Tourism research at 75: Our contribution to the AIEST conference in St. Gallen

Discussing the definition also means to define how narrowly or broadly should tourism research understand its subject. Statistical definitions need clear boundaries. Research not only deals with tourists, but also visitors, travellers and residents; with experiences, emotions, local communities, destination management and policy. These perspectives show how much more tourism encompasses than a change of location.

Hannes Thees presented joint research with Johanna Kamara and Kerstin Ihle on scaling ecological business models in travel. Based on a series of interviews with tourism pioneers and start-ups, the paper examines what helps ecological ideas spread beyond niche markets. The findings suggest that founders’ environmental commitments shape which forms of growth they are aiming for. Partnerships can help them develop and share new practices, while adoption or imitation by others may extend their ecological impact even if their own business remains small.

The conference also offered useful methodological perspectives, including discussions about how experiments can help examine visitor behaviour and the effects of targeted interventions. We took valuable ideas from these exchanges for the further development of our research.

We thank AIEST and the hosts in St. Gallen for the high-quality contributions, critical feedback and generous exchange across the international tourism research community. Our Chair also has a longstanding connection to AIEST through Harald Pechlaner’s former presidency.

AIEST conference