Navigating tourism ethnographies – fieldwork embroiled in time, movement and emotion

Abstract

In this paper, we reflect on the challenges of ethnographic fieldwork in tourism research. Specifically, we discuss the intense, messy and complex dynamics of doing (tourism) ethnographic fieldwork, highlighting how key challenges have affected us as researchers, our practises, relationships and experiences in the field. Our reflections are illustrated considering respectively our research experiences of mountaineering in the Himalayas, walking tourism in China, horseriding tourism in the UK and volunteer tourism in Peru. Although these fields have very different social and geopolitical contexts, we experienced similar issues. Our most commonly experienced challenges include time limitations, having 'enough data', accessibility to the informants and rapport building.Through the discussion of these challenges, we unpack the often conflicting emotional contours of fieldwork which are commonly experienced but rarely spoken of. With this paper, we seek to open critical debates on the emotional aspects of tourism research which may be particularly useful for novice ethnographers and scholars constrained by the institutionalized pressures of academia.

Encountering pandas and their valleys in precarious times: A tourism assemblage perspective

“…The first and second authors had an epiphany about the data richness that could be reaped by utilising ‘happenstance’ perspectives and experiences as empirical material for understanding change and disruptions in tourism. Using their bodies and affect as research instruments (Basnet et al, 2020; Fujii, 2015), the first and second researchers started recording fieldnotes and reflections on their encounters, subsequent bodily movements, and affect as disruptions unfold the family vacation, as subjective and personal reflections to enrich the existing data collected (Witte et al, 2022).…”

Tourism routes through a mobile lens: The case of China’s Chamagudao

“…Notably, she specifically notes that tourist trails can play an important role in linking wider areas into a thematically recognisable narrative. Previous research indicating a rise of active outdoor-based tourism activities in China, such as walking (Li et al, 2017, 2020; Witte, 2021; Witte et al, 2023) provide additional rationale.…”

“…Although an in-depth discussion is beyond this article’s scope, my positionality as a foreign researcher in the field had implications for the participants I was able to access (Witte et al, 2023). The variability in my negotiated positionality also implied varying levels of trust, depth and detail of encounters with participants.…”