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This paper aims to explore the experiences of international volunteer tourists, or voluntourists, to Botswana. Wildlife conservation, health education and orphanage voluntourists are examined specifically.

Qualitative data were collected through interviews with tourists who had completed or were in the midst of volunteer experiences.

Findings revealed that international voluntourism opportunities in Botswana are challenging to locate and leave volunteers questioning their impact. Some of the difficulties associated with voluntourism in Botswana included the need for volunteers to pay to participate, the concern regarding whether volunteers were depriving locals of employment opportunities, hesitation about the authenticity of the experience and the lack of community ownership.

This paper will be beneficial to industry practitioners as it details the challenges associated with international voluntourism and provides suggestions for ways to attract volunteers, engage them in the process and ensure both the organization and tourist have a positive and useful experience.

The increased interest in international voluntourism is a trend which is unlikely to decelerate in the coming years. This paper advances the knowledge on voluntourism operations in Botswana which may be valuable to tourists, students, academicians, government policymakers and industry practitioners alike.

Local adaptations to economic blight and overreliance on the tourism industry demonstrate significant aspects of resilience and risk among Caribbean populations. Those individuals who choose sex tourism as a way to benefit from its increasing revenue demonstrate resilience through their adaptations to shifts in the local and national economies, including national debt, expansion of the all-inclusive hotel industry, and seasonal variations in tourist arrivals. Based on ethnographic research conducted in Negril, Jamaica, I argue that the very activities of “hustling” and sex work that illustrate local men’s resilience are the same practices that put their sexual health at risk.

This research contextualizes the practice of female sex tourism using the anthropology of tourism, gender and sexuality studies, and the anthropology of HIV/AIDS with a focus on the Caribbean region. This work is based on a project that entailed nine months of fieldwork in 2010–2011 in Negril where I conducted ethnographic observations, life history interviews with three men who sell sex, and 54 semi-structured interviews.

Men who sell sex to women tourists demonstrate resilience in the face of economic shifts and changing cultural norms. These men are also, however, exposed to risk through their sexual activities and health seeking behaviors.

In order for the issues of STI/HIV risk to be adequately addressed among this population, effective public health efforts must prioritize health over tourism revenue and utilize anthropological approaches to explore the health costs of the tourist dollar.

Recently, the tourism industry in Asian countries has been adversely affected by two significant drivers: health emergencies and climatic changes. Virus outbreaks such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), Ebola, avian flu, Zika virus and H1N1 influenza virus have caused much greater damage to the tourism and travel industry of Asian countries as compared to the more localized natural disasters and crises such as tsunami, Kathmandu earthquake, Typhoon Mangkhut in Indonesia, etc., resulting in huge job losses, severe financial losses, shutdowns and human casualties. The purpose of this study is to briefly discuss the major viral outbreaks in the Asian countries and discuss their impact on the tourism industry. It will also discuss the resilience strategies taken by the Asian countries to re-emerge their tourism markets from these outbreaks. It will be based on the systematic review of the earlier literature on the various viral outbreaks and the corresponding resilience measures in the Asian peninsula. While the association between the pandemic and travel has been widely discussed in previous studies (Kuo, Chen, Tseng, Ju, & Huang, 2008; Lee, Son, Bendle, Kim, & Han, 2012), there is still no specific study which provides a comprehensive outlook on the various viral outbreaks and the tourism resilience strategies in Asia. It might also help the tourism industry stakeholders from the Asian countries to adequately identify and thoroughly plan for the possible future outbreaks and align resilience measures accordingly.

Purpose: The present chapter includes discussing the effects of COVID-19 in the tourism industry. Although much has been written on COVID-19 in these days, literature emphasizes on the economic devastating consequences of lockdown on tourism industry. The chapter goes in an opposite direction revealing the fears, expectance, and hopes of tourism staff in Argentina.

Design-Methodology: Because of the methodological impossibilities to conduct face-to-face interviews, we have employed digital platform to conduct 50 interviews in tourism professionals geographically located in different Argentinean cities as well as coming from different subsectors in the tourism industry. The used method was snowball which means that each interviewee recommended another one once the interview ends. The sample was drawn in 20 females and 30 males from 25 to 55 years old.

Findings: The findings suggest three important assumptions. Interviewees expressed some partisan or ideological hostilities against China and Eastern countries. The Chinese tourists were seen with some mistrust for interviewed people as well as the reaction of Chinese government to stop the pandemic. In other cases, old inter-class rivalries were found when interviewees blamed the stranded (rich) tourists as the main carriers of the virus in Argentina-wide. Hostilities and chauvinist expression against neighboring countries such Bolivia or Chile were overtly uttered. These narratives escalate when interviewees manifest their wages have been unilaterally slumped down. By the side, digital technologies offer as fertile ground to exploit new forms of tourism in the years to come.

Research Limitations: The obtained outcome should be validated in next approaches because the sample is not statistically representative of the universe. The restrictions imposed by the lockdown impeded further research today. In the same line, the sample was limited to tourism professionals, which suggests that policymakers should be included in the future research.

Practical Implications: Understanding the fears and hope of tourism staff is an alternative way to enact sustainable policies to mitigate the negative effects of the pandemic in the tourism industry. While these policies construct a bridge between theory and management, no less true is that the future of tourism remains uncertain.

Originality Value: The present chapter provides an original empirical insight into the viewpoint of tourism staff, which is today subject to countless fears and deprivations. The extensive lockdown imposed by Argentinean government, accompanied by the impossibility to orchestrate a preparedness program of mitigation, has led the industry to a slow agony. The chapter reflects the rise of an anti-foreign discourse and sentiment oriented to demonize not only the Chinese (Asian) tourists but also expatriates living abroad. This anti-tourist discourse, which oppose to the neologism offered by Urry as the “tourist-gaze,” univocally exhibits the start of a radicalized hospitality we dubbed as “the wicked-gaze.” The “Other” is not an object of curiosity any longer, but “a potential enemy” to be controlled.

The main purpose of this study is to make a comparative evaluation of the impacts of previous outbreaks and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on the tourism industry. COVID-19 appears to have disrupted all memorizations about epidemics ever seen. Nobody has anticipated that the outbreak in late December will spread rapidly across the world, be fatal and turn the world economy upside down. Severe acute respiratory syndrome, Ebola, Middle East respiratory syndrome and others caused limited losses in a limited geography, thus similar behaviors were expected at first in COVID-19. But it was not so. Today, people continue to lose their lives and experience economic difficulties. One of the most important distressed industries is undoubtedly tourism.

This study is a literature review. In this review, a comparative evaluation between the impact of previous outbreaks and COVID-19 on the tourism industry has been made based on statistics and previous research studies.

The information and figures obtained show that COVID-19 and previous outbreaks have such significant differences that cannot be compared. COVID-19 has been one of the worst to live in terms of spreading speed, the geography where it spreads, loss of lives and negative effects in the whole area.

It is noteworthy that COVID-19 is very severe in terms of death cases and also its impacts on the economy compared to other pandemics. It remains to be argued that COVID-19 can also be a reference in terms of possible new outbreaks in the future, and is an effective actor in determining future strategies.

With roots dating back to the early twentieth century, integrated rural development (IRD) is a term that became commonplace in international development circles in the 1960s and afterwards. Based largely on a dual concept of helping to meet basic needs and improve the overall quality of life of poor people from rural and remote regions within national contexts, IRD initiatives have undergone a series of shifts in emphases, approaches and funding schemes. The purpose of this paper is to document the historical background and development of IRD initiatives over time.

The research design for this study included a series of mixed data collection methods, including case study examples of best practices, interviews and a thorough review of the formal literature, as well as an in-depth examination of alternative and multi-media literature (e.g. project reports, policy reports, government reports, working papers, newspaper articles, internet publications, etc.).

The findings of this paper are divided into the following sections. First, key terms of IRD are defined. Next, the background and overview of IRD is introduced including addressing how IRD is viewed as an approach to development, its historical evolution over time, some major IRD initiatives and the major development organizations engaged in promoting IRD. Third, an examination of several IRD models is introduced based on recommended methodologies, noting the sequencing of interventions important to successful IRD initiatives, select examples of IRD initiatives built on public-private partnerships, and the positive and negative outcomes and impacts from select IRD approaches.

The final section focuses on conclusions and seven key recommendations (or ingredients) outlined by the author as essential for implementing successful IRD initiatives: first, create an enabling environment that is conducive and supportive of IRD; second, establish a National Policy Framework for Integrated Development, which includes IRD; third, establish supportive policies and a legal framework that is based on the National Policy Framework; fourth, include two or more sectoral approaches in the initiative (e.g. agriculture, education, health, employment, infrastructure and industry, environment, etc.); fifth, garner participation and commitment from all stakeholders during each of the planning, implementation and evaluation stages; sixth, secure initial seed capital and funding and afterwards sustained funding streams; and seventh, conduct continual monitoring and evaluation throughout the lifespan of the entire initiative with specific adherence to the four key principles of good governance: coordination, information flow, transparency and accountability.

Using a qualitative approach, this cross-disciplinary study integrating modern slavery, tourism and marketing expertise outlines Chinese outbound tourists' perceptions of and reactions to issues related to child sex tourism.

In total, 27 in-depth interviews were conducted, and data were analysed. Manual coding was chosen as an efficient method to process qualitative interview data given the relatively small sample size in this study.

Three main themes emerged from analysis: (1) tourists' negative perceptions of child sex tourism; (2) tourist boycotts against child sex tourism destinations and activities as reactions to this socially deviant and illegal phenomenon and (3) tourist advocacy to enhance public awareness of child sex tourism. These themes suggest that tourists, as key tourism stakeholders, have difficulty accepting that child sex tourism occurs and would like to identify solutions to end illegal activities. Tourist boycotts would positively affect sustainable tourism development by eliminating illegal businesses, including those involving child prostitution, from the tourism industry. The qualitative method is applied here to develop a conceptual framework explaining tourists' perceptions of and reactions to child sex tourism.

A conceptual framework of Chinese individuals' perceptions of and reactions to child sex tourism has been devised using a qualitative approach. Although this framework takes child sex tourism as its focus, it can also be applied to better understand tourists' perspectives of other socially deviant or illegal behaviours within the tourism industry. The findings of this study provide valuable implications for various tourism stakeholders.

The current study makes significant theoretical and practical contributions to an under-researched topic – child sex tourism. A conceptual framework of Chinese individuals' perceptions of and reactions to child sex tourism has been devised using a qualitative approach. Findings from this study may inspire campaigns to protect children from being drawn into sex tourism. Efforts should also be undertaken to rescue children who have already been victimised by illegal businesses.

This research examines how chain hotels respond to the crisis in the context of situational crisis communication, focusing on the first emergence of the COVID-19 crisis and the second period of the pandemic, during which the pandemic was relatively weak.

The data were obtained from the digital announcements shared by the world's 50 most valuable hotel chains. The announcements, declared in the two phases of March–April and July–September 2020, were analyzed. The data were collected through document analysis and transferred to the MAXQDA program for qualitative content analysis. Interviews were held with the managers of chain companies to compare and confirm the results obtained.

Chain hotels announced regulations on existing reservations, potential customers, intermediary businesses, suppliers and employees by focusing on maintaining business reputation in the first phase of the pandemic. The hotel units seem to be more open to referrals on emergency measures from chain centers in this phase. In the second stage, announcements to increase sales were shared. The content of the crisis communication is in line with the predictions advocated under the situational crisis communication theory. In addition, some applications that do not comply with the theory are also identified.

The effects of the crisis communication on hotels were addressed; the responses of other stakeholders to the communication were not taken into account.

Successful response strategies must be considered when developing future crisis preparedness measures. Actors in the hospitality industry can adopt a situational crisis communication approach as an effective strategy to cope with the losses caused by a crisis and possibly speed recovery. Hotels can turn the crisis into an opportunity with the strategies they put forward during the pandemic and gain stronger reputations after the pandemic.

This study contributes to both the crisis management literature and the literature on COVID-19 by exemplifying the crisis communication measures and strategies of chain hotels. Focusing on different sub-processes in the analysis of crisis communication, revealing the background about the production and transfer of the information shared during the crisis, and interpreting the content of the messages by considering the benefit of the stakeholders and benefits of the hotel reveals the originality of this study.

Kaleidofin was co-founded in 2017 by Puneet Gupta and Sucharita Mukherjee; former CFO and CEO of IFMR (Institute for Financial Management and Research) Holdings Pvt Ltd. As part of their roles at IFMR, Gupta and Mukherjee focused on designing products and developing technology to push for financial inclusion. In their field interactions, the co-founders had an epiphany of the challenges faced by people while trying to save towards important life goals. They saw an opportunity in the large segment of financially under-served people in India and quit their jobs to start Kaleidofin. Kaleidofin was conceptualised as a digital platform that offers customised financial solutions to help customers meet their life goals. The start-up partnered with mutual fund companies for solutions on one hand and network partners (NGOs, microfinance organizations, cooperative banks) on the other for access to their existing customers.

Kaleidofin grew from 50 customers in January 2018 to 15,000 customers by March 2019. Aiming to grow to 1 million customers in the next 30 months Kaleidofin faces a dilemma about its future course. The start-up could continue to grow by expanding its current target segment which is the low-income households and preserve its vision at the risk of increasing costs. The second option would be to look at other potential target segments, such as, middle-income households and risk diluting their vision. The case study highlights the unique customer-centric model of Kaleidofin and the need for start-ups to understand the value proposition of their products/services.