Nicholas Wise

Transcending imaginations through football participation and narratives of the other: Haitian national identity in the Dominican Republic

Reflexive narratives aim to produce new knowledge regarding some social or cultural phenomena. This paper explores the Haitian national identity from the perspective of a volunteer tourist and football participant. Although football first arrived to the Dominican Republic prior to World War II, the games influence increased as Haitians moved across the national border that divides the island of Hispaniola. For Haitians, football distracts participants from feared social inequalities, while the field gives them presence, belonging, and a sense of being in place. Many Haitians reference football as their connection with home – and this connection unites the community. This work engages with notions of staging and performing identity to identify and acknowledge themes relative to being the other and out of place.

Strategic Guidelines for the Potential Geotourism Destination Titel Loess Plateau (Vojvodina Region, Serbia)

The link between protected areas and tourism is vital. This mutual relationship is complex, sometimes opposing, but tourism is always a critical component to consider when planning and managing protected areas, such as potential geoparks. Sustainable tourism practices in protected areas represent long-term commitments. Protected area planners and managers can do much to build a more constructive relationship with the tourism sector. Additionally, successes depend in part on actions taken by governments, for example, in updating legislation related to protected areas and tourism, or introducing economic incentives to encourage sustainable forms of tourism. Nonetheless, planners and managers play a critical role by working with a broad range of stakeholders; moreover, they can do much to ensure that tourism works for their protected area and for the people living within or nearby a geopark. Geotourism has been considered a form of niche tourism or special interest tourism, an actively growing tourism market. Vojvodina has several potential geotourism destinations—Titel Loess Plateau represents one example and is the focus of this commentary. This paper presents several strategic guidelines for planners, managers and other stakeholders for planning and managing the Titel Loess Plateau. This paper is considerate of sustainable tourism opportunities respective of local conditions and communities. This paper focuses on community practice and planning, implementing a management plan, and tourism services and infrastructure to guide suggestions for planning and managing the Titel Loess Plateau.

Special edition: Regeneration, enterprise, sport and tourism

The concept of regeneration is complex and is continually being debated in and across several disciplines (see Chalkley and Essex, 1999; Edgell and Swanson, 2013; Evans, 2001; Gratton and Henry 2001; Matheson, 2010; Smith, 2012; Spirou, 2010). In the UK and around the world, regeneration is a key strategy to develop new opportunities after a period of post-industrial decline (Garcia, 2005; Mooney, 2004; Richards and Palmer, 2010; Tallon, 2010; Waitt and Gibson, 2009). Many regeneration initiatives have attempted to utilise events based on sport and the promotion of tourism to achieve this goal (Getz, 2003; Raj and Musgrave, 2009; Smith, 2012; Weed, 2007), which has resulted in a range of new enterprise and entrepreneurial opportunities (Hall, 2006; Preuss, 2007). Latterly, the promotion of regeneration initiatives has been accompanied by public–private partnerships. In cities such as Glasgow, sport and tourism are central to contemporary regeneration efforts due to shifts in demand and consumption patterns (Garcia, 2005; Mooney, 2004). The year 2014 represented a significant year for Glasgow and Scotland with the hosting of the Commonwealth Games, Ryder Cup and the Scottish Homecoming, in addition to a range of other cultural events. The impacts of regeneration, investments and enterprise initiatives aim to achieve lasting impacts on the social and economic legacies of Glasgow as a sporting city and Scotland as an international destination. The purpose of this special issue is to bring together interdisciplinary approaches of regeneration in relation to enterprise, sport and tourism, independently or interdependently. The collection of papers presented here resulted from a two-day international workshop hosted by Glasgow Caledonian University, organised by Dr Nicholas Wise and Dr Geoff Whittam. Due to the already noted events occurring in Glasgow and Scotland, this international conference was timely. The two-day international workshop sought to analyse which current regeneration initiatives in the UK have proved to be ‘successful’, and to distil what lessons can be learnt from differing experiences, both in Scotland and internationally. The interdisciplinary nature of regeneration was the focus of the workshop

Sports Tourism, Regeneration and Social Impacts: New Opportunities and Directions for Research, the Case of Medulin, Croatia

Regeneration is often regarded as the process of renewal, or the redevelopment of existing facilities and infrastructures. Scholars who study regeneration and tourism developments often focus on new infrastructures and economic impacts. However, there is a need for more case-specific focused research addressing social impacts of regeneration to better determine how developments create opportunities for residents and local communities. This chapter focuses specifically on sports tourism-led regeneration in Medulin, Croatia (on the Istrian Peninsula). The purpose of this research is to contribute insight and perspective on sport tourism by conceptually outlining an approach to measure and examine social impacts in future research. In Medulin, sports tourism training facilities have existed since the 1970s, but recent developments completed in 2014 aim to attract more tourists and amateur/professional level sports clubs to further sustain tourism during the winter months. To identify directions for future research, we discuss a number of conditions specific to sports tourism, social impacts and regeneration.

Understanding the delivery of experience: Conceptualising business models and sports tourism, assessing two case studies in Istria, Croatia

Business models describe an organisations activities and how value is delivered to the customer. When it comes to sports tourism, value delivered to the guests takes the form of a sports experience. Indeed, attractive sports experiences have become products that require much effort to design, manage, and eventually sell. The aim of this paper is to investigate whether two cases, having access to similar key resources, could provide tourists with identical sports experiences. The focus will be on the linkage between customer value proposition, sports facilities, and processes as major building blocks of the business providing different sports experiences. A case study method was used for a holistic and in-depth analysis of how sports tourism experiences are delivered by looking at two existing case studies in Istria, Croatia. The concept of experience was used to analyse tennis experiences that these two cases offer to tourists. Data were gathered by observations on site and by qualitative semi-structured interviews with key sports managers and organisers in the case study companies. The research results indicate that despite different approaches, both companies provide its tourists with similar tennis experiences, and that some other variables, primarily features of a sports facility (in our case tennis courts) affect the type of an experience.

Maintaining Dominican identity in the Dominican Republic: Forging a baseball landscape in Villa Ascension

Much research concerning the Dominican Republic and baseball focuses on globalization. In acknowledging the importance of such research, this study contributes a particular understanding of sport in a rural heterogeneous community, by addressing landscape and place identity. Villa Ascension and Caraballo are adjacent rural communities in the northern Puerto Plata Province. Currently there exists one usable sports space, designated as a football field, where Haitian residents practice football. Although this landscape is representative of Haitian identity, this designation transcends common sporting landscapes in the Dominican Republic, where Haitians typically use baseball fields to recreate. Dominicans also use the football field for baseball, and have forged a baseball landscape in an attempt to maintain the presence of their sporting culture. Conceptual social-geographical perspectives of sense of place and staging/performing identity in the landscape are reinforced through participant observations and interviews/conversations with local Haitian and Dominican participants to support critical understandings in this particular locale.

Artistic Perceptions of Poles in London

ABSTRACT Since Poland joined the European Union in 2004 there has seen a surge in migration from Poland to the UK. There are believed to be approximately 550,000 Poles working and living in the UK seeking economic opportunities, and many are attracted specifically to London. This study offers a unique contribution to the migration literature by analysing artistic images that underscore themes pertinent to Polish migrants in London. Nineteen images are included in the analysis and all were produced by Polish students from the University of Arts in Poznan, Poland. The purpose of this analysis is to gain an understanding of how students in Poland perceive Poles currently working and living in London. Therefore, this study seeks knowledge produced through artwork associating transnational sentiment. The analysis critically reflects upon two emerged themes: (1) seeking economic opportunity (i.e. labour migration) and (2) forging presence in another locale (i.e. sense of place and communication difficulties). To further support interpretations and discussions pertaining to each theme, notions of in place/out of place are considered in accordance to discussions of geographical perception, transnational migration, and identity formation.

Headlining Dubrovnik's Tourism Image: Transitioning Representations/Narratives of War and Heritage Preservation 1991–2010

Abstract Dubrovnik became a premier resort destination while part of the former-Republic of Yugoslavia. On the 1st of October 1991, the Balkans War began in Dubrovnik casting a negative image and abruptly halted the tourism industry. This study presents a longitudinal analysis of the interplay between media presentations and war. The purpose of this paper is to identify transitions in newspaper headlines and associated textual content representing contextual narratives of Dubrovniks destination image. This work identifies periods of transition by locating changing representations of war and local preservation efforts in narratives and associated productions of Dubrovniks tourism image over a 20 year period, 1991ndash;2010. Headlines and content during the period of war display the unmaking of Dubrovniks tourism image. After the siege of Dubrovnik, locals were quick to respond; however tourism did not recover immediately because of the continuation of war in the immediate region. The Dayton Peace Accord ended the war in neighboring Bosnia and Herzegovina and thus commenced the remaking of Dubrovniks tourism image. Focuses on Dubrovnik by the mid-1990s began to show transitions, as newspaper content clearly divided then (the period of war) and now (post-war). In the final section, wars image has faded, but locals are concerned that overdevelopment, similar to war, will erode semblances of Dubrovniks heritage.

Community, identity and contested notions of place: a study of Haitian recreational soccer players in the Dominican Republic

Soccer is a sport not commonly associated with the Dominican Republic given the positioning of baseball as the national game. Yet, for some migrant groups in the country, such as those from Haiti, soccer plays an important part in their lives. Haitians have used soccer as a way to unite their communities and establish a sense of place. This paper assesses how these Haitian migrants use the game as a means of creating a community and developing a common focal point. Through participant observations and semi-structured interviews, this work may help us construct new understandings of the ways in which migrants use sport to assimilate to new surroundings and retain links to home.

Online portrayals of volunteer tourism in Nepal: Exploring the communicated disparities between promotional and user-generated content

Purpose – This study aims to contribute perspective into how user-generated content (UGC) can be found to reinforce, or challenge, the commercial promotion of volunteer tourism in Nepal. Volunteer tourism is an expanding alternative niche market spanning the globe. More understanding is needed to identify potential conflicts that may arise in relation to information communicated via official promotional materials from volunteer tourism organisation websites and from UGC on sites such as TripAdvisor. Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative content analysis of websites and online UGC gathered from identified promotional websites and TripAdvisor used to inform and persuade tourists was analysed. Findings – Three themes emerged from the analysis of promotional websites: perspective outcomes of volunteerism on locals and VolunTourists, requirements of participating volunteers and the ability of volunteer organisations to effectively meet expectations. The TripAdvisor forum content is broken down into two m...