New Zealand Tourism & Hospitality Research Conference 2008

Re-creating Tourism

3rd – 5th December 2008, Hanmer Springs, Canterbury, New Zealand

At the start of the 21st century tourism faces numerous challenges and opportunities as the world undergoes a growing list of seemingly dramatic changes such as climate change, environmental and ecosystem degradation, ‘peak oil’; rapid economic transformation; the rise of new markets, the emergence of national security and bio-security concerns and the creation and proliferation of new technologies.

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Hanmer bungee

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Hanmer bungee

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The net effect of this potent mix will be the constant re-creation of tourism. Researchers and industry stakeholders share a pressing need to focus on both the variety of these rapid changes and their actual and potential interconnections. What is required are new ways to think about how tourism might be re-created to adapt to this challenging set of factors in productive and sustainable ways.

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Hanmer Springs 4

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For this reason it is timely that this conference’s theme is ‘Re-creating Tourism’. That theme, however, is not just about tourism being re-made by other factors. The challenge is also to understand how tourism is re-creating environments, places, people, communities, economies, societies and cultures. As an agent of change its effects can be unpredictable and unintentional as well as being either positive or negative.

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Hanmer Springs 4

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The theme also concerns tourists themselves who, classically, re-create and restore themselves through travel. It includes the staff, managers and tourism business owners who are vital to any adaptive response to the challenges posed. The role of tourism in personal and social re-creation and the new demands these challenges place on the people involved in meeting tourists’ needs therefore adds further nuance to the phrase ‘Re-Creating Tourism’.

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Hanmer in snow

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All facets of this theme are to be found in the conference venue of Hanmer Springs in Canterbury (http://www.hanmersprings.co.nz/). The recent past has seen a re-creation of the town and the region beyond. Linked historically with tourism, it has in recent years been rapidly expanding and exploring the possibilities tourism now has to offer. With its increasingly popular hot pools development and status, the surplus of outdoor recreational and adventure opportunities on its doorstep and its close proximity to Canterbury’s developing wine regions, Hanmer is a startling example of a place re-creating and being re-created by tourism.

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Hanmer in snow

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Submissions for full, refereed papers, working papers and conference presentations are invited on the following sub-themes within the overall conference theme:

• Climate change, carbon emissions and tourism
• Environmental and ecosystem degradation
• 'Peak Oil'
• Tourism transport
• National and global economic changes
• The rise of new markets
• National security
• Biosecurity
• Creation and spread of new technologies
• Destination communities and tourism
• Tourist behaviour, values and motivation
• Tourism industry/destination experiences
• Emergent forms of tourism
• Space tourism
• Spa and health tourism
• Planning for tourism in the 21st century
• Workforce changes and challenges
• Re-creating tourism management.

For further information regarding submissions contact

Michelle Colling
Environment, Society & Design Division
Phone: 325 2811
Ext 8744
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To express your interest in attending contact:

Sara Russell
Conference secretariat
Phone: 325 2811
Ext 8955
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it