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WebinarOnline

The soul of tourism: Anthropological perspectives on cultivating true destination stewardship

  • 16:00–16:55 UK time55 minutes
  • Online, on Zoom, inside ScholardemiaRegister, then join on this page from 15:50. How to join
  • Jonathan Tourtellot and Jonathon DayConvened by Prof. Eugenia Wickens

Explore how place, belonging and everyday life can guide destination stewardship beyond visitor numbers and economic returns.

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About this event

Speaker update, 2 October 2026: Confirmed speakers: Jonathon Day and Jonathan Tourtellot.
Tourism brings residents, visitors and service workers into social relationships shaped by history, identity, memory and unequal power. This webinar uses anthropological perspectives to examine destination stewardship beyond visitor numbers and conventional economic indicators. It considers place attachment, living heritage, narrative authority and everyday uses of public space. The session will explore how tourism changes the meanings associated with a destination and how the expectations of visitors can influence which local practices, stories and identities become visible or commercially valued.
Panellists will ask who belongs in destination planning, whose knowledge is recognised and how authority is exercised across public institutions, businesses and community organisations. The discussion will examine the tourist gaze, informal cultural labour and the transformation of neighbourhoods into spaces of consumption. It will avoid romanticising communities or treating culture as a fixed commodity. Internal disagreement, social change and differences in access to political influence will be recognised as important elements of any credible account of stewardship.
Participants will gain qualitative methods for listening to different groups and interpreting how people experience tourism development. These methods include ethnographic observation, narrative inquiry, participatory mapping and sustained community dialogue. The webinar will show how such evidence can complement economic and environmental measures without being reduced to a token consultation exercise. Delegates will learn to design governance arrangements that support shared care, public accountability and continuing negotiation over the future of places that are simultaneously homes, workplaces and destinations. This perspective helps ensure that stewardship remains grounded and historically informed in practice.

How to join

This webinar runs on Zoom. You join it here on Scholardemia, where the meeting opens inside the page with the chat, questions and polls beside it. You do not need a Zoom account or a Zoom link.

  1. RegisterFree, with your Scholardemia account.
  2. Come back on the dayThe room opens at 15:50 on Friday 22 January. We email you reminders with the Join button 24 hours and 1 hour before.
  3. Press JoinSign in with the same account. The meeting opens here, with questions, polls and the group chat beside it.

Use an up-to-date Chrome, Edge, Safari or Firefox. Allow sound when your browser asks, and use headphones if you can.

Featured speakers

All 2 speakers →
JT

Jonathan Tourtellot

mr · Destination Stewardship Center

JD

Jonathon Day

Dr · Purdue University

Scholardemia
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The soul of tourism: Anthropological perspectives on cultivating true destination stewardship

WebinarOnlineSession 9 of 29

Explore how place, belonging and everyday life can guide destination stewardship beyond visitor numbers and economic returns.

  • 16:00–16:55 UK time
  • Online, on Zoom, inside Scholardemia · 55 minutesRegister, then join on this page from 15:50. How to join
  • Jonathan Tourtellot and Jonathon DayConvened by Prof. Eugenia Wickens

About this webinar

Speaker update, 2 October 2026: Confirmed speakers: Jonathon Day and Jonathan Tourtellot.
Tourism brings residents, visitors and service workers into social relationships shaped by history, identity, memory and unequal power. This webinar uses anthropological perspectives to examine destination stewardship beyond visitor numbers and conventional economic indicators. It considers place attachment, living heritage, narrative authority and everyday uses of public space. The session will explore how tourism changes the meanings associated with a destination and how the expectations of visitors can influence which local practices, stories and identities become visible or commercially valued.
Panellists will ask who belongs in destination planning, whose knowledge is recognised and how authority is exercised across public institutions, businesses and community organisations. The discussion will examine the tourist gaze, informal cultural labour and the transformation of neighbourhoods into spaces of consumption. It will avoid romanticising communities or treating culture as a fixed commodity. Internal disagreement, social change and differences in access to political influence will be recognised as important elements of any credible account of stewardship.
Participants will gain qualitative methods for listening to different groups and interpreting how people experience tourism development. These methods include ethnographic observation, narrative inquiry, participatory mapping and sustained community dialogue. The webinar will show how such evidence can complement economic and environmental measures without being reduced to a token consultation exercise. Delegates will learn to design governance arrangements that support shared care, public accountability and continuing negotiation over the future of places that are simultaneously homes, workplaces and destinations. This perspective helps ensure that stewardship remains grounded and historically informed in practice.

How to join

This webinar runs on Zoom. You join it here on Scholardemia, where the meeting opens inside the page with the chat, questions and polls beside it. You do not need a Zoom account or a Zoom link.

  1. RegisterFree, with your Scholardemia account.
  2. Come back on the dayThe room opens at 15:50 on Friday 22 January. We email you reminders with the Join button 24 hours and 1 hour before.
  3. Press JoinSign in with the same account. The meeting opens here, with questions, polls and the group chat beside it.

Use an up-to-date Chrome, Edge, Safari or Firefox. Allow sound when your browser asks, and use headphones if you can.

Speakers and convenor

Jonathan Tourtellot

Presenter

mr · Destination Stewardship Center

Scholardemia profile

Dr. Jonathon Day

Presenter

Purdue University

Scholardemia profile

Prof. Eugenia Wickens

Convenor

OTS Academy

United Kingdom

Professor Eugenia Wickens edits the Journal On Tourism & Sustainability (JOTS) and the Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Education (JTHE), and chairs Scholardemia webinar sessions. Her research covers tourist experience and typologies, tourism routes and rural development, volunteer tourism, and event and cultural tourism. Formerly Reader in Tourism at Buckinghamshire New University, she has helped plan tourism education in Malaysia, Cambodia, Laos, Nepal, Serbia, Greece, Ireland and Turkey.

Scholardemia profileORCIDGoogle Scholar

Organised by Scholardemia.

Committee

Organising Committee

Operational leadership and event delivery team.

Prof. Eugenia Wickens

Convenor

OTS Academy

United Kingdom

Professor Eugenia Wickens edits the Journal On Tourism & Sustainability (JOTS) and the Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Education (JTHE), and chairs Scholardemia webinar sessions. Her research covers tourist experience and typologies, tourism routes and rural development, volunteer tourism, and event and cultural tourism. Formerly Reader in Tourism at Buckinghamshire New University, she has helped plan tourism education in Malaysia, Cambodia, Laos, Nepal, Serbia, Greece, Ireland and Turkey.

Scholardemia profileORCIDGoogle Scholar

Scholardemia

Organizer

Event committee

Who’s going

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Photos

  • Living heritage and cultural work. Illustrative photograph — Los Muertos Crew / Pexels.

  • Listening to local knowledge — AI-generated editorial illustration.

  • Who controls cultural representation? — AI-generated editorial illustration.

  • Negotiating stewardship together — AI-generated editorial illustration.

  • Living heritage changes with its community — AI-generated editorial illustration.

Next in this series

All 29 sessions
  1. Fri 29 Jan14:00Planning for resilient destinations: Integrating cultural heritage, rural tourism and community-led strategiesSession 10
  2. Fri 5 Feb15:00Heritage on the frontline: Community-based tourism, cultural preservation and the geopolitics of sacred sitesSession 11
  3. Fri 12 Feb09:00The economics of well-being: Crafting tourism policies that benefit destinations, residents and the bottom lineSession 12
  4. Fri 19 Feb09:00The certification conundrum: Making responsible tourism marketing and sustainability standards truly effectiveSession 13