CultSense and ATLAS SIG CT – Bridging Cultures Through Travel: From Theory to Practice

Keynote speaker: Dr.Emily Höckert – University of Lapland, Finland & Prof.Wil Munsters – Zuyd University of Applied Sciences, Netherlands

Introduction

How can travel encourage cultural sensitivity? In a post-pandemic world, travel and tourism have been regaining popularity. With this regained popularity comes a renewed pressure on local hosts and sites because of increasing visiting numbers. Can cultural sensitivity be a tool to mitigate tensions between hosts and visitors? For the last two years, the CultSense project (CultSense – Sensitizing Young Travellers for Local cultures, www.cultense.com) has focused on addressing this question. In this conference, a joint venture of CultSense and the ATLAS Special Interest Group on Cultural Tourism,  we will further explore ways to bridge cultures via travel. Can cultural sensitivity be a competence that (tourism) education can work with? How can travel impact students and visitors’ knowledge and skills? In which ways can touristic experiences function as a means to bridge cultures? We are also interested in exploring how (local) cultural and artistic expressions contribute to, and benefit from culturally sensitive practices. We invite participants to submit their abstract in one of four streams:

1. Educational Experiences
2. Academic Research
3. Cases
4. Posters

Keynote speakers

Dr Emily Höckert is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Lapland, Finland. Her research cultivates relational ways of being, imagining, knowing, and acting in tourism settings. She approaches the questions of cultural sensitivity and hospitality at the crossroads of hermeneutic phenomenology and postcolonial philosophy, asking, for instance, how different kinds of hosts and guests welcome and take care of each other. Between 2019-2021, Emily worked as part of ARCTISEN project team that explored the questions of cultural sensitivity in Arctic tourism settings and developed toolkits and online courses for enhancing sensitive orientation to otherness. She is also a member of “Intra-living in the Anthropocene” and “Sustainable Naturecultures and Multispecies Future” research communities that both examine the interaction between northern areas, people and the environment.

Wil Munsters is emeritus professor of Tourism and Culture at Zuyd University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands. He has published a monograph on cultural tourism as well as tourism studies focusing on built heritage, museums, events, gastronomy, hospitality, cultural destinations, market development, sustainability, and research models. He has also co-edited books on cultural tourism research methodology and on anthropology as a driver for tourism research. As a member of ATLAS (Association for Tourism and Leisure Education and Research), he was involved in the international Cultural Tourism Research Project from 1994 to 2022.

Conference themes

We invite the submission of papers, cases and posters, which can relate to the following sub-themes including (but not limited to):

1.    Cultural sensitivity and travelling

• Cultural sensitivity
• Intangible cultural experiences
• Social media for cultural sensitivity
• Mobile Cultures
• Empathy and emotions in travel
• Multiple Belongings
• Tourism encounters and emotions
• Popular cultural expressions (music, festivals, dance, etc.)
• Tangible and intangible heritage
• Mindful tourism

2.    Student experiences and (intercultural) tourism education

• Intercultural education and communication
• Bridging cultures through education
• Enabling change makers and ambassadors for change
• Erasmus / international exchanges

3.    Bridging cultures

• Art and gastronomy as a bridge for cultures
• Cultural Institutions and bridging cultures
• Spirituality for Bridging (religious) cultures
• Diversity and Inclusivity
• (Destination) Marketing, Place Branding as a bridge between cultures

Abstract submission

The main language of the conference will be English, but to encourage linguistic diversity we will also be welcoming panels in other languages. If you want to organize a panel in language other than English, please do get in touch with us at cultsense@eshcc.eur.nl. Within the conference, we will host student panels as well as a video competition. Details will be made available on the CultSense website soon!

Abstracts (200-250 words) should be submitted until the 15 February 2023. Abstract submission will be open from October 2022.

You can submit the following types of presentation:

1. Educational Experiences
2. Academic Research
3. Cases
4. Posters

ABSTRACT SUBMISSION FORM

*Please note that we are exploring the possibility of a special issue and a book with reputed publishers.

Important dates

Abstract submission: February 15^th, 2023

Notification of acceptance: March 15^th, 2023

Conference: June 14-15^th, 2023

Full paper submission: August 15^th, 2023

Organising committee

• Lénia Marques
• Siri Driessen
• Greg Richards
• Maria del Pilar Leal Londoño
• Fernanda Rodríguez

Contact: cultsense@eshcc.eur.nl

Conference package

*Cancellation policy

If written cancellation is received before June 1^st 2023, a refund of all meeting fees will be made, minus an administration fee of € 50. No refund will be possible after June 1^st 2023, but substitute delegates can be nominated.

Registration

• Contact

  Please contact: admin@atlas-euro.org

• Registration

  Submit this form to register for the conference.REGISTRATION WILL BE OPEN IN FEBRUARY 2023.

• Abstract submission form

  Submit this form to submit an abstract for the conference.