A SENIOR lecturer at the University of the South Pacific recently launched a book providing an analysis of tourism’s interrelationship with migration and micro-businesses.
Dr Alexander Trupp, who is a senior lecturer of tourism and hospitality at USP, had published a research monograph titled Migration, Micro-Business and Tourism in Thailand. Highlanders in the City with the prestigious publishing house Routledge.
A USP statement last week said the book investigated the social, economic and political embedding of informal souvenir sellers in an urban tourism context.
“Based on extensive field research, it presents a detailed analysis of urban-directed mobility patterns and discusses strategies and dilemmas in urban souvenir businesses,” the statement said.
“It offers an understanding of daily practices between unequally powerful actors related to ethnic minority tourism in urban contexts, and systematically integrates individual and collective action into socio-economic and politico-institutional contexts.”
Dr Trupp hopes that the analysis of micro tourist businesses would give a stronger voice to marginalised groups in urban tourism.
This, he said, included city and tourism stakeholders who increasingly view migrant and ethnic diversity as an opportunity rather than a risk.
USP head of School of Tourism and Hospitality Management Professor Marcus Stephenson said they were very proud of Dr Trupp’s book.
“It is great to see how the school’s research profile is highly international, specialising not only on such regions as the South Pacific and the Middle East, but indeed Southeast Asia,” he said.
“The book launch was a success and we certainly learnt a lot about this important topic.”
Dr Trupp holds a PhD in Theoretical and Applied Geography from the University of Vienna in Austria and has extensive fieldwork experience in Southeast Asia and Europe.
His research is include the broad fields of tourism studies and human geography and comprises modes, structures, motivations, and practices of mobilities, especially in Asian and European contexts.
Dr Trupp now aims to continue his research on tourism and micro-entrepreneurship in a South Pacific Island context.
