Call for Papers – “The Price of Tourism? Economy and Financialization of Tourism”

Context

Data referring to the percentage of GDP and thousands of jobs are often the first elements presented in tourism papers. They justify its national and international importance, and the need to support the industry.

However, beyond the usual arguments for tourism, lie questions such as: How is wealth created, distributed, and captured within tourism activities? What are the ways in which wealth is accumulated? How are the conditions of accumulation put in place by tourism stakeholders? And who has the power to put these conditions in place? These simple questions find few answers despite a significant economist’s discourse and a mass of research on the managerial dimension of tourism.

The last thirty years, however, have seen the emergence of new players and a variety of ways to finance their projects, including private borrowing, investment programs, stock market listings, digital fundraising, participatory financing, property companies, sponsorship, and philanthropy (e.g., see the issue of the journal Espaces, 2018). Financing methods have changed, as has their scale; they illustrate the complexification and dematerialization of the tourism economy. The rapid and spectacular growth of tourism often obscures the equally important consequences it produces in local societies. The use of land and real estate markets to finance the tourism economy highlights complex political and ethical tensions (Duvillard, 2010). These land and real estate issues are intrinsically linked to spatial planning, access to property, communities’ ability to organize their environment, and environmental considerations (Loloum and Aledo, 2018). Models linked to the digital sharing economy, or the so-called collaborative economy, have also influenced the circulation of money between evasion of the market economy, means of personal enrichment, and investment strategy. Tourism taxes also contribute to the circulation of money. They can be used both to manage or reduce tourist flows (McCartney, 2020) and to protect the environment (Usman and Adewale Alola, 2022). Finally, Tourism tolerance to illegal economic activities, from drug transport and prostitution to street vendors, also illustrates its ability to camouflage illicit flows of money and people.

This thematic issue proposes avenues for reflection around various questions. Beyond the rhetoric of wealth creation, how is this wealth distributed? How has the financing of the tourism sector developed and changed over the last few decades of growth? What are the impacts of the financialization of this industry on local communities and on the tourism industry itself? What is the relationship between public and private money?

Articles may cover, but are not limited to:

• Financing methods used by tourism organizations
• Financing policies
• Public and private stakeholders in financialization
• Concentration of capital
• Cost outsourcing
• Land and real-estate strategies in tourism
• Tourism income redistribution mechanisms
• The political economy of tourism development
• The green economy and tourism
• The “dark” or illegal economy of tourism (black market and money laundering).

Proposal Submission Guidelines and Schedule

Responses to this call for papers will be sent in the form of a long abstract that are due October 31, 2024.

Submissions should be sent by email to: mondes@mondesdutourisme.fr

The final version of the articles must be submitted by January 31, 2025.

Publication is scheduled for summer 2025.

Guidelines for authors are specified in the call for papers. Please click here to find the full details.