‘Contemporary tourism mobilities: The geographies of lifestyle migration’

Second Call for Papers

AAG 2011 Seattle, WA, April 12-16, 2011 

Joint sponsored session by the AAG Recreation, Tourism and Sport Specialty Group and the ATLAS Special Interest Research Group in Tourism Geographies

It has been argued that tourism constitutes a form of leisure-oriented mobility and, as such, it is both shaped and contributes to the shaping of contemporary practices of consumption, production and lifestyle (see Hall et al., 2004). Tourism has significantly influenced the mapping of potential destinations for different forms of leisure-oriented mobility, such as second home ownership, amenity-seeking seasonal migration or international retirement migration and, also, contributed to the intensification of these forms of contemporary mobility in recent decades.   

An emerging thread of research on contemporary mobilities relates to lifestyle migration and the search for a better quality of life. Lifestyle migrants are often characterised as relative affluent and geographically mobile individuals who relocate, on a seasonal or permanent basis, to (traditionally) less affluent places trying to achieve a better (and more fulfilling) quality of life (see Benson and O’Reilly, 2009). Research on this field has explored the lives and lifestyle choices of these contemporary migrants by focusing on the context and trajectories of the migrants, the nexus between tourism and seasonal and/or permanent migration, the motivations and determinants of lifestyle migration, the migrants’ experiences and everyday lives and the implications for host and home communities.

 This session, co-sponsored by the Tourism Geographies Special Interest Group (SIG) of the Association of Tourism and Leisure Education (ATLAS), aims to bring together academics interested on the different forms and meanings of lifestyle migration, including (but not limited to) international retirement migration, second-home tourism, amenity-seeking and seasonal migration in order to discuss the implications and varied manifestations of leisure-oriented mobility in contemporary societies.

Papers are invited on (but not limited to) the following themes:

·         Contemporary forms of leisure-oriented mobility: methodological, theoretical and conceptual reflections

·         The trajectories and experiences of lifestyle migrants

·         The implications for host and home communities; planning and policy implications

·         Host-guests relationships

·         Tourism, migration and transnational leisured-lifestyles

·         Issues of gender, age, place, identity, class, nation and community in leisure-oriented mobility

·         International (seasonal and/or permanent) retirement migration

·         Impact of the global recession on lifestyle migration and residential tourism development

·         Leisure-oriented mobility and tourism renewal processes

·         Emerging and future directions for research on lifestyle migration

In addition to registering your abstract for the conference on the AAG website, please submit a copy to Maria A. Casado-Diaz ([log in to unmask]) and Alan Lew ([log in to unmask]) no later than 14^th October 2010.