1st International Conference on Yellow Tourism

​The first International Conference on Tourism and Crime (Yellow Tourism) ​is taking place at the Ionian University (Ionian Academy) from April27 ​th to April 29th2017. ​The epicentre of the event are tourism and crime, including every form of penetration of the touristic product through criminal activities. ​Partners of the program are the Laboratory for Geocultural Analyses of the Department of Foreign Languages Translation and Interpreting of the Ionian University, the Chair ofCruise Management & eTourism ​of the Bremenhafen University of Applied Sciences, Germany and the Faculty of Economics of the Ovidius University of Constanta, Romania with the support of ​the Cruise Research Society.

Crime and Corruption do not merely constitute an intriguing holiday theme (and having common characteristics with the area of ‘Dark Tourism’); but they also constitute a bitter reality counting many victims. Tourism is a globalised business sector impacting the livelihood of millions of people in all parts of the world. As any other ‘big business’, where significant circuits of capital and information, and power imbalances exist, tourism is fertile ground for corruption and economic crime. Concurrently, the globalised scope of the tourism industry renders it into a very challenging field of action for national legislators and law enforcement agencies.

Novel tourist experiences, interactions with unknown environments and places, and a sense of freedom from care, represent core elements of the holiday experience. For these very reasons, holidays inherently entail a number of dangers for tourists, rendering them vulnerable to crime. Conversely, the anonymity that is combined with the consumerist/hedonistic mindset of many tourists, may well lead to irresponsible and even criminal, behaviour towards locals and others.

Although, the casualties of mainly politically-motivated terrorism are few worldwide, safety and security issues related to terror are extensively covered in tourism literature. In contrast, and despite of their quantitatively greater impact on the holiday experience, economic criminality and corruption have received relatively little attention in tourism scholarship. We seek to address this imbalance with this action.

The aim of this conference on “yellow tourism” is to place crime and corruption in the tourism-research agenda, expanding the interdisciplinary scope of tourism to include perspectives from law, business, economics, political science and the social and behavioural sciences. Contributing fields may include, but not be limited to the following:
​ ​Law, ​ ​Criminology, Business ethics, Behavioural and social psychology, ​ ​Critical tourism studies, ​ ​Information systems, ​ ​Geography

The conference concept of “yellow tourism” draws on Dostoevsky’s novel Crime & Punishment, in which the colour yellow was symbolically associated with corruption and decay. Our aim is twofold: First, to gradually build a scientific community (and a corresponding body of knowledge), which, second, would facilitate the creation of sustainable tourism development strategies and policies and ultimately enable more responsible industry standards in holiday services for all people and communities involved.

​YTC 2017 is under the auspicies of the Region of the Ionian Islands.

​UTC 2017 in the http://yellowtourism.net/

​Information​: yellowtourism@geolabinstitute.org

​Attendance form:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdcOsoUeEJ2f3vK0fo_WjPMqx3DH4sSXig_IUWxMyT0tuS3WA/viewform

​Follow us onFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/YellowTourismConference
​Follow us onTwiiter: @YellowTourism