Presentation paper at TTRA Canada, Ottawa, October 2013

This last week I was fortunate enough to have been accepted to present my paper at the Travel and Tourism Research Association (TTRA) Canada Chapter Conference in Ottawa, Ontario.  I used Backer's (2012) reclassification of VFR that uses accommodation choice as well as trip motive, and applied it to non-U.S. international leisure visitors to Toronto and found that 1 in 7 visitors had a demonstrable relationship with a resident of the city.  Further, 3 in 10 person nights spent by this group in paid accommodations were down to VFR visitors, and in 2000 where the number of VFR and non-VFR visitors was similar, in 2010 VFR volume is double non-VFR visitation.  I also included two long quotes from the qualitative interviews to add context and personalty to the numbers to illustrate the meaning and significance these experiences have, and to highlight potential market opportunities.  To read the paper visit my academia.edu page here.

Loving some documentaries right now

I've always loved documentaries, but have been watching them with a slightly different eye since starting this project- not that I'm aiming to produce a documentary, but there are some significant overlaps.  Some that I'm enjoying are the 'Up series', just come out on netflix, it follow 14 seven year olds in 1964 from various walks of life in England, and then follows up on them every seven years- the ultimate narrative!  The most recent one is 56 up, and it's really fascinating to follow these people through childhood, to middle age and beyond.  It really demonstrates, easily, the value of qualitative approaches, and I think does it fairly well overall.

Another one is The Fried Chicken Shop, a snapshot into the lives of those who share a particular fast food joint in south London as a place of work and leisure- there are some wonderful characters and great short stories.

I'm always open to recommendations, if you have any.

First round of interviews finished

I have finished the first round of interviews, and have begun to sift through the transcripts and look for narrative plots, twists, characters, and meaning.  It's a daunting but exciting task, and I can't wait to get into it and see what I can produce.  It's my aim to return to the participants and show them the edited video of everyone- as an entire story of hosting- and ask them to comment not just on their own video'd stories, but the others' too, and integrate this second round into the original as a from of commentary and conversation.  I think this will provide people with the confidence of saying what is important to them within a one-on-one setting, rather than asking a group of people together, where you get the voice of the group rather than the individual.  Yet I'm hoping that reflections and ideas will be sparked by the individuals as they watch other people talk.  There are some great plots beginning to form; the changing experience of hosting, as it starts as a leisure based activity soon after immigration and moves to an obligation to keep in touch with people and maintain involvement in their lives as families change and children arrive etc.  There's also this idea of looking for similarity and difference at the same time- people look for things that are familiar to them in some way from back home- fruit picking for example, or the water front in another- and take their visitors to these places to show them- this is how we do this here.  Then people also seek difference, to validate the sacrifice that there visitors have shown in time and money- to show them something unique and special- China Town, camping, Muskoka, Kensington, even Hooters!  Have all been used to say 'this is how this place is different to our home'.  There's more, but that's a start.  I'll keep you updated as I go reach some milestones.

Moving house

We recently moved into house, our first house, and it's brought up a number of feelings and thoughts that can be linked to the study of VFR.  It's brought memories of being in my child hood home, of incidences, smells, spaces, and places- the nearby park brought back a flood of memories of riding around on my bmx and the like.  It's been far more evocative than I would ever have predicted to be honest, as my current and future situation and plans are positioned, unexpectedly, with my past.  What is also noticeable is the desire to have people come to visit- my in-laws came down the other weekend, our first proper guests, and their positive reactions were welcomed, validating, and comforting, as well as their contribution to making our place our a home in ways that are important to them- all very welcome contributions.  But it also makes me want to see my own family here- especially my mother, so I can share with her this important step in my life, and I can tell her about the changes we're going through, and know that she can picture it.  I want her advice on how to approach the changes to the physical form of the house, that will alter it more and more into a home.  I want my family to see my neighbourhood, and see that it's interesting, and safe, and distinct, and somewhere that they also like.  Larsen (2008) talks about the obligation of travel as a form of mobility, and how travel can help create a sense of home; he's right.

Think Tank on Reconceptualisation of VFR Travel at University of Surrey

I recently returned from the UK where I was fortunate enough to be involved in a Think Tank on VFR organised by the University of Surrey (http://www.surrey.ac.uk/shtm/events/surrey_think_tank.htm).   It was great to be in a small group of people who are all interested in VFR in slightly different angles.  There was a big focus on the mobility aspect of VFR, in the ways that immigrants maintain connections and relationships with their home land, how technology is used to continue those relationships, and the impact of VFR travel patterns on migration flows and broader cultural practices.  There were a few presentations that focussed on the touristic aspect of VFR as well.  A possible special issue in Mobilities may come to fruition.  It opened my eyes to the mobilities side of VFR, and the impact on migration flows- many people seemed to come from an immigration background, and this exposure to a broader range of literature should help strengthen my own work, particularly in the analysis stage of  my current thesis.

Reflection on first few interviews...

I have started data collection, and interviewed two people so far.  It's been a really fascinating experience in many ways.  Most importantly, the stories people are sharing are really interesting, and personal, and overlap the hosting experience with areas of their lives relating to family relationships, personal identity, and touristic experience in their communities.  I've found the participants so far have been seemingly very happy to tell their stories, and although perhaps a little perturbed by the camera at first I honestly don't think it adds any awkwardness to the conversation after a couple of minutes.  One problem I have to put more forethought into is the balance between allowing the conversation to flow, and wanting to capture a reasonable quality of video.  After successfully recording two interviews in terms of actually capturing video and audio I'm less nervous about the real basics, but I need to think about camera angle and lighting.  The last interview was in the person's back yard, which was lovely in many ways, the greenery and sunlight created a great atmosphere; but the neighbour's air conditioner, and regular air planes provided interruptions  and as the evening fell the lighting became very poor.  I will have to work out how to include the words and stories- it may be that there are noise interruptions etc., but as I move forward I'll think about these conditions before we start the conversation; I don't want to cut someone off and say "can you just hold that thought until that plane has passed by", as this isn't how people talk, and may position our conversation as a videoed interview rather than personal conversation.  However, this is all a good learning experience for me, and the technical aspect of my data collection will only improve as I continue.

Another visit from the nephews...

We had another visit from our nephew this last weekend- and his younger brother too. We made another video of their trip, which saw us visit the harbourfront where there was a circus festival going on, and the city farm near our house. Lots of fun. We made another video of the weekend, this time about power rangers, and I got another chance to hone my skills of video editing and telling a story- albeit in a much different tone and purpose than my research will be. I haven't shared it with them yet- so no reaction to report. But I think they'll like it...

Proposal defended

A short while ago I defended my proposal in front of my committee, and am now applying for ethics approval to be ready to start collecting data. I am going to be interviewing around 6-10 participants, up to 3 times each. Each participant will be an immigrant who is willing to talk about their experiences hosting friends or relatives. I will try to target my recruitment so that I can get a variety of people from different regions of the world. The first time I meet each person I hope to ask them about their hosting experiences, as well as relevant other stories relating to their immigration experience and changes in perceptions and behaviour after the hosting experience. I'll ask them before hand to think about collecting any photos, memorabilia, or other paraphernalia that will help them explain their stories. If it seems appropriate I will suggest that the participant and myself go to a place of significance for them related to their hosting experience- a park, a neighbourhood etc. that they went to with their visitor and where they had a good time. From these two meetings I will put together their story in video and text form. I will do this for all the participants and then attempt to re-produce an overarching meta-narrative of their combined experiences. I will ask to meet each individual for a 3rd time to show them what I've constructed from the prior two meetings and will ask for reflection, clarification, and approval from the participant of what they see and read, and integrate this back into the interview. By showing each person the entire narrative from all participants it is hoped this may inspire some virtual conversation between the participants that can be fed back into the narrative in an engaging way. I'm following a narrative analysis approach, a methodology that seeks to understand and portray expereinces that are shared as stories, and then re-told as a complete narrative in a research form. The idea is that to tell a whole story maintains the context and meaning throughout- whereas many other methodologies seek to compartmentalize parts of stories into themes, narrative analysis is interested in the whole. For more information here are some great articles and books to read. Clandinin, D. J., & Connelly, F. M. (2000). Experience and story in qualitative research. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Glover, T. D. (2003). Taking the narrative turn: The value of stories in leisure research. Loisir Et Société,26(1), 145-167. Larson, C. L. (1997). Re-presenting the subject: Problems in personal narrative inquiry. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 10(4), 455-470. Mishler, E. G. (1986). The analysis of interview-narratives. In T. R. Sarbin (Ed.), Narrative psychology: The storied nature of human conduct. (pp. 233-255). New York, NY: Praeger Publishers. Ollerenshaw, J. A., & Creswell, J. W. (2002). Narrative research: A comparison of two restorying data analysis approaches. Qualitative Inquiry, 8(3), 329-347. Ong, W. J. (1982). Oral remembering and narrative structures. In D. Tannen (Ed.), Analyzing discourse: Text and talk (pp. 12-24). Washington D.C.: Georgetown University Press. Polkinghorne, D. E. (1995). Narrative configuration in qualitative analysis. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 8(1), 5-23. Shotter, J. (1993). Conversational realities: Studies in social constructionism. London: Sage Publications Limited.

My friends' visit

Over easter weekend some friends from the States came to visit. I've known one of them for 10 years, but we've never actually lived in the same town as each other, so in fact every time we've seen each other one of us has been hosting. This was the first time he had been to visit my current home town. Although I know I'm thinking about it more, because I'm studying it, it was interesting to see my hosting persona kick in, explaining some of the history and demographics of my neighbourhood, making sure we went to particular restaurants and bars that are special to me or unique to the city, and looking for that appreciation in my friends' reactions that it is indeed interesting and enjoyable to live in the place I have chosen. As we walked around it was interesting to see what they took pictures of; sights that are often routine and so common place that I glaze over become points of curiosity and demand attention. After they returned home I asked them if they would mind sharing their pictures with me. This photo in particular caught my attention. It's a park that I walk past most days and does not inspire much reaction after 4 years. But as we walked past my visiting friends stopped, saw this view, and asked to take a photo. A few versions were taken, with different combinations of us in the frame, and this one without people. A view I see everyday has become a place of meaning, of a memory, and a view that now reminds me of a fun weekend, and has added significance for me to my own neighbourhood. I see this for myself in my own experiences, I'm excited to get into the field and see if and how this is the same for others.

New paper of VFR and community development

I've had a paper on VFR tourism and implications for community development published in the Journal of Policy Research in Tourism, Leisure and Events. The abstract is below, and the link to the article is here http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/RDYi6UXTkgrUVeSiYAzT/full. Visiting friends and relatives (VFR) tourism accounts for a substantial amount of worldwide travel, yet has received comparatively little attention regarding its impacts on sustainability. This paper provides an initial discussion that situates VFR tourism within a discussion on sustainable tourism development. The community capitals framework is used as a basis for the discussion. A review of academic literature on VFR and sustainable tourism provides the foundations for this paper. Due to the personal relationships inherent in VFR there are significant consequences regarding the social impacts of VFR tourism. Additionally, the economic implications of VFR tourism include a more stable demand, greater dispersal of spending, and engagement of residents as consumers. The ability of communities to absorb VFR tourism relative to other forms of tourism has positive indications for the cultural and environmental aspects of community development. As debates within the more recent literature consider the opportunities and possibilities for mass tourism to become more sustainable, this paper suggests that VFR could reasonably be considered a sustainable form of tourism and offers destinations a viable strategy for sustainable tourism development.

The positives of VFR, a summary

A contact of mine at the City of Toronto asked me to create a summary of the benefits of VFR, I summarised the research I know, and created the following document (click here).  It was quite a useful exercise, and includes a bibliography as well.  Any questions please email tomgriffin77@gmail.com.

Methodological paper on studying immigrant hosts is published

My methodological discussion paper on researching the hosting experience for immigrant hosts has been published in Critical Issues in Tourism.  In it I argue that a constructionist approach is the most suitable for this subject due to the way in which hosting could help provide fresh cultural resources for immigrants to construct new meanings and understandings about their identity in their new community.  The link and abstract are below.

Personal relationships play a substantial part of many tourism trips, commonly referred to as visiting friends and relatives (VFR) tourism, yet despite the high volume of VFR, it is a relatively under-researched subject, receiving little attention from tourism practitioners. Immigration and VFR travel patterns are linked, and the study of immigrants who host VFR has implications for integration, community development, and destination marketing. This paper offers a discussion on the paradigmatic considerations of approaching research on this topic, drawing from literature on VFR, immigrant integration and leisure. The paper ultimately proposes that a constructionist approach would be most beneficial at this point of the topic development because of the unknown and highly contextual nature of the experience. http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/PhHjMCu9NXeUGXKXI2Bc/full