Tourism and Final Wish Making: The Discourse of Terminal Illness and Travel
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Willson, GB
McIntosh, AJ
Cockburn-Wootten, C
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Routledge
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This paper identifies a new discourse about tourism, that of final wish making. The website communications of charitable foundations whose dedicated purpose is to grant final wishes for adults with a terminal illness and their families were examined using critical discourse analysis. Specifically, the aim of this study was to understand how these charitable organisations construct, communicate and mediate meanings around terminal illness and travel for these individuals. Our study found that, promoted as a final wish in one’s life, tourism is framed as a transformational concept that is beneficial in the imminent time before death, as a legacy for life, and after death. Our analysis indicated implications around the memory-making potential of tourism and the differential power relations between final wish organisers and vulnerable individuals with a terminal illness. The paper calls for further research exploring the marginalisation of the terminally ill through tourism, but equally the potential of tourism to include the most vulnerable tourists in their final days.
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3508 Tourism, 35 Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services, 3504 Commercial Services, 3506 Marketing
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In: Critical Inclusive Tourism: Empowering Marginalized Groups. Edited By Catheryn Khoo, Prachi Thakur, Paolo Mura, Jess Sanggeyong Je & Mona Yang. Routledge, 2024. eBook ISBN: 9781003474029. DOI: 10.4324/9781003474029
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CC-BY-NC-ND Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial No Derivatives
© 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Open Access.
© 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Open Access.
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Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as CC-BY-NC-ND Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial No Derivatives