Dr Jim Butcher

Dr Jim Butcher

Jim Butcher

Jim Butcher is a lec­turer and writer who has writ­ten a num­ber of books on the soci­ology and polit­ics of tour­ism. Dr Butcher blogs at Polit­ics of Tour­ism, tweets at @jimbutcher2, and is the founder of Tour­is­m’s Hori­zon: Travel for the Mil­lions.

Prof Dimitrios Buhalis on ‘overtourism’ and the ‘democratisation of tourism’

February 29, 2024
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Professor Dimitrios Buhalis on the ‘democratisation of tourism’ vs ‘overtourism’ ... “[T]here is no such thing as overtourism!”

There’s always a ten­sion between rights and respons­ib­il­it­ies; the prom­ise of free­dom for one­self and the poten­tial to infringe upon oth­ers.  This is play­ing out in debates about travel & tour­ism, and about what ‘pro­gress’ looks like.  For Dimitri­os Buhal­is, prag­mat­ic prob­lem-solv­ing is key to achiev­ing win-win out­comes … for the bil­lions who won’t be denied […]

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Posted in Insights & Best Practices, Insight Interviews
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Prof Julio Aramberri on freedom, progress, and academia’s ‘scissors crisis’

February 20, 2024

Julio Aramberri. Picture (c) by Antonio Heredia for an 'El Mundo' article, May 22, 2020. https://www.elmundo.es/opinion/2020/05/22/5ec7cd5f21efa0e55b8b45b0.html

Julio Ara­m­berri reck­ons con­tem­por­ary tour­ism aca­demia tends to focus on either “point­less prag­mat­ism” or “shrill reproof”; the excesses of ‘Right’ and ‘Left’. But ‘pro­gress’ is nuanced and can be poin­ted to in amus­ing ways: “Little could Marx ima­gine that the wish­ful ‘work­ers of all lands, unite’ carved in his Highg­ate grave would come true … […]

Read More Prof Julio Aramberri on freedom, progress, and academia’s ‘scissors crisis’
Posted in Insights & Best Practices, Insight Interviews
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Prof Michael Hall on inspirations, fears, and tourism studies’ legitimacy problem

January 25, 2024

Prof Michael Hall on inspirations, fears, and tourism studies’ legitimacy problem. He reckons there's "probably less genuine debate than ever before" in tourism studies.

There is much to fear about the future of travel, accord­ing to Michael Hall, includ­ing the risks that attend its growth, and the rise of intol­er­ance. He also wor­ries about a lack of “genu­ine debate” in tour­ism stud­ies.  Pro­fess­or Hall par­ti­cip­ated in a Tourism’s Hori­zon Inter­view. For this “Good Tour­ism” Insight, Jim Butcher sum­mar­ises the highlights. […]

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Posted in Insights & Best Practices, Insight Interviews
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Prof Greg Richards on academic silos, localism, overtourism, and modernity

November 13, 2023

Prof Greg Richards took part in the Tourism's Horizon Interviews and spoke about academic silos, localism, overtourism, and modernity

Greg Richards thinks more of us should lift our gaze from our nar­row aca­dem­ic, busi­ness, and loc­al con­cerns. We should scan the hori­zons of what we (think we) know, and try harder to under­stand the prim­or­di­al instinct we have to travel and the human incent­ives that drive the tour­ism industry.  Pro­fess­or Richards is the subject […]

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Posted in Insights & Best Practices, Insight Interviews
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Was this the European summer of terrible tourists? Give us a break, media!

September 26, 2023
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Was this the European summer of terrible tourists? Give us a break! Surrealist representation of a terrible tourist by DALL-E.

“Hordes” and “swarms” of tour­ists “forced through a well-oiled fun­nel” to “crawl” through our cher­ished spaces, releg­at­ing them to “back­drops” for selfies. Per­haps we should tell them to “go home” and “stay away” from our “per­fect places”. Is this the scape­goat­ing pro­pa­ganda of a para­noid author­it­ari­an state? No, it’s just media por­tray­als of ter­rible tourists. […]

Read More Was this the European summer of terrible tourists? Give us a break, media!
Posted in Insights & Best Practices, "Good Tourism" in Europe
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What is ‘Tourism’s Horizon: Travel for the Millions’?

and May 24, 2023

What is Tourism’s Horizon: Travel for the Millions? Image by Pierre-Laurent Durantin (CC0) via Pixabay.

I star­ted Tour­is­m’s Hori­zon: Travel for the Mil­lions very recently. But what is it? Per­haps a bet­ter ques­tion is: “Who are Tour­is­m’s Hori­zon: Travel for the Mil­lions?” We are a diverse range of people, from aca­demia, journ­al­ism, and industry who share a love of hol­i­days and a desire to optim­ist­ic­ally explore the eco­nom­ic and cul­tur­al advantages […]

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Posted in "GT" Partner messages, Tourism's Horizon: Travel for the Millions
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