Brent Moyle

Tourism startups are increasingly positioned as agents of renewal, yet existing theory offers limited insight into how these ventures navigate external resource environments they depend on. Resource-based perspectives privilege internal capabilities, while ecosystem approaches treat entrepreneurial contexts as relatively undifferentiated. Drawing on 57 in-depth interviews, conducted in 2025, with founders and ecosystem coordinators across 26 countries, this study develops the Startup Ecosystem Resource Reservoir (SERR) framework. This framework theorizes tourism entrepreneurial environments along three analytical layers: a pathway layer distinguishing Endowed-Access Resources (allocated through gatekeeper selection) from Ambient-Access Resources (worked out through participation and relational labor); a strategy layer identifying three founder postures (substantive engagement, performative conformity, and pathway avoidance) through which ventures engage these pathways; and a conditioning layer in which a structurally bifurcated legitimacy regime (investor-track and industry-incumbent-track) and infrastructural conditions shape availability and posture viability across the reservoir.

Tourism scholarship has increasingly drawn on positive psychology to examine how tourism participation contributes to psychological wellbeing. Frameworks grounded in positive psychology, including ...

Purpose: This study explores the extent to which children and young people are incorporated into tourism policy and planning in Australia. This study aims to critically assess their recognition as stakeholders in destination governance and to evaluate whether their participation is framed meaningfully or tokenistically. Design/methodology/approach: A thematic analysis was conducted on 233 strategic planning documents produced between 2000 and 2030 across national, state, regional and local levels of Australian tourism governance. The analysis examined how children and young people are represented within policy discourse. Findings: Results reveal that youth are rarely acknowledged as stakeholders in tourism governance. When mentioned, they are predominantly framed as market segments rather than as citizens with rights, agency and situated knowledge. This study highlights a systemic absence of child-inclusive governance, challenging assumptions that destination planning is inherently community-centred. Evidence suggests that current efforts to involve young people in policymaking remain largely tokenistic, undermining both community wellbeing and long-term destination sustainability. Practical implications: The findings reveal the need for participatory models that meaningfully involve children and young people into tourism planning processes. Such models have the potential to enhance destination governance, strengthen community resilience and ensure that tourism development aligns with broader principles of social inclusion and sustainability. Originality/value: To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is among the first to systematically examine the role of children and young people in tourism policy in Australia. By interrogating their exclusion from destination governance, the study contributes new insights into the intersection of youth rights, participation and tourism planning.

Research on the hedonic and eudaimonic wellbeing benefits of virtual tourism is experiencing exponential growth. However, few studies have considered its potential as a positive psychological intervention to enhance wellbeing. Through the lens of the recently conceptualised DREAMA model of tourist wellbeing, this conceptual paper critically examines the nuanced role of virtual tourism in enabling wellbeing. This research contends that microdosing, an innovative concept which initially emerged in psychotherapy, can be applied through virtual tourism as a non-pharmacological intervention to foster the DREAMA dimensions of wellbeing. This paper is amongst the first to apply the concept of microdosing to tourist wellbeing in virtual travel. The paper proposes a conceptual model designed to articulate how regular engagement with short, immersive virtual tourism experiences can integrate the therapeutic benefits of travel into everyday life. The manuscript introduces microdosing as a low-barrier, low-risk way to engage with virtual tourism experiences and potentially mitigate issues such as cybersickness.

Seniors are particularly susceptible to mental health challenges when navigating life-course transitions, such as retirement or bereavement. Despite this, the potential of tourism to build resilience and enhance the wellbeing of seniors remains underexplored and conceptually underdeveloped. Drawing on positive psychology, this research critically examines how wellbeing derived from tourism contributes to seniors’ resilience against life-course adversities. Implementing a sequential two-phased research design combining biographical interviews with focus groups, guided by autobiographical sketches, this research unveils the compensatory and protective pathways through which each dimension of senior tourists’ wellbeing aids them in navigating life-course transitions. The manuscript proposes a dual pathway framework of senior tourist wellbeing and resilience. Complementing this, the manuscript innovates by presenting tourism-based interventions designed to enhance seniors’ resilience, aligning with the global healthy aging agenda purported by the United Nations. Future research should examine how tourism-based interventions mitigate the adverse impacts of navigating life-course adversities.