Roots Tourism: Between Local Development and Transnational Impacts

Dear Colleagues,

The social phenomenon of “roots tourism” has become highly significant as it has come to involve millions of emigrants who live permanently in places other than their places of origin. The phenomenon is based on the need of emigrants to return to their family’s places of origin, to satisfy predominantly non-instrumental motivations, and is mostly centred around to the strengthening of their own and their family’s identity. The phenomenon takes the name of “genealogical tourism” when those travelling to their places of origin are emigrants of generations subsequent to the first.

Over the past decade we have witnessed a renewed interest in the study and analysis of the phenomenon; however, scientific inquiry does not appear to be able to fully support the touristic understanding of the phenomenon and, furthermore, contributes only marginally to a deepening of knowledge on the impacts and relationships that this form of tourism generates.

The broad objective of this Special Issue is to help fill this gap in knowledge from a multidisciplinary perspective, making findings available both to those who develop public policies aimed at enhancing the phenomenon and to the tourism industry more generally.

Researchers interested in topics related to roots tourism and genealogical tourism are invited to submit contributions covering, but not restricted to, the following topics:

• Perceptions of the phenomenon in local communities and among roots tourists themselves;
• Hospitality and host–guest relationships;
• Multi-residential and transnational lifestyles;
• Quantitative analysis of the phenomenon;
• The social figure of the roots tourist;
• Family storytelling;
• Digital transformation and roots tourism;
• Sacred and experiential value;
• Economic, social, cultural, and environmental impacts;
• The visual culture of emigration;
• Local development processes;
• Sense of place and attachment to place;
• Stories and life experiences;
• Good and bad practices;
• Globalization and glocalization;
• National, international, and local public policies;
• Emigrant associations.

Dr. Tullio Romita
Guest Editor

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• roots tourism
• multiple identities
• roots tourists
• sacred value of travel
• place attachment
• emigration
• local sustainable development
• genealogy tourism
• D.I.Y. tourism
• residential tourism