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Current Issues in Tourism: Special Issue on "animals in the tourism and leisure experience"

 

Guest editor: Dr Neil Carr (Department of Tourism, University of Otago, P.O. Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand. Email: [log in to unmask])

 

Call for papers

 

Animals may be divided into wildlife, domesticated farm and working animal, pet, companion animal, and assistance animal categories. Increasingly, each of these types of creature plays a key role, both as attractions for human beings and consumers of experiences, in the construction and success of tourism and leisure environments. This increase in the importance of animals in the tourism and leisure experience is related to changing patterns in humans' leisure and tourism desires, the changing relationship between humans and animals, and the evolution of concepts concerning the rights of animals. The growth in the interest of leisured people and tourists in animals has been reflected in the expansion of publications focused on 'wildlife' tourism and leisure, incorporating the hunting of these animals for trophies (ranging from the whole animal, to part of it, and the taking of photographs) and the education of tourists and leisured people about the importance and needs of wildlife. This work has been split between zoos and other areas where wildlife has been enclosed, predominantly in locations removed from the natural habitats of the wildlife, and nature-based tourism. However, the position of other segments of the animal population in tourism and leisure experiences remains largely under-studied. Furthermore, there is a need to integrate developing theories of animal rights within the framework of tourism and leisure experiences that have traditionally been designed to cater to the desires of the human population, utilising animals as products rather than sentient creatures with individual 'rights' and 'needs' in the process. 

 

Consequently, to expand the current understanding of the position of animals, both wild and domesticated, in tourism and leisure experiences and the rights of humans and animals in these experiences Current Issues in Tourism presents a special issue on "animals in the tourism and leisure experience". This special issue will contribute to the development of conceptual/theoretical models concerning the relationship between tourists, leisured people, the tourism and leisure industry, and animals. These models will aid the construction of management strategies that ensure the rights and health of animals and humans in the leisure and tourism experiences.

 

The guest editor invites interested researchers to contribute theoretical and/or empirical papers related to the theme of this special issue. The topics of potential manuscripts include, but are not limited to:

 

*	Preservation of animals and their environments through tourism and leisure
*	The role of zoos as tourist and leisure attractions and centres of ecological education
*	The presence of animals in tourism and leisure environments
*	The relation between gastronomic tourism/leisure and the quality of life of farm animals
*	The social, health, and economic costs and benefits of domestic animals in the leisure and tourism experience for humans
*	Hunting within the tourism and leisure experience; the rights of animals versus the needs of humans
*	The changing role of the farm animal in the context of rural tourism - from food product to tourist attraction
*	What happens when human pleasures and animal needs meet

 

Submission Guidelines

1.	In the first instance authors are invited to submit a 300 word abstract for consideration for the special issue. Selected authors will then be asked to produce a full paper based on their abstract
2.	In addition to the submission guidelines associated with full papers for Current Issues in Tourism (which can be found at www.currentissuesintourism.com/submissions.html) the following guidelines should be followed:
3.	Electronic submissions should be sent by e-mail attachment to [log in to unmask]
4.	Ideally, papers should be sent as Microsoft Word files
5.	Articles should normally be between 5,000 and 25,000 words in length. Please note that Current Issues in Tourism especially welcomes substantive papers of between 15,000 and 25,000 words in length.
6.	All submissions will be anonymously reviewed by two independent assessors.

 

Important Dates:

Abstract deadline: 31st September 2007

Submission of full paper deadline: 30th June 2008

Special issue publication: December 2008/February 2009