Hoping the WLO can help resist voices of the illiberal right

Authors: Professor Neil Carr and Dr Stuart Hayes work for the Department of Tourism, University of Otago - Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka, New Zealand.

The Department of Tourism at the University of Otago has been a World Leisure Center of Excellence since 2018. Known also by the Māori title of Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka, the University is located in Dunedin, in the South Island of New Zealand. Dunedin is renowned for its diverse natural landscapes, unique wildlife species and multicultural heritage. It is possible to construct an image of this WLCE as being a long way from everywhere else, disconnected from the rest of the world and out of touch. Certainly, the recent experience of the Covid-19 pandemic, during which New Zealand’s borders were closed for a long period and life within them went on pretty much as before while so much of the rest of the world struggled. Yet seen from a different perspective, New Zealand is one of the first places in the world where the new day dawns. As such, it may be said to lead the world, not merely follow in everyone else’s shadow. 

This is how the Department has positioned itself throughout its lifespan since it was established in the early 1990s. It has long been recognised as being home to some of the world’s leading thinkers, researchers, learners, and teachers in the fields of tourism and leisure studies. They work across a range of topics, all reflecting both the social phenomena and large and diverse industries that are tourism and leisure. Current research foci in the Department include welfare, rights, and freedom (of humans and the more than human), indigeneity, invasive species, mobilities, placemaking, sustainability, ethics, and identity. 

An integral component of the research environment at Otago is the PhD student community that regularly sees over 30 students from around the world working on diverse topics. On completion of their PhDs, they then scatter across the planet, providing a nice representation of Otago being at the leading edge of each new day, whose wave then spreads across the globe to help push forward knowledge and understandings around tourism and leisure. Alongside the PhD programme, the Department academics often supervise interdisciplinary students from other related departments (e.g. Physical Education) and DBA (Doctor of Business Administration) students. It also operates one of the world’s leading master’s programmes and a successful undergraduate programme in the field of tourism. Like the PhD students, master’s and bachelor’s students come to Otago from all over the world and after graduating spread out, to enjoy the delights of New Zealand and the rest of the world. 

The value of internationalisation 
The internationalisation of higher education in New Zealand encompasses various dimensions such as student mobility, academic collaboration, research and teaching partnerships, and institutional linkages. At the University of Otago, the current internationalisation strategy - Te Aka Whakaranea ā-Ao – sets out various goals linked to, among other aspects, increasing student recruitment, student exchanges, and international articulation agreements; improving global partnerships (e.g. World Leisure Organization, Matariki Network of Universities, Erasmus exchanges); and maintaining “an active and internationally connected research culture” (University of Otago, 2024, p. 15).

Internationalisation brings myriad benefits for the University of Otago, as it does for New Zealand’s other universities. Firstly, it enhances cultural diversity and promotes intercultural understanding among students, faculty, and staff, enriching the learning environment and fostering global citizenship. Moreover, international collaborations contribute to the advancement of research and innovation. 

Economically, international education generates significant revenue for the University of Otago, through tuition fees, accommodation, and ancillary services. Relatedly, and at a broader level, pre-Covid there were 34,000 international students studying in New Zealand, and a return to these numbers is expected soon. According to Universities New Zealand (2024), 92% of international students choose to study here because of the reputation of New Zealand universities: all eight universities are ranked within the top 3% in the world and, moreover, New Zealand universities were ranked in the top 50 universities in the world in 22 different subjects, and in the top 100 in 39 (out of a possible 46) subjects. Despite the clear economic benefits associated with international student tuition fees, an over-reliance on this source of revenue can be risky, especially in times of economic uncertainty or geopolitical instability. Diversifying income streams is, therefore, arguably vital to mitigate such risks.

The Department of Tourism, University of Otago, works towards maximising the benefits of internationalisation in different ways. Beyond the continual development and promotion of our programmes to international students, staff are heavily invested in maintaining strong relationships with alumni. Particularly among PhD alumni, these relationships have blossomed into meaningful research collaborations addressing some of the important questions relevant to tourism and leisure. 

Being part of the WLO network
Over the last couple of years, our partnership with the WLO has also provided an important opportunity to connect with tourism and leisure researchers and students from around the world. The recent World Leisure Congress, held in Dunedin in 2023, was a major milestone in this relationship. Moreover, the Department of Tourism sees exciting potential to further develop internationalisation initiatives with, and alongside, the WLO, not least of all in terms of developing joint degree programmes and PhD supervision with other WLCEs. 

There are so many questions in the world today that benefit from being addressed by multinational groupings in global settings, ones that shift beyond the traditional dominance of western-centric thinking. Yet thinking locally and respecting the specificity of place is vital within this setting of inclusive globalisation. To take understandings of leisure and tourism forward within this context demands multiple international cooperations across researchers, teachers, learners, and publishers. The WLO network offers one such vehicle to enable us to engage with people from diverse locations, with differing perspectives and ways of knowing. 

A crucial role for the WLO to play
We have lived a wave of rising liberalism and acceptance of diversity over the last couple of decades. For anyone who believes in the rights of the individual to self-expression it has been a beautiful journey. Today, we see such acceptance under pressure in many parts of the world, threatening to roll back the acceptance of individuality. Knowing that leisure and tourism are key components of community and individual well-being, destinations are sites for expression of, and learning about, the self. The hope is that the WLO, and all those working in the field, can help to fight back against the voices of the illiberal right. Is leisure studies best situated for such an undertaking? Carr (2022) has argued that, despite the demise of so many leisure studies departments in the world’s universities, the field is actually very healthy, filled with passionate individuals researching topics central to the above concern. The challenge for WLO is to bring those voices together, to make them heard in the face of the noise from those who would see an end to diversity, with all the associated negative connotations for individual and societal well-being. WLO also needs to bring the international and cultural diversity of tourism academics into the fold, setting aside age-old angst about the relation between leisure and tourism to walk the talk of acceptance of diversity. They need to do this to unite the voices of leisure and tourism scholars around the welfare of the individual (in all its diversity, incorporating everyone, be they human or more than human), society, and the planet.

Sources

- Carr, N. (2022). Doom-mongers beware: An analysis of the health of leisure studies. Leisure Studies. 41 (2): 151 – 163.
- New Zealand Universities. (2024). International students. Retrieved from https://www.universitiesnz.ac.nz/international-students.
- University of Otago. (2024). Te Aka Whakaranea ā-Ao: 2021–25 Internationalisation Framework. Retrieved from https://www.otago.ac.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/314740/download-te-aka-whakaranea-a-ao-2021-2025-829857.pdf.

This article was published in Uncover Magazine - Internationalisation. You can read the complete magazine via this link.