The -ism Series (34): Inclusive Tourism

According to the World Tourism Organization, inclusive tourism has the potential to contribute to gender equality and reduce poverty. Tourism can take place "in a variety of environments, including rural or underdeveloped areas", hence its capacity to promote a more inclusive development. It can, theoretically (tourism employment tends to be unstable), create jobs in underdeveloped rural areas and by doing so reduce poverty. More than in any other sector, women develop as entrepreneurs (via) ...



... , however, there is still - like in many other business sectors - the problem of horizontal and vertical gender segregation of the labour market:

Horizontally, women and men are placed in different occupations - women are being employed as waitresses, cleaners, travel agencies sales persons, flight attendants, etc., whereas men are being employed as gardeners, construction workers, drivers, pilots, etc. Vertically, the typical "gender pyramid" is prevalent in the tourism sector - lower levels and occupations with few career development opportunities are being dominated by women and key managerial positions dominated by men. (Ramchurje, 2011)

Apart from the labour market, women play a role as travellers and face specific problems (mainly concerns for personal safety) when, for instance, travelling alone (Jordan & Aitchison, 2008). Inclusive tourism is not only about gender and socioeconomics. Sexual orientation, disability, and age are further dimensions that need to be considered.

One in three LGBT travellers (32%) feels they are treated differently due to their sexuality when on holiday. This was a key finding of research conducted in September 2016 by British-owned tour operator Virgin Holidays. The study – a survey of 1,000 adults who identified at LGBT conducted by OnePoll – also highlighted the fact that sexuality had a major influence on where LGBT British adults travelled, with two thirds (63%) refusing to visit somewhere with an unwelcoming attitude towards the LGBT community. It is clearly important for people to be able to feel comfortable when they travel, yet apparently almost a quarter (23%) of LGBT travellers change the way they act and try to camouflage their sexuality when on holiday.
UNWTO

Solo travelling "no longer lies with the 20-something backpacker that stereotypes suggest". In a survey, the highest percentage of people who would travel alone was found among 55-64-year-olds (35%) and over 65s (31%) which again means that the tourism industry needs to react to these travel habits (via) and to "demographic challenges" (as an ageing society is constantly called a "challenge") in general (Nikitina & Vorontsova, 2015). So far, only "very little attention" has been given  to senior tourists in literature (Patterson & Balderas, 2018).
For people with disabilities, tourism can still be a challenge (via). In many Western industrialised countries, discussions on Accessible Tourism for All started in the late 1970s and intensified in the past twenty years. Nevertheless, this approach is far from being widespread and still a niche segment (Kagermeier, n.d.) with a lack of products and services (Özogul & Baran, 2016).

‘Inclusive Tourism’ is often referred to as ‘Accessible Tourism’ or even ‘Disabled Tourism’. Disabled people were used to be and still are partially excluded from the leisure activities offered to people without mobility problems. Therefore accessible tourism is about making it easy for all people, irrespective of their gender, age or physical status, to enjoy tourism experiences. It is a set of services and facilities for individuals with special needs, who are for example disabled, elderly travellers, pregnant women, parents pushing their children in strollers or even people with temporary injuries, such as a broken leg or chronic ailments. All these people need to be particularly enabled during their travel. Thus, accessible tourism is the ongoing attempt to ensure that tourist destinations, products and services around the world are accessible to all people, regardless of their physical limitations, disabilities or age. (...) Not only the mobility-impaired people benefit from the improvements, but also their relatives, friends and other companions. Accessibility in tourism is a social right which concerns all citizens. It is often limited to a certain group of people but it should be seen in a more holistic approach (...).
Münch & Ulrich (2011)

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- Jordan, F. & Aitchison, C. (2008). Tourism and the sexualisation of the gaze: Solo female tourists' experiences of gendered power, surveillance and embodiment. Leisure Studies, 27(3), 329-349.
- Kagermeier, A. (n.d.). Challenges to attaining "Acessible Tourism for All" in German destinations as part of a CSR-oriented approach. BEST EN Think Tank XVI. Building Escellence in Sustainable Tourim Education Network.
- Özogul, G. & Baran, G. G. (2016). Accessible tourism: the golden key in the future for the specialized travel agencies. Journal of Tourism Futures, LINK
- Patterson, I. & Balderas, A. (2018). Continuing and Emerging Trends of Senior Tourism: A Review of the Literature. Journal of Population Ageing, LINK
- Ramchurje, N. A. (2011). "Tourism" a Vehicle for Women's Empowerment: Prospect and Challenges, LINK
- Nikitina, O. & Vorontsova, G. (2015). Aging Population and Tourism: Socially Determined Model of Consumer Behavior in the "Senior Tourism" Segment. Procedia - Social and Behavior Sciences, 214, 845-851.
- photograph by Vivian Maier via

"The world is more beautiful the more you accept"

Online homestay network Airbnb has a clear message: The world is more beautiful the more you accept. Their clip #WeAccept was shown during the last Superbowl, their tweets - followed by more than 571.000 persons - are dedicated to diversity and acceptance. The company also announced that they would offer free housing to refugees and blocked travellers (via).



Here are some tweets:



"Acceptance means being culturally sensitive toward each other and loving our similarities rather than hating our differences."

"If we all wrote down our own hopes and dreams, I think they'd be similar around the world. We're more the same than different."

"No matter how different we are, there's one thing we should agree on: Every human is deserving of equal opportunity and respect."



"Acceptance means being seen, heard, understood, recognized, respected & embraced for one's own truth."

"It is our duty as a progressive and thoughtful society to make everyone, regardless of background, feel welcome and celebrated."

"I think acceptance is the ability to see strangers—people that may not look like you—as potential friends, not as enemies."



"Acceptance to me means having the ability to go anywhere in the world and still be yourself without discrimination."

"Acceptance is when someone knows I’m different, but treats me the same."

“It's always been part of our family's value system to love everyone. We all belong to this world."



And here the clip:



The following message was published by the founders of Airbnb on 5 February 2017

We believe in the simple idea that no matter who you are, where you're from, who you love, or who you worship, you deserve to belong. We know this is an idealistic notion that faces huge obstacles because of something that also seems simple, but isn't - that not everyone is accepted.

People who've been displaced, whether because of war or conflict or other factors, are acutely vulnerable to not being accepted. They are, quite literally, in need of a place to belong, which is why we've been inspired to take action.

We started by providing housing for evacuees of disasters and have since provided housing during 54 global disasters. We partnered with organizations dedicated to the needs of refugees around the world. And just last week, we announced that the Airbnb community will provide free housing to refugees and those recently barred from entering the US. When we announced this, there was an outpouring of interest from our community, and we were inspired to go bigger.

Today we're setting a goal to provide short-term housing over the next five years for 100,000 people in need. We'll start with refugees, disaster survivors, and relief workers, though we want to accommodate many more types of displaced people over time. To help people around the world facing displacement, we'll work with our community of hosts to find not just a place to stay, but also a place to feel connected, respected, and a part of a community again. In addition, Airbnb will contribute $4 million over the course of four years to the International Rescue Committee to support the most critical needs of displaced populations globally.

We couldn’t talk about the lack of acceptance in the world without pointing out the challenges in our own community at Airbnb. The painful truth is that guests on Airbnb have experienced discrimination, something that is the very opposite of our values. We know we have work to do and are dedicated to achieving greater acceptance in our community.

These efforts are just the beginning, and we hope you consider joining us by sharing your home with someone who is displaced or donating to organizations that assist those in need. It’s possible that a child today will grow up in a different kind of world, one where they're accepted for who they are, no matter where they are. Because we really do believe that the world is a better, more beautiful place the more we accept each other.

- The founders of Airbnb

Brian Joe Nate

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images via and via and via and via and via

"In a way we are all kind of cousins."

"Travelling is breaking boundaries. To travel is to fuel that inner spark of natural curiosity that leads us to explore. Leads us to pursue new ways, and see the world in a different light every day. Discover new places. People. Faces. Gestures. A world of unexpected opportunities."
momondo



Together with DNA testing service AncestryDNA, ad agency &Co and production house Bacon, Danish flight comparison site momondo launched "The DNA Journey", an ongoing contest that encourages people to send in their DNA samples and win a trip to countries of their unknown origin (via). With this journey, momondo aims to make people understand that there are more things uniting us, than dividing us (via).




"Let's open our world.

We only have one world, but it’s divided. We tend to think that there are more things dividing us than uniting us.
momondo was founded on the belief that everybody should be able to travel the world, to meet other people, and experience other cultures and religions. Travel opens our minds: when we experience something different, we begin to see things differently.
To celebrate the colourful diversity of the world, we invite you to join The DNA Journey. We hope it will inspire you to explore your own diversity and discover how you are connected to the rest of the world."
momondo

And here the beautiful clip (although actors are said to be participating) with partly patriotic and nationalistic participants showing their reactions to finding out that they are part Turkish or 5% German:



photographs of Romy Schneider and Audrey Hepburn via and via and via

Gondolas4all

"Freedom is when you are free to go wherever you want."
Child in wheelchair



About a week ago, the project "Gondolas4all" was launched by Alessandro dalla Pietà: gondolas that are accessible to people using wheelchairs.

::: Here is a short clip (Italian with English subtitles) that shows how they work: WATCH/LISTEN



photographs of Paul Newman via and Gary Cooper via

Vienna's hotel with an additional value

"This project is a symbol of tolerance and everything I love about Vienna."
Michael Häupl, Mayor of Vienna

"Who lives here legally should also be able to work here legally. Refugees living here have a stable job and a future."
Michael Landau, President of Caritas Austria

Tomorrow, a new hotel will open in Vienna. And it is not just another hotel but a very special one. Since tourists and refugees often have some things in common, such as language, culture, mobility and open-mindedness, in this hotel, tourists will be welcomed by special employees: tourism experts and refugees (Czaja, 2015) from 16 countries.
The hotel is a five-year-project run by Caritas, a Catholic non-government, not-for-profit organisation that was founded by Lorenz Worthmann in 1897 which is today operating in more than 200 countries (via). Hotel magdas is financed by crowdfunding and the Caritas Social Business Unit. The social business hotel was rebuilt by AllesWirdGut architects. In five years, the building will be demolished and a new one will be constructed for senior citizens in need of care (Czaja, 2015). Hotel magdas is located close to the "Wiener Prater", the oldest amusement park in the world (via).



- Czaja, W. (2015) Wiener Prater: Flüchtlinge und Touristen unter einem Dach. Der Standard, 12. Februar 2015, S. 10
- photograph of Vienna in the 1960s via

The Grand Budapest Hotel & VisitBritain's Guide to the Foreign Guest

The United Kingdom is worldwide tourist destination number eight (via). VisitBritain, a merger between the British Tourist Authority and the English Tourism Council, was established in 2003 in order to market Britain internationally and to develop the visitor economy (via). When VisitBritain published a guidance for the tourism industry (how to treat foreign guests in hotels) reactions soon followed. At the beginning of this year, various internet sources quoted the dos and don'ts that were listed in VisitBritain's report ... with some sarcastic remarks.



The dos comprise:
- Understand that Indians are amiable but have a tendency to change their minds quite frequently.
- Deal promptly with any complaint from German or Austrian tourists, who can be straightforward and demanding to the point of seeming rude and aggressive.
- Ensure tourists from Russia - a tall nation - are housed in rooms with hight ceilings and doorways. (via)



The don'ts comprise:
- Exchange a smile or make eye contact with anyone from France who you do not know.
- Ask superstitious people from Hong Kong to sleep in a historic property or a four-poster bed because they associate them with ghostly encounters.
- Describe a visitor from Canada as American. (via)



Photos from Wes Anderson's Grand Budapest Hotel (via and via and via)