Emily Höckert

Negotiating Hospitality: Ethics of Tourism Development in the Nicaraguan Highlands

How do hosts and guests welcome each other in responsible encounters? This book addresses the question in a longitudinal ethnographic study on tourism development in the coffee- cultivating communi ...

Unlearning through Hospitality

It is an early November morning when we meet at the bus station in Matagalpa, a mountainous town in the highlands of Nicaragua two to three hours north-east of the capital city of Managua. I am happy to see how many of my Nicaraguan colleagues have been able to come. We have all stood at this station before, waiting for the bus that passes through the little farming town of San Ramon. The younger tourism scholars, Idania, Monica, Danilo and Claudia, tell about their recent visits to the four tourism communities on the coffee-growing hillsides of San Ramon. They are currently writing their final thesis for their university degree, and the research assignment includes assessment and analysis of tourism development in this area. They point out that the fieldwork has been more challenging than they expected, for they have received no more than a lukewarm welcome from the locals, and even otherwise active members of the community have tried to avoid being interviewed.