153 Letter from Marion Joppe
Dear women tourism researchers of the future,
Tourism has been my life – literally – for 50 years since I was still in high school when I decided this is what I wanted to study. At the time, there was not a single university program in tourism in Canada (the closest was Recreation and Leisure Studies, which I pursued) and everyone thought I wanted to be a travel agent! Turns out I was actually the first Canadian to hold a doctoral degree in tourism, although I had to go abroad to obtain it. Blame my parents, who were inveterate travellers, and exposed me early to different countries and cultures, awakening a desire to learn about destination policy and planning, as we would call it today. I did not have the words in those early years and hence no clear path to achieve what I wanted. The result was a lot of twists and turns in my career path, none of which I regret. Moving through positions in the travel trade, financial institutions and government – always centered on tourism – has given me a breadth and depth of understanding this phenomenon from different perspectives that has made me a better teacher and researcher, even if many academics would consider this as having wasted time as I did not enter academia until 12 years after having completed the PhD. It is this experience that leads to the four pieces of advice I have to give you:
- Seize every opportunity to gain international experience. There is no better way to understand the global phenomenon of tourism than by spending time in different countries, whether in academia or in the industry. Holidays are nice but much too short to gain any type of appreciation of the local realities, how tourism is experienced and what the potentialities for improving the quality of life of the local population might be. This requires time and immersion in the local culture. If you can, take at least one advanced degree on another continent to get you out of your comfort zone and see your field of study through a different lens. But be prepared that, depending on the culture, being a woman can come with many challenges. Sometimes you will be treated as someone fragile that needs protecting, other times you will be (politely) ignored or sidelined. Travelling on your own can also lead to unwanted attention, so be smart about the choices you make. Ultimately, what you gain will far outweigh these negatives.
- Appreciate the value of industry experience. Unless you have your heart set on senior administration in academia or teaching in the social sciences, industry experience is invaluable in an applied field like tourism. It doesn’t matter very much which branch you choose as long as you’re willing to observe customers, peers and managers and reflect on what you are seeing. Even the most mundane job can provide great insights that help you understand consumer behaviour as well as how workplaces can be improved while still generating profits for the organization. It allows you to r