 656–673.
Asmelash, A. G., & Kumar, S. (2019). Assessing progress of tourism sustainability: Developing and validating sustainability indicators. Tourism Management, 71, 67-83.
Bellato, L., Frantzeskaki, N., & Nygaard, C. A. (2022). Regenerative tourism: a conceptual framework leveraging theory and practice. Tourism Geographies, 25(4), 1026-1046.
Bellato, L., Frantzeskaki, N., Fiebig, C. B., Pollock, A., Dens, E., & Reed, B. (2022). Transformative roles in tourism: adopting living systems' thinking for regenerative futures. Journal of Tourism Futures, 8(3), 312-329.
Bramwell, B., Higham, J., Lane, B., & Miller, G. (2017). Twenty-five years of sustainable tourism and the Journal of Sustainable Tourism: Looking back and moving forward. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 25(1), 1-9.
Cave, J., & Dredge, D. (2020). Regenerative tourism needs diverse economic practices. Tourism Geographies, 22(3), 503–513.
Cave, J., Dredge, D., van’t Hullenaar, C., Koens Waddilove, A., Lebski, S., Mathieu, O., … Zanet, B. (2022). Regenerative tourism: The challenge of transformational leadership. Journal of Tourism Futures, 8(3), 298–311.
Ko, J. T. (2001). Assessing progress of tourism sustainability. Annals of tourism research, 28(3), 817-820.
Lean, G. L. (2009). Transformative Travel: Inspiring Sustainability. In R. Bushell & P. J. Sheldon (Eds.), Wellness and tourism: Mind, body, spirit, place (pp. 191–205). Elmsford, NY: Cognizant Communication.
Pung, J. M., Gnoth, J., & Del Chiappa, G. (2020). Tourist transformation: Towards a conceptual model. Annals of Tourism Research, 81.
Pung, J. M., Khoo, C., Del Chiappa, G., & Lee, C. (2022). Tourist transformation: an empirical analysis of female and male experiences. Tourism Recreation Research, 1-15.
Steer A. & Wade‐Gery W. (1993), Sustainable development: Theory and practice for a sustainable future. Sustainable Development, 1(3), 23-35.
Uysal, M., Sirgy, M. J., Woo, E., & Kim, H. L. (2016). Quality of life (QOL) and well-being research in tourism. Tourism Management, 53, 244-261.
Zaman, U., Aktan, M., Agrusa, J., & Khwaja, M. G. (2023). Linking regenerative travel and residents’ support for tourism development in Kaua’i Island (Hawaii): Moderating-mediating effects of travel-shaming and foreign tourist attractiveness. Journal of Travel Research, 62(4), 782-801.