Conceptualising human and non-human marginalisation in tourism

Abstract

The tourism industry can bring benefits to its stakeholders. However, some actors receive more benefits and/or disadvantages than others. This is related to marginalisation. As such, it is imperative to understand how the process of marginalisation occurs in tourism destinations. Previous studies have depicted cases of marginalisation in the tourism industry. Yet, there has been a dearth of analysis of the conceptualisation of the process of marginalisation within the industry. Consequently, this conceptual paper proposes a conceptual model of how marginalisation occurs in the tourism industry. The proposed model is situated in a tourism destination, and explains the marginalisation process among tourism actors that contribute to building tourist experiences. We argue that marginalisation is caused by power differentials in tourism destinations.