Hans Hopfinger

German Perspectives on Tourism Geography

Abstract This chapter aims to familiarize the reader with some of the important aspects of tourism geography in the German-speaking countries. It starts with a primarily historical-genetic perspective on tourism development and the theoretical traditions associated with them. The second section describes the structure of the discipline, with a focus on the institutionalization of the field in the universities including their research specialization. The chapter maintains that tourism geography plays a marginal role compared with other subdisciplines of geography, though this is reflected primarily in its institutionalization and less so in the research undertaken. The last section deals with the current challenges and future prospects in German-speaking geographies of tourism from a problem-centered perspective.

Zur Konstruktion von urbanen Identitäten im Migrationskontext: Diskurse in Städten und über Raum

In the context of guidelines, support programmes and aims, urban districts and quarters play an important role. They are important, too, for the process of defining identity. Urban districts with a high percentage of people with a foreign nationality receive particular focus here. Building and designing public space is often used as an instrument for supporting integration and multicultural understanding.

Volunteer Tourism – Gut(es tun) für den Lebenslauf?

Zusammenfassung Volunteer Tourism, d. h. die Verschmelzung von Tourismus und dem Engagement in Freiwilligenorganisationen, erfreut sich in den letzten Jahren nicht nur sprunghaften Interesses bei jungen Erwachsenen in vielen Ländern des Westens, sondern auch wachsender wissenschaftlicher Aufmerksamkeit. Dabei steht oft die Motivation der Freiwilligen stärker als die tatsächliche Wertigkeit für den Berufseinstieg im Fokus. Der vorliegende Forschungsbericht nimmt sich auf der konzeptionellen Grundlage der Bourdieu’schen Kapitalformen der Frage nach den kurz- und langfristigen Effekten für die Teilnehmer an. Die auf leitfaden-gestützten Interviews mit unterschiedlichen Akteuren basierenden Ergebnisse zeigen, dass es zwischen Freiwilligen, Anbietern und potenziellen Arbeitgebern zu Brüchen hinsichtlich der verschiedenen Kapitalformen kommt, insbesondere bei der Interpretation und späteren Inwertsetzung von kulturellem Kapital. Insgesamt trägt der vorliegende Bericht somit zur differenzierteren Betrachtung des vielgestaltigen Phänomens „Volunteer Tourism“ bei. Summary Volunteer tourism describes the melting of tourism and the involvement in volunteering organizations. During the last years, these phenomena have gained wide-spread popularity among many young adults in western countries, as well as increased scientific attention. Most contributions focus on volunteers’ motivations rather than the value of volunteering for their careers. This report is based on P. Bourdieu’s notions of capital and deals with the short- and long-term effects for the participants. The results are based on guided interviews with different types of experts and highlight the various contradictions regarding the interpretation of the different forms of capital. This is especially true for the interpretation of cultural capital. All in all, this report seeks to contribute to a more differentiated view on the varied and complex phenomenon of volunteer tourism.

Tourism as a Key Topic in Small-Scale Regional Development Processes

Small-scale regional development processes, such as local groups funded by the EU-program LEADER and similar programs on national and sub-national levels, have become a successful and generally accepted form of modern, integrated rural development. Since the start of those programs in the early 1990s, a growing number of local and regional development initiatives have been established to develop their regions. The crucial questions – what fields of interest to address and what projects to undertake – have to be answered by those organizations on their own. Following a bottom-up approach, these issues are not prescribed by top-down regulations but have to be generated by discussions with and suggestions from local stakeholders. Our paper takes a look at the role of tourism as a general topic of those small-scale regional development processes. It examines two regional development programs in the German federal state of Bavaria, which cover 84 local initiatives. Using qualitative data, we give an overview about the development strategies and projects undertaken. It turns out that tourism is one of the most important fields of action in integrated regional development. There is hardly any initiative that does not consider tourism and/or leisure as one of its main areas of activities. A big share of the projects carried out in the development programs observed has direct or indirect connections to tourism. All in all, tourism manifests as a key topic for endogenous regional development. Inspired by the deliberations on strategic decision making in tourism – often addressed by Peter Keller among many others – we change the perspectives a bit and take a look on the character of tourism as a strategic choice within local development organizations.