Prof Richard Butler on tourism’s challenges and academia’s inadequacies
As most travel & tourism stakeholders rush towards an uncertain future filled with very real challenges, Richard Butler worries that academia is losing itself down ideological alleyways and critical cul-de-sacs.
The creator of Butler’s Tourism Area Life Cycle (TALC) model thinks it is important for tourism researchers and educators to check in with reality.
Prof Butler participated in a Tourism’s Horizon Interview. For this “Good Tourism” Insight, the interviewer David Jarratt summarises the highlights.
Contents
- Who is Professor Richard Butler?
- The challenges facing tourism and the inadequacies of academia
- Academia’s wishful thinking during COVID-19 …
- … and scapegoating of ‘overtourism’
- Overtourism and the Tourism Area Life Cycle (TALC)
- Condescension in tourism discourse
- Academics need a reality check
- What do you think?
- About the author
- About the Tourism’s Horizon Interviews
Who is Professor Richard Butler?
Richard Butler is Emeritus Professor of Tourism at Strathclyde University, Scotland and he worked for many years at the University of Western Ontario, Canada.
His primary areas of research encompass destination development, sustainability, tourism’s role in war and political change, indigenous tourism, and the dynamics of tourism in peripheral areas.
Beyond academia, Dr Butler has served as a consultant for numerous agencies, governments, and the United Nations World Tourism Organisation. In recognition of his outstanding contributions, he was honoured with the UNWTO Ulysses medal in 2016 for “excellence in the creation and dissemination of knowledge.”
Tourism lecturers and students most associate Richard with his Tourism Area Life Cycle Model (TALC), which must be the most recognised model in the field. TALC is one of the few tourism models to make it into high school curricula, such as the GCSE in the UK.
A new publication (in press via Channelview) will shed light on the contemporary relevance of TALC … Read the full “GT” Insight for free at The “Good Tourism” Blog.
