Editorial: Celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Journal of Tourism Futures

Over the last 10 years, the JTF has seen a strong year-by-year increase in the number of submissions, number of downloads (see Figure 1) and numbers of citations. Considering that the JTF was started only in 2015 and looking at its performance now, we see the journal as a rising star. We started the journal without any name (no reputation) and fame (no impact factor). The journal has been able to grow due to the help of leading scholar and Editor-in-Chief Prof. Ian Yeoman, the head of department of the ETFI at the time, Dr Jeroen Oskam (Yeoman, 2017) and professor of strategic foresight and scenario planning, Prof. Albert Postma, and their extensive networks in academia. Also, the journal was heavily promoted by the ETFI and the fact that it is a platinum open-access journal contributed to its visibility and attractiveness. Accepted papers are published quickly and become accessible via EarlyCite as soon as they go through production at Emerald Publishers. Authors do not have to wait until the full issue is published, and other scholars can read and cite contributions.

Rather quickly, our journal has grown in name and fame. We have seen the manuscripts to review increase massively from 50 in the first year (2015) to over 300 in the current year (2024). This was among the results of various strategic choices to improve visibility, stimulate high-quality submissions and manage the increasing workload. We added a Book Review Editor, expanded the team of Associate Editors, broadened the Editorial Advisory Board team (taking into account diversity in terms of academic background, geographical spread, gender, career stage, etc.) and invited key individuals from tourism practice to join our thought leaders advisory board.

Given the greater focus on the future in today’s tourism industry and academia, the JTF is foreseen to further grow in importance and impact, and we are considering several changes. First, we consider accepting only papers adopting a more long-term futures and foresight perspective and potentially adjusting the aims and scope accordingly. Second, we consider putting more emphasis on special issues and related calls for paper on key futures topics that are co-identified by our advisory board members. Third, we consider adding more issues annually, if our resources will allow for it. Fourth, we consider closer alignment with the Journal of Research in Hospitality Management, our sister journal at NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences, operated by the Hotel Management School Leeuwarden (HMSL), by referring papers to this journal that take a more short-term perspective or those transitioning into the future.

The journal published a number of high-impact contributions in the first years of the journal. At the time of writing this editorial (October 2024), for instance, the article by Schänzel and Yeoman (2015) on “Trends in family tourism” has been downloaded 59,482 times and cited in 234 publications, the article by Oskam and Boswijk (2016) on “Airbnb: the future of networked hospitality businesses” has been downloaded 131,734 times and cited in 863 publications and the article by Postma and Schmuecker (2017) on “Understanding and overcoming negative impacts of tourism in city destinations: conceptual model and strategic framework” has been downloaded 87,905 times and cited in 408 publications. Quite quickly the JTF was able to show the academic world that there is a place for the seemingly niche topic of tourism futures. In the years after, the JTF helped to show that tourism future is more than a niche but a fundamentally important and growing part of discussions in tourism studies.

Over time, the JTF has drawn attention to key topics important to tourism futures research by means of various special issues. Examples include but are not limited to accessible tourism in 2015 (Michopoulou et al., 2015), the future of city tourism in 2017 (Postma et al., 2017), the future of experiential travel in 2019 (Seeler and Schänzel, 2019), the future of polar tourism in 2020 (Maher et al., 2020), two special issues on tourism trends with many short viewpoint papers to draw attention to emergent phenomenon, overlooked but highly relevant topics and critical reflections and observations. Part 1 on tourism trends was published in 2020 (Yeoman, 2020) and part 2 in 2021 (Yeoman, 2021). More recently, the JTF published special issues on “Tourism in crisis: global threats to sustainable tourism futures” in 2021, with guest editors Joseph Cheer, Dominic Lapointe, Mary Mostafanezhad and Tazim Jamal (Cheer et al., 2021), and a special issue on “Transformation and the Regenerative Future of Tourism” in 2022, with guest editors Irena Ateljevic and Pauline Sheldon (Ateljevic and Sheldon, 2022). Guest editors have been successful in bringing together groups of highly valued and respected researchers from across the globe and an inflow of impactful contributions to the JTF.

The JTF has been of strategic importance to NHL Stenden/ETFI and the educational programs of NHL Stenden University of Applied Science. The JTF helped to develop knowledge about many aspects that relate to the future of tourism and key enabling methodologies for the tourism industry and tourism destination management such as scenario planning and strategic foresight. The combination of the team of editors (Ian Yeoman, Albert Postma and Stefan Hartman), the book review editor, the group of associate editors, the editorial advisory board and the thought leaders advisory board have proven to help substantially in promoting the journal and receiving high-quality submissions. The knowledge and networks developed have helped NHL Stenden/ETFI to grow and become a leading institute in tourism futures research. The knowledge, methodologies and networks that have been developed by means of operating the JTF have been helpful in initiating, designing and/or implementing many applied science projects, presented on www.etfi.eu by the ETFI research group. Also, by means of the JTF, quality publications by leading scholars on the future of tourism have become available to NHL Stenden students in the bachelor programs of International Tourism Management (ITM), Leisure and Events Management (LE&M) and the Master of International Leisure, Tourism and Events Management (MILTEM).

Perhaps one of the most important aspects of the JTF is how it has strengthened already existing connections between individuals (e.g. in editorial teams or boards or as guest editor of special issues) but also brought together people who otherwise potentially would not have met. A curious case is the one related to the special issue on “The Future of Polar Tourism” (volume 6, issue 1), published in 2020, with guest editor professor Patrick T. Maher. While the future of polar tourism draws attention to the important topics of ecosystem protection versus visitation and finding a sustainable balance regarding tourism destination development, it was at the time not directly of strategic importance to NHL Stenden/ETFI. However, this changed instantly when in 2022 the Dutch Research Council (NWO) launched a call for projects about Antarctic Tourism, as part of the Dutch National Research Agenda (NWA). For the team at NHL Stenden/ETFI, the call ticked all the boxes regarding relevance and importance for advancing our knowledge on tourism futures and scenario planning methodologies and strategic foresight theory. The study location of Antarctica, however, fell outside of our usual scope. With the help of Patrick Maher, the guest editor of the 2022 special issue, a relevant network of researches was quickly mobilized. Long story short, without this special issue on the future of polar tourism, NHL Stenden/ETFI would not have submitted and would not have been awarded a grant proposal for the 4-year, €1 million euro contract value “ADAPT” project on “adaptation pathways through knowledge co-production to anticipate Antarctica’s uncertain tourism futures”. In turn, this project is valuable for tourism futures research. In the project, we aim to inspire a shift from advance worrying to advance thinking and planning about Antarctica’s tourism future. The project offers tools (applications of 4 different types of scenario planning methodologies, design of adaptation pathways and an early warning signal monitoring system) that help public and private stakeholders to make informed and robust decisions regarding Antarctica’s tourism future, in which values and qualities are protected and there is a social license for tourism in Antarctica.

The core of this special issue celebrating its 10th anniversary are 10 interviews with key persons who have all been important to the success of the JTF, its editors and/or the ETFI. All can be considered thought leaders when it comes to the future of tourism, having outstanding views on key issues in tourism and important methodologies on how to address future related issues.

• (1)

  The interview with Professor Ian Yeoman about the Journal of Tourism Futures (Postma and Yeoman, 2024). Yeoman shares his expertise on the establishment and evolution of the Journal of Tourism Futures, in the context of the growth of futures thinking in tourism within a science and industry context.

• (2)

  Interview with Professor Heike Schänzel about her role as Associate Editor of the Journal of Tourism Futures (Yeoman and Schänzel, 2024). Schänzel provides a guide to the role of the Associate Editors and discusses her own research on family tourism, lesbian, children’s voices and social justice research.

• (3)

  Interview with emeritus professor Pauline Sheldon on regenerative tourism (Yeoman and Sheldon, 2024). Sheldon highlights the importance of regenerative tourism for the future and the role the JTF plays in this field. In particular, Sheldon highlights the pioneering research and practice of Dr Dianne Dredge, who has championed a pathway on regenerative tourism

• (4)

  Interview with Albert Postma on the evolution and future of Scenario planning and strategic foresight in tourism (Hartman and Postma, 2024). Postma highlights the importance of scenario planning and strategic foresight and its evolution. He explains how he is taking a leading role in improving the impact of applications of scenario planning and strategic foresight in tourism practice.

• (5)

  Interview with Dr Peter Bishop about teaching the future (Postma and Bishop, 2024). Bishop explains the importance of teaching the future, the evolution in teaching the future, competencies and skills that the teaching focuses on, challenges of teaching the future in the current era and the role of AI.

• (6)

  Interview with Jeremy Sampson on the need for systemic change in tourism (Hartman and Sampson, 2024). Sampson elaborates on his personal career journey, the approach of The Travel Foundation and how this informed a strong focus on the ground impact as well as systemic change. Also, he highlights the importance of scenario planning and strategic foresight and its evolution.

• (7)

  Interview with Bernadett Papp on brining equity into debates on tourism development and destination governance (Hartman and Papp, 2024). Papp highlights that the topic of equitable tourism still requires a lot of work before hitting mainstream approaches to destination development, even though it should have been on the policy agendas for many years already.

• (8)

  Interview with Dr Nicole Ferdinand about Notting Hill Carnival Futures (Postma and Ferdinand, 2024). Ferdinand elaborates on the application of scenario planning in the context of the Notting Hill Carnival, how the process of scenario planning was experienced by the participants and the effect the study had on the Carnival and how it was perceived in subsequent years.

• (9)

  Interview with Leslie Vella about the future of tourism in Malta (Yeoman and Vella, 2024). The interview discusses the future of tourism in Malta raising issues and reflections, through four scenarios that portray the Mediterranean island.

• (10)

  Interview with Dr Daniel Wright about the genre of science fiction (Yeoman and Wright, 2024). Wright elaborates on science fiction research and how this is about asking difficult questions, the questions we feel uncomfortable asking and answering. He argues that science fiction is a powerful medium to imagine the future, which students love as it is provocative. In the interview, Dr Wright reflects upon his own writing from immortality to the end of the world.

The interviews are supplemented nicely with the book review of Scenario Planning and Tourism Futures: Theory Building, Methodologies and Case Studies (Postma et al., 2025) by Mandić (2024) and the reviews by Peter Singleton of the webinar “how do we see the future, using futures literacy” (Singleton, 2024) and Georges El Hajal of the webinar “Rethinking Hospitality” (El Hajal, 2024).