When the stars align – exploring inclusive tourism from human rights perspective at ISA RC50 Interim conference

(Text: Tuuli Pulkkinen | Photo: Bella Thanakarn Vongvisitsin)

Konnichiwa! My conference trip to Japan might have happened already months ago, but the spirit of Japan will now never leave me.

 

I started my PhD journey in 2022, with the first couple of years being hectic with other work, I only started to work fulltime on my dissertation from the beginning of 2024. I always found it difficult to find conferences that would be a perfect fit for my topic, which is about inclusive tourism in the case of sexual and gender minorities, rainbow individuals. I study the topic from both individual (traveler) and business perspectives. I have participated in conferences before and made some great connections, but I always felt that there was something missing from those conference experiences.

Hence, when I found out about the ISA RC50 (International Sociological Association, Research Committee 50) Interim Conference on Human Rights, I was immediately interested. That seemed like a good place to go to! Even more so, when I found out that there was an actual social inclusion and exclusion session held there, as experience of social inclusion is a central part of my study as well. However, I got EVEN MORE so excited when I spotted that there were a special session AND a workshop on queer (another inclusive term for the sexual and gender minorities) tourism and normative servicescapes, organized by some of my “idol” researchers on this topic. At this point, I started to find it difficult to stay put – this is a dream come true! But there was more to come. Eventually I also looked at where the conference was held, and my heart started pounding – Fujisawa, Japan!

As an avid anime, manga and all japanese culture fan, this seemed like too good to be true altogether. Especially, when funding for such a trip can be tricky. Thankfully, I received a grant from The Tourism Education and Research Support Association to support my conference journey. This support has been imperative to me, enabling me to participate with ease of mind and truly enjoy the experience.

Now, to the conference itself! I felt a huge sense of pressure when thinking of participating in the conference, it was the place to be and time to try to shine. Which is why I was incredibly lucky that my presentation was on the very first session of the first day of the conference. Getting the presentation out of the way enabled me to relax for the rest of the conference and focus on sucking all the information, thoughts and ideas I possibly could get. My only 'regret' is that, since my session coincided with the social inclusion/exclusion session I had originally set my sights on, I wasn’t able to attend and listen to the discussion there. However, I was able to network with the session chairs and most of the presenters in that session as well, and talking with them almost made me feel like I had been there in person.

I also felt incredibly thankful to be able to connect with my session chairs, who also held a very fun and eye-opening an inclusive service design workshop. Although the topic was not that unfamiliar to me, having people with different backgrounds and understandings on the topics discussing and learning together was the highlight of my conference experience.

In this conference, I presented some pre-research thoughts into the next part of my dissertation research, which involves digging deeper into the businesses, their motivations and drivers to do rainbow friendly/inclusive marketing, and how to do authentic inclusive marketing in this rainbow case. I felt quite on edge while presenting my ideas, as I wasn’t entirely sure I had uncovered anything truly novel or worth pursuing in research – especially since I had only recently begun developing the research design at the time of the conference. Even though I felt that my presentation was not the sharpest, everyone in the session were very friendly and I gained some very valuable insights to what I should still consider and how to possibly go with the research to make it more valuable. In the end, I felt that presenting while being a little less 'ready,' so to speak, might have actually been the best approach, because it allowed me to receive valuable feedback that could strengthen the research moving forward!

As heard from the conversations during the conference, it is disheartening to see how ‘foreign’ the topics of human rights, social inclusion/exclusion, and inclusive tourism are still for many in the tourism field. The world situation is also not helping, as the topics of inclusion are put back to their box after years of hard work trying to make things better. However, there is hope. There is hope for a better future, for better tourism, for people, and industry. We just need to keep working on it, together.

I want to still forward my most sincere gratitude to The Tourism Education and Research Support Association for the generous grant that enabled me to participate in this conference stress free and gain all these valuable experiences. THANK YOU! 

Keywords: inclusive tourism, social inclusion, sexual and gender minorities, LGBTQ+, rainbow tourism