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Social Tourism has gained wide recognition for the benefits it brings to citizens who would otherwise not be able to participate in tourism. Social tourism also delivers benefits to the tourism industry, to destinations and to provide a positive return on investment for governments. However, whilst policy makers extol the virtues of social tourism, programmes have struggled to remain resilient under pressure on public finances caused by the Global Financial Crisis. This paper reviews the contributions of social tourism to sustainable tourism, critically assesses their potential to drive sustainable tourism in the future and makes recommendations for European policy makers.

In this article we discuss the positioning of ethnographers in anthropological research on tourism, and the wider implications in terms of meaningful collection and interpretation of fieldwork data. Our reflections emerge from researches in two different touristic contexts: from detailed, enduring participant observation of informal encounters between locals and tourists in Cuba, to the intermittent, snap-shot participant observation at a mass participation football game held over two days each year in the UK. The focus of our discussion will be on the ways in which we were both primarily framed by the subjects of our research, and on the dynamics and subsequent tensions arising out of attempts to breach and negotiate these tropes, to manoeuvre between shifting standpoints and subjectivities. We consider the kinds of relationships we could establish with our informants and how these (often transient) relationships give us access to differing realities and interpretations. We discuss how these issues restrained/enabled our research, while also raising some ethical dilemmas related to covertness/overtness, reciprocity, and competing obligations towards our informants. Adapted from the source document.

Recent findings from social tourism research and evidence from its practice have shown that social tourism has multiple benefits, both for individual participants and host-communities within destinations. The latter in particular have been acknowledged by the European Union and have been included in its recent sustainable tourism policy. Yet, there are a limited number of studies that have attempted to explicate the close linkages between social tourism and sustainable development, and to inform public policy. This paper aims to do so with specific reference to Greek social tourism programmes. Drawing upon development theory, specifically sustainable development, and sustainable tourism research in particular, the study builds an argument for the potential of social tourism to act as a stabilising force in the Greek tourism system, contributing to the achievement of sustainability outcomes for host-communities. In doing so, the paper makes tangible policy recommendations, which are also timely, given the current socioeconomic environment that has been shaped in Greece, across Europe, and elsewhere, since the 2008 crisis.

3Social Tourism Today: Stakeholders, and Supply and Demand FactorsAnya Diekmann, Scott McCabe and Lynn Minnaert; An Explanatory Framework for the Common Organisational Structure of Social Tourism in Europe; Figure 3.1 The common organisational structure for European social tourism; Unpacking the Demand for Social Tourism; Social Tourism Systems; Figure 3.2 Social tourism provision structures; Intermediary Organisations; Commercial and Social Tourism: An Ambivalent Relationship; Developing Unified Social Tourism Implementation Schemes; Conclusions; Case Study 3: Family Holiday Association.

Recent policy from the European Union has attempted to justify social tourism initiatives on the basis that they lead to a more sustainable tourism industry. However, the majority of latest research in the field has been focused on the benefits for participants, with the addition of some evidence on the economic impacts of such programmes on destinations, which have pointed towards sustainability outcomes including: a longer tourism season, more even spread of demand, and longer periods of employment for tourism workers. Yet there is a lack of direct evidence linking such programme to these outcomes. This paper aimed to explore this important disconnect between policy assumptions and evidence-based outcomes through an analysis of the deseasonalising effects of the Spanish social tourism programme for older people. The research found that this programme does have an effect on the seasonal nature of employment and economic activity in most regions studied, but that the huge volume of demand from international tourists in the high seasons masks the quantitative effects in the regions with the highest seasonal concentration of international tourists. Recommendations for policy and practice in sustainable tourism are made that are transferable to many countries and regions that adopt social tourism programmes.

Tourism has multiple economic benefits for host countries that receive tourists. Policy makers are becoming more and more aware of the importance that appropriate tourism management has to maximise the benefits that tourism flows can bring. However, many developing countries suffer from a lack of an integrated tourism policy. Particular issues are faced in those countries that are dealing with local conflicts (sometimes over many years). These countries often lack investment in tourism resources even though they might have a huge potential and are rich in heritage and cultural assets. Conflict always changes the priorities of nations, and poses many challenges to the policy, and management for developing tourism as a viable economic sector. Post-conflict areas have barriers to tourism development, such as poor or damaged infrastructure, lack of services, low investment, political instability, a need to maximize revenue income, and the lack of planned tourism management. A current example of such a conflict area is Kurdistan. In 2013, the number of tourists were 2,952 027, yet in 2014 and 2015 the number had decreased to 1529434 and 1117501 respectively (General Board of Tourism, Kurdistan Regional Government, 2016). In addition, as a result of popular uprisings that occurred across the Middle East, there was a decline of 8% in tourism growth in these destination regions during 2011 (UNWTO, 2012). There is much research about cultural tourism management issues, challenges, sustainability, but there is a lack of studies undertaken to know how post-conflict issues interact or change or the effects of emergent situations on cultural and heritage tourism planning and management. Kurdistan, which is largely defined as a northern region of modern Iraq, can be considered one of the longest conflict areas since the end of World War 1, and has suffered from neglect of investment in its economic infrastructure over many decades. After the new Kurdistan self-governing region was recognised officially by the Iraqi government in 2003, there has been a sharp increase in the number of tourism arrivals, in particular, in last ten years, due to its location, climate and heritage. Tourism is seen as an important economic sector in Kurdistan and specifically leisure tourism. However, there is still wide scope to increase tourism in Kurdistan based on its diversity of cultures and cultural heritage sites. The UN World Tourism Organization estimated that cultural tourism currently accounts for 37% of the aggregate tourism in the world (Boyd, 2002; McKercher and Cross, 2002). Such potentially profitable tourism resources in Kurdistan has been neglected so far for the purpose of tourism. This paper aims to fill this gap and explore potentials and issues for developing cultural tourism in post conflict areas and in new autonomous regions such as Kurdistan, and to understand what cultural tourist strategy should be designed and implemented to develop tourism sector in Kurdistan to be successful, competitive and sustainable. By looking of the perspective of different stakeholders in Kurdistan, the study can understand the challenges and opportunities in developing cultural tourism in post conflict areas. The paper reports data from a series of focus groups conducted with residents and tourist, and in-depth interviews with policy makers and tourism experts in Erbil, Kurdistan, in 2015.

Purpose - The aim of this study is to explore how senior managers of independent hotels perceive the notion of CSR through a holistic analysis of motivations of undertaking both social and environmental initiatives.Design/methodology/approach – This study conducts qualitative interviews with 22 Malaysian senior hotel managers together with ethnographic observations.Findings - Emergent themes show that CSR is a dynamic concept involving complex struggles and trade-offs between fulfilling business objectives, paying heed to personal ethical values and considering cultural norms when making decisions regarding the adoption of a range of environmental and social initiatives.Research limitations/implications - Our study contributes to legitimacy theory by highlighting that, in the absence of pressure from key stakeholders for responsible initiatives, managers still proactively engage in CSR initiatives. More surprising still is that they set expectations instead of simply aligning or responding to the key stakeholders' pre-set demands. Meanwhile, the uniqueness, size and purposeful selection of the sample, limit the applicability of the findings to wider geographical and cultural locations.Practical implications – While Malaysian hotel managers are willing to employ CSR practices to demonstrate their commitment to their employees as well as the local communities where they operate, it is equally important that they utilize other media (such as their websites or social media) for both promotional and legitimacy building purposes. Within the context of growing tourism for economic development, the Malaysian government can develop more effective strategies, rewards or incentives for encouraging businesses to undertake and improve CSR adoption for sustainability of this industry.Originality/value - By extending the scope of CSR studies beyond firm performance issues, we attempt to show the wider set of motivations and contexts considered important in determining hotel engagement in CSR programs.

Frontmatter -- Acknowledgements -- Contents -- 1 Introduction: Working for the (hu)man in the tourism industry -- Part 1: Theoretical considerations -- 2 Conceptualizing non-human animals as "workers" within the tourism industry -- 3 Redefining the work of working animals in the tourism industry: An animal-centric reflection -- 4 Working donkeys in northwestern Mexico: Urban identity and tourism resources -- 5 Animal dark tourism in Mexico: Bulls performing their own slaughter -- 6 Farm animals' participation in tourism experiences: A time for proper respect -- Part 3: Value-added work -- 7 Animals as tourism stakeholders: Huskies, reindeer, and horses working in Lapland -- 8 Distributed leadership in tourism experiences: Russian sled dogs and Icelandic horses leading the way -- 9 A working holiday: From home to destination with a guide dog -- 10 The donkeys of Santorini: Workers or slaves? -- Part 4: Hidden labor -- 11 Monkey see, monkey do: The work of primates in Costa Rican sanctuaries -- 12 The greening of polar bears: Lively commodities in a climate change economy -- 13 "Cute, but get up and work!": The biophilia hypothesis in tourists' linguistic interactions with pandas -- 14 Working animal research: An agenda for the future -- 15 Afterword: On tourism, animals, and suffering – lessons from Aeschylus' Oresteia -- List of contributors -- List of figures -- Index