Roots Tourism: Between Local Development and Transnational Impacts
A special issue of Tourism and Hospitality (ISSN 2673-5768).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 January 2026 | Viewed by 8
Special Issue Editor
Interests: roots tourism; sustainable tourism; undetected tourism; residential tourism; D.I.Y. tourism; quality of life; local development; social research methodology; rural development; urban regeneration
Special Issue Information
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
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Tourism and Hospitality is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- roots tourism
- multiple identities
- roots tourists
- sacred value of travel
- place attachment
- emigration
- local sustainable development
- genealogy tourism
- D.I.Y. tourism
- residential tourism
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