News & Columns

Heritage and Slow Tourism

By Karin Elgin-Nijhuis

7 September 2019

Slow Tourism is one of the ‘special topics’ at HTHIC2020, the 4th Heritage, Tourism and Hospitality, International Conference.

The concept of Slow Tourism is receiving increasing attention and referred to as an alternative to modern mass tourism and its negative impacts on places, communities and maybe also the tourists themselves.

The organisers of the HTHIC2020 session ‘Heritage & Slow Tourism’, Burçin Kalabay Hatipoğlu and Karin Elgin-Nijhuis, look forward to explore with participants questions, such as:

  • What is Slow Tourism? A mindset, a lifestyle, behaviour, marketing, a specific tourism product, a tool for tourism development?
  • What can be learned from existing Slow Tourism, Slow Travel, Slow Adventure initiatives as to, for example, quality criteria and critical success factors?
  • Who are the consumers of Slow Tourism products and what are their motives and wishes?
  • What is or could be the role of the Slow Food movement and Cittaslow, the network of cities that strive for quality of life of residents and visitors?
  • Which best practices and successful partnerships can be identified?
  • How does Slow Tourism contribute to the preservation of natural and cultural heritage and the Sustainable Development Goals?

In case you have interesting research results or experience to share: