Stephen Schweinsberg

The Papacy refers to ‘the office and jurisdiction of the Pope (Latin papa, from Greek pappas ‘father’), who presides over the Holy See (the central government) of the Roman Catholic Church’ (Encycl...

Over the last decade, tourism academia has been increasingly characterised as working in a knowledge domain that is sociologically framed. To date, however, there has been no explicit consideration in the literature as to whether and how an academic’s spiritual and/ or religious beliefs should influence their engagement with knowledge formation. Drawing on Barkathunnisha et al.’s article “Towards a spirituality-based platform in tourism higher education” published in Current Issues in Tourism that proposed the notion of the 7th platform of tourism knowledge based on spirituality and the underlying four pillars – a spirit of knowing; a spirit of doing; a spirit of being; and a spirit of becoming – this exploratory paper will seek to propose some preliminary thoughts on some of the challenges and opportunities that a belief in spirituality and religion might have for tourism academia. Drawing on autobiographical insights from the author’s own Christian faith, the paper concludes by discussing issues that the tourism academy will have to face in order to find ways to bring such a spiritual/ religious perspective into the formulation of tourism knowledge .

The opposite of a big truth is also a big truth (Niels Bohr)

This letter to the editor has been written in response to Benjamin et al. and Gard-McGehee’s discussion around the need for system reform in the tourism academy. Recognizing the diversity of opinions that exist around the future of the tourism academy, this paper challenges tourism scholars to approach academic reform through a spirit of civility. The polarization of the tourism academy has led to change often being viewed through an adversarial lens—it is us versus them. But who is “us” and who is “them”? We reflect on this issue and with reference to civility challenge members of the academy to reflect on how they can respect the inherent dignity of every academic, whilst recognizing that academics have a responsibility to pursue their own academic freedom in a way that is respectful of their relationship to the wider academy.

Religious tourism is one of the most longstanding forms of leisure related travel in the world with a history dating back to antiquity. However, there has been a hesitation amongst many tourism scholars to critically assess the role of ancient religious texts to understand the attitudes and behaviours of religious tourists and tourism destinations. With reference to literature on oral traditions, the aim of this exploratory paper is to critically consider the insights that can be derived from the Christian Bible for the management and scholarly understanding of contemporary religious tourism. This paper suggests that Christianity’s oral traditions and their ensuing written representation in the Bible provide an important means of understanding religion ‘as lived’ in the ancient world. Religious tourists are often driven by a pilgrim’s mentality to tread in the footsteps of the first apostles and other religious leaders. From a historical perspective, the oral formulation of the New Testament and its subsequent influence on the formation of the Bible as a religious text offers religious tourists an insight into such people and the places/ experiences that were important in the faith of the early church.

The opposite of a big truth is also a big truth (Niels Bohr)

Over the last decade, tourism academia has been increasingly characterised as working in a knowledge domain that is sociologically framed. To date, however, there has been no explicit consideration in the literature as to whether and how an academic’s spiritual and/ or religious beliefs should influence their engagement with knowledge formation. Drawing on Barkathunnisha et al.’s article “Towards a spirituality-based platform in tourism higher education” published in Current Issues in Tourism that proposed the notion of the 7th platform of tourism knowledge based on spirituality and the underlying four pillars – a spirit of knowing; a spirit of doing; a spirit of being; and a spirit of becoming – this exploratory paper will seek to propose some preliminary thoughts on some of the challenges and opportunities that a belief in spirituality and religion might have for tourism academia. Drawing on autobiographical insights from the author’s own Christian faith, the paper concludes by discussing issues that the tourism academy will have to face in order to find ways to bring such a spiritual/ religious perspective into the formulation of tourism knowledge.