ATLAS SIG Webinar
ATLAS SIG Webinar
SIG Orphanage Tourism
SIG Volunteer Tourism
SIG Heritage Tourism and Education
SIG Dark Tourism
Consuming Lives, Consuming Places: A Debate on the Shadows of Travel
March 5, 2026
11.00 – 12.30 CET
As global tourism increasingly permeates the most sensitive dimensions of human experience, this webinar facilitates a critical interrogation of contemporary travel paradigms. Our expert panel will confront the ‘epistemic shadows’ inherent in the industry, scrutinizing the tension between pedagogical engagement and the extractive consumption of places and people.
This webinar is a collaborative initiative between the Dark Tourism, Volunteer Tourism, Orphanage Tourism, and Heritage Tourism and Education Special Interest Groups (SIGs) of the ATLAS Association, bringing together diverse scholarly perspectives to address the ethical complexities of global mobility.
Program
• ATLAS Welcoming
• Moderator Introduction
• Philip R. Stone, “Death, Disaster, and the Epistemic Shadows of Tourism’: Revisiting the Dark Tourism Paradigm”, representing the Dark Tourism SIG
• Neil Brinckerhoff, “Championing the Value of Youth Voluntourism amidst Challenges”, representing the Volunteer Tourism SIG
• Rebecca Nhep, “Profiting from Separation: Orphanage Voluntourism and Violations of Children’s Right to Family Life”, representing the Orphanage Tourism SIG
• Gai Jorayev, “Cultural Tourism: Consuming Heritage Places”, representing the Heritage Tourism and Education SIG
• Debate
Speakers
Philip R. Stone
Dr. Philip Stone is Co‑Founder and Director of the Institute for Dark Tourism Research (iDTR) at the University of Lancashire and a recognised international scholar of dark tourism and difficult heritage. Ranked in the global Top 2% of scholars for research impact (Elsevier–Stanford, 2020–25), he has more than 120 publications, many highly influential. For over two decades, he has shaped dark tourism as a global field and engages widely with international media. Philip is Founder and Editor‑in‑Chief of the International Journal of Dark Tourism Studies and author of several landmark academic and public‑facing books.
Neil Brinckerhoff
Neil Brinckerhoff is the Marketing and Sustainability Director at CAS Trips and is a MSc graduate in Responsible Tourism Management with Leeds Beckett University. He has broad experience with Tour Operations including operations, program development, and marketing and communications. Currently, he finds his passion in implementing responsible tourism concepts to further develop sustainability practices within the education opportunities offered by CAS Trips. This includes volunteering opportunities and community engagement initiatives across all of CAS Trips’ itineraries – which will be discussed further during his presentation.
Rebecca Nhep
Dr. Rebecca Nhep is the Senior Technical Advisor for the Better Care Network, the leading global child rights network driving action for children without parental care. With over 25 years of experience in child protection and care systems reform, her work focuses on the transition and closure of residential care services and on addressing orphanage trafficking and orphanage tourism. She has worked extensively at both global and national levels, including 15 years in field-based roles in Cambodia. Rebecca holds a PhD in Law, is a Research Fellow with Griffith Law School, and is a member of the Australian Institute of Criminology’s Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery Research Network. Her research examines the intersection between child rights, child institutionalisation, and child trafficking.
Gai (Gaygysyz) Jorayev
Dr. Gai (Gaygysyz) Jorayev is a cultural heritage management specialist with a strong background in digital humanities and cultural tourism. For over two decades, he has successfully led and delivered complex, transformational development and research projects internationally, working through extensive collaborations with heritage and development organisations. He studied and worked at University College London, where he coordinated postgraduate degree programmes in archaeological site management and cultural heritage until 2024. He is currently based at the Macao University of Tourism (UTM). In addition to his role as President of the ICOMOS International Scientific Committee on Aerospace Heritage, he engages with industrial heritage, rural and cultural landscapes, and intangible heritage. Gai also has a broad understanding of ongoing debates on decolonisation and ethics in heritage and archaeology.
Moderators
Zerva Konstantina
Dr. Konstantina Zerva is an Associate Professor and the Head of International Relations at the Faculty of Tourism, University of Girona, where she investigates the nexus of consumer behavior and socio-political conflict. Her research provides critical insights into the friction between market forces and host communities in tourism areas, with publications addressing dark tourism, “tourismophobia,” and the urban impacts of mass tourism in urban spaces, such as Barcelona, Amsterdam, and Los Angeles. She currently coordinates the ATLAS Dark Tourism Special Interest Group, directs cooperation projects in Africa and develops research on interculturality, and “quality-of-life” migration, through a gender-sensitive lens.
Burrai Elisa
Dr. Elisa Burrai is a Senior Lecturer in International Tourism Management at Leeds Beckett University and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. Elisa coordinates the ATLAS Special Interest Group on Volunteer Tourism with her colleague Dr. Davide Sterchele. Her research explores the intersection of tourism, responsibility, and ethics, with interests spanning volunteer tourism, international development, social justice, the politics of tourism, and tourism ethnographies. Elisa is currently working on two research projects: one focuses on the evolution of the volunteer tourism industry, and another examines the potential of bottom-up, newly formed political parties to foster just and inclusive tourism.
