Present whilst absent: Home and the business tourist gaze

Willis, Cheryl; Ladkin, Adele; Jain, Juliet; Clayton, William

Abstract

© 2016 This paper reflects on business travel as a contemporary form of mobility and how it relates to family life. Through qualitative research with business travellers, insights are gained into the role digital technology plays in enabling connections to home and family. The paper argues that technology affords a ‘business tourist gaze’, characterised by a focus on ‘home’ rather than ‘away’ as might be the case for leisure tourists. The paper discusses how, through the business tourist gaze, the boundaries between the everyday and the exotic are dissolved and the business traveller is disconnected from the destination, simultaneously absent whilst present both at the destination and at home. Theoretical understandings of the business tourist experience are offered.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Oct 16, 2016
• Online Publication Date: Jan 18, 2017
• Publication Date: Mar 1, 2017
• Deposit Date: Oct 19, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 18, 2019
• Journal: Annals of Tourism Research
• Print ISSN: 0160-7383
• Publisher: Elsevier Masson
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 63
• Pages: 48-59
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2016.10.008
• Keywords: business travel, work-life balance, ICTs, family connections, human resources management, mobility, tourist gaze, mobilities, digital technology
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/890453
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2016.10.008
• Contract Date: Oct 19, 2016