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A group of 35 international experts from across to the globe will come together at Stellenbosch University (SU) from 5-8 September 2010 to discuss the relationship between tourism and development in the context of economic crisis and global change.
The Global Change and Economic Crisis in Tourism conference will be held at the Wallenberg Centre at the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Studies (STIAS) in Stellenbosch and will be opened on Sunday evening by Minister Alan Winde, the MEC for Finance, Economic Development and Tourism in the Western Cape.
“This is the first time that the International Geographical Union’s (IGU) Commission of Tourism, Leisure and Global Change is hosting a conference here and it is an honour and privilege for us to welcome delegates of such high calibre to our shores. One of the main topics, tourism development, is of particular relevance not only to the Western Cape, but also to South Africa and Africa as a whole. It is my sincere hope that discussions at this conference would culminate in benefits for our beautiful destination in the near future,” says Minister Winde.
World-renowned geographers and international leaders in the field of tourism research, Prof Tim Coles and Prof Michael Hall, will each present keynote papers on The shape of things to come: tourism development in ‘post recessionary’ conditions and Financial crises in tourism and beyond: Connecting economic, resource and environmental securities respectively. (Read more about Profs Hall and Coles in the attached documents.)
Across the world, from Europe to the Middle East, the tourism industry is facing a downturn as the fallout from the economic recession hits both developed and developing countries. In addition, citizens across the world are realising the impact that crises such as this and recent events like the Icelandic volcano ash plume, which led to the grounding of thousands of passengers across the world, can have on the tourism market. However, tourism is also having increasing impacts on the environment and regional and local development.
These issues, amongst others, are just some of the topics to be discussed during the conference which is organised by the Geography and Environmental Studies Department at SU and the Geography Department at the University of the Free State (UFS) on behalf of the International Geographical Union’s (IGU) Commission of Tourism, Leisure and Global Change.
The objective of the Commission is to promote a geographical study of tourism and to develop an internationally comparable research programme on the relationships between tourism, leisure and global change jointly with the members of the commission and other research and education organisations. The Commission has approximately 650 members in over 80 countries.
In addition, the participants will also focus on issues such as global environmental change, changing tourist behaviour and preferences, the roles and potential of tourism for development, sustainability in tourism and relations between tourism, environment and broad global processes of change at different levels of analysis, highlighting different types of “crises”.
According to Prof Sanette Ferreira, Associate Professor in the Geography and Environmental Studies Department at SU and one of the organisers of the conference, this is also the first time the IGU`s Commission will hold one of its conferences in South Africa.
“Scholarship in South Africa regarding tourism has increased considerably over the last few years thanks to people like Prof Chris Rogerson from the School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand, Prof Gustav Visser from the Geography Department at the University of the Free State, Prof Kamilla Swart, the Head of the Centre for Tourism Research in Africa at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, and Prof Ronnie Donaldson and myself here at Stellenbosch University,” says Prof Ferreira.
“This conference will also be interesting because we will be looking at issues that impact on the tourism industry from the perspective of the southern hemisphere,” she says.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
