International tourism conference underway

The timing couldn’t be more appropriate.

Tourism scholars from around the world are arriving at TRU right as the official summer tourist season kicks off. The scholars will be on campus from June 26-29 for the Tourism Education Futures Initiative’s ninth international conference, organized by Dr. Kellee Caton, Associate Professor in Tourism.

One of the event highlights includes Connection Day, set for June 28, during which several local industry professionals will join in and contribute to ground-breaking conversations.

“The two-way dialogue is really important. We’re trying to inspire the practitioners with some of those big-picture ideas, but we also want to be able to hear the voices and concerns and interests of people who are on the front lines,” said Caton.

The conference’s theme, Celebrating the Disruptive Power of Caring, offers workshops and lectures that explore the potential for care ethics to serve as an alternative model for tourism education and practice. The overarching goal is to help facilitate change within the industry — providing greater understanding of its social and environmental impacts.

The theme of caring can be found throughout the conference — care for students, communities and the planet.

“As an industry, tourism isn’t always positive in terms of the outcomes it generates — it’s more complex than that,” said Caton.

To that end, Connection Day keynote Anna Pollock, founder and CEO of Conscious Travel, will speak to creating positive social change through tourism. Pollock’s company is founded by a desire to create an environmentally sustainable, socially just, spiritually fulfilling tourism industry that is also profitable.

“Tourism can be a positive force in the world, but it needs to be managed in the right way. As the world changes, tourism also changes,” said Caton, adding that she’s excited to welcome representatives from the local tourism industry, who will join together with 40 scholars from 11 countries who are here for the event.

TEFI 9: Celebrating the Disruptive Power of Caring is supported by a $25,000 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Connection Grant.