Contested landscapes in tourism: culture, conservation and consumption

16-18 February 2006
Mombasa, Kenya

ATLAS Africa and Moi University are pleased to host the ATLAS Africa conference in February 2006. The Conference is organised jointly with the International Geographical Union’s (IGU) Commission of Tourism, Leisure and Global Change. The conference will be held at the Whitesands Hotel in Mombasa, Kenya.

Tourism constitutes one of the major contemporary forces of spatial transformation modifying and defining landscapes of different parts of the world. Tourism industry and tourists are increasingly using, consuming and changing landscapes, and tourism marketing reproduces powerful images and representations about landscapes. These representations and changes in landscapes are integrated into larger processes such as globalisation, development discourses, identity politics, competition, consumption and nature conservation. In some cases the impacts of tourism in destination regions and communities may have become so profound that destination areas contested by multiple counter-narratives. The landscapes of tourism are also defined by traditional and other contemporary uses and meanings of the land, nature and communities, which creates contested landscapes. These power processes of domination and resistance constitute an arena of socially
constructed images of landscapes.

The conquest of African landscape is constantly changing. Tourism industry constantly transforms and defines landscapes and communities through marketing and direct use. In nature conservation remote landscapes have traditionally been treated as spaces without people. In conservation circles of that time, Africans were usually portrayed as potential ‘poachers’ and a threat to the still existing wildlife populations. However, conservation ideology has changed dramatically and is now geared towards including local communities in conservation efforts, and also tourism industry aims to empower local communities through tourism development. What are the consequences of these shifts in ideology for the way we look at African landscapes in tourism and generally? And how do tourists 'consume' African landscapes and what is the role of local culture and communities between (new) tourism and conservation? Can the model of community-based tourism satisfy the needs and goals of local people, tourism industry and sustainable use of natural and cultural resources?

Conference Goals and Objectives

The aim of the Conference is to discuss the relationship between tourism and landscapes in African context. The conference will focus on landscapes in tourism and their connection to culture, conservation and consumption in tourism research and management. The general aims of the Conference are:

· Examine the role of landscapes in tourism consumption and production and the impacts of tourism in natural and cultural landscapes.
· Analyse contemporary issues, practices and future changes and challenges in tourism landscapes.
· Discuss the benefits and costs of tourism development in landscapes for communities and nature conservation.
· Explore various and often competing social and physical constructions and ways of consuming and conserving landscapes in Africa.
· Develop new approaches into the social, cultural, economic, political and environmental implications of global-local connections (globalization) in tourism landscapes.
· Provide an open forum for the exchange of views among academics and landscape, community and nature conservation area planners and professionals.

Call for Papers

The conference organisers welcome full papers and communications on a range of themes, but not limited to:

- The role of landscapes in tourism;
- Landscape use and abuse in the context of tourism;
- The role of landscapes in nature conservation and tourism;
- Competing constructions of landscape in tourism;
- Landscape consumption in tourism;
- Landscapes of resistance;
- Changing landscapes in tourism development;
- Landscape, (local) identity and tourism;
- Local-global relations in tourism landscapes;
- Landscape representations and tourism;
- Tourism and landscape planning;
- Landscape and tourism impact assessment;
- Landscapes and tourism in national parks and other conservation areas;
- Landscapes and Community-based tourism;

The official language of the Conference is English. All abstracts will be subject of double blind review process. Abstracts should be submitted to ATLAS by e-mail (admin@atlas-euro.org) and should include: author’s name, institution, contact address/e-mail and title. Abstracts (approximately 300-500 words) should indicate background, theoretical/ practical implications, methods and/or data sources, and indicative findings of the paper.

Important dates and dead-lines

Abstract submission: September 30, 2005
Notification of acceptance: October 2005
Conference: February 16-18, 2006
Paper submission: April 15, 2006

More information will be available soon on the ATLAS homepage at www.atlas-euro.org.