In this presentation I reflect on the conceptualisation of the end of ‘traditional’ understandings of tourism from the perspective of the mobilities paradigm in terms of wider contemporary geopolitics. Contemporary tourism geographies research frequently involves the investigation of the various blurrings, connections and dis-connections of different types of mobilities. This also involves various immobilities - blockages, congestions, turbulences, frictions and disruptions which take place in specific places and which may develop and/or hinder tourism. The tourism imaginary is thus opened up in new ways and forms. Thus, on the one hand, some places have become focused on creating events, invoking utopian discourses in order to (re)vitalise certain spaces. On the other hand, geopolitical events have led to various re-bordering processes which has led to a rethinking of event spaces involving multiple governance assemblages and the stretching out of time and space. I consider the assemblages of geopolitical event mobilities in terms of trauma, transformation, and transition. I conclude that tourism geographies have an increased relevance to the study of the practical outcomes contemporary geopolitics by drawing upon my current work with the governments of Laos and Kyrgyzstan in the context of wider geopolitics.

Recent geographical work into volunteer tourism brings to the foreground the role of affect and emotions in the volunteering experience. Much of this work discusses the problematic ways that broader structural geo-political power relations shape the affective experiences of volunteers. Volunteers are often presented as complicit in perpetuating neoliberal and neo-colonial agendas. This paper seeks to move away from these binary analyses of encounters in volunteer tourism. Following on from Gibson (2010) I argue that research must have critical political agendas, yet also attend to the messy complexities that embodied encounters bring to academic analysis. Utilising two case studies of volunteer tourism in South America, I draw on theories of affect and emotion to complicate fixed ideas of power relations between volunteers and the local communities involved in volunteer tourism projects. I argue that these encounters are ambivalent, at once connected to neo-colonial legacies and neo-liberal agendas but also containing openings for co-constructed intercultural connections.

For peripheral rural regions in the developed world, tourism has often been viewed as a potential mechanism for economic development given their remoteness and seemingly untouched character in contrast with core urban areas. Drawing on core-periphery theory and the tourist area life cycle model, this presentation utilizes a historical case study approach to examine shifting core-periphery relationships and the evolution of tourism development in the Allegheny National Forest region (ANFR), USA starting with 1) the aftermath of the first industrial extraction stage from the mid-1800s-World War I which sent resources to core regional industrial cities such as Pittsburgh and Buffalo and subsequently welcomed initial visitors from them; 2) the post-World War II manufacturing boom in those core industrial cities that fuelled the growth in hunting camp and seasonal home developments for middle-class, blue-collar workers in the peripheral ANFR; 3) the post-1980 recession, deindustrialization, and decline of the Rust Belt tourist generating cities and the ANFR; to 4) the ANFR’s present challenges and reinvention. Like small islands investigated by Weaver (2017), the ANFR illustrates paradoxes beyond the narrative of persistent external dependency given its tourism centrality, opportunistic innovation, and distinctiveness in part due to old redundant peripheral values such as tradition.

This study examines the spatial linkage between natural amenities and tourism employment with regional spillover effects being taken into account under several neighbourhood structures. A main contribution is to contrast models where economic distance defines neighbouring regions with a model where spatial structure is defined by geographical proximity. The analysis identifies several important factors including cross regional spill overs exist; not only between neighbouring regions defined by geographical proximity, but between neighbouring regions defined by economical proximity. Internet penetration, population, the number of regional parks and State forests and protected areas, presence of World Heritage sites and railways and airports are found to be important drivers of regional spillover effects to neighbouring regions. This study uses data for the state of Queensland, Australia. However, the approach and conclusions can be extrapolated to similar resource rich economies.