53 TOWARDS JUST TOURISM AND PRAXIS WITH EMPATHY AND CARE – Contributions by Tazi
53 TOWARDS JUST TOURISM AND PRAXIS WITH EMPATHY AND CARE – Contributions by Tazim Jamal
This essay is being written on a beautiful summer day in Victoria, British Columbia (Canada). The province has just chalked up an unprecedent heat wave and numerous wildfires rage in the province, obliterating the community of Lytton, B.C. while neighbouring provinces experience the worse air quality due to the smoke (https://www.vice.com/en/article/wx57qx/inspiring-canadas-air-quality-is-some-of-the-worst-in-the-world). But in this popular destination (Figures 1a, 1b), tourists are venturing tentatively forth during the COVID-19 pandemic (vaccines are now available), braving the delta variant and lifting of mask mandate by the provincial health authorities on Canada Day (July 1). I stopped at a local whale watching tour company where Liam (a pseudonym) explained how the business operated on carbon neutral principles, contributed a portion of tourist revenues to sustainable development projects, and endeavoured to facilitate ecosystem health through regenerative tourism, rather than merely sustaining the environment via sustainable tourism. Liam is an undergraduate student, his vision is inspiring for good tourism futures and hopefully to you too.
Figure 1a. Only a few resident orcas survive in the local waterways as the Pacific salmon they depend on are decimated. But tourists can still view transient (visiting) orcas on their marine tour. Why is the flag on the Empress at half-mast in early July, 2021? Photo credit: Tazim Jamal. July 9, 2021.
Figure 1b. Touristy scene in mid-July at the inner harbor of Victoria, B.C. (Canada). It’s business as usual, the Canadian flag back at full mast as the red flowerbed in front of Victoria’s House of Parliament blazes “WELCOME.” Photo credit: Tazim Jamal. July 19, 2021.
I shared my recent blog on regenerative tourism and just futures with Liam (https://goodtourismblog.com/2021/06/towards-a-new-paradigm-for-regenerative-tourism-and-just-futures/; see also Dredge, 2021). What does regenerative tourism mean? To Liam it seemed to mean being locally focused, restoring and improving ecological systems and the things it in, leaving the place healthier and more resilient, better than it was before. You as future women academics recognize, too, that his vision entails relationality—seeing the place and things in it in relation with each other and with the world. The tourist is a key actor in this relationality. Yet, how many tourists enjoying local seafood here understand the plight of the Pacific salmon? Or where that tasty fish on their plate came from? Was it certified as sustainably caught? Indeed, environmental literacy is and ought to be a key priority in marine and other eco-tours.
But is it just environmental literacy or would you agree that social literacy is crucial too? Should the visitor’s leisure hours also be troubled by learning about how tourism neocolonialism intersects with settler colonialism in this pretty des