How should travel & tourism respond to threats to free movement, thought?

If the United States under Don­ald Trump threatens free­dom of move­ment and free­dom of thought — and the busi­nesses and live­li­hoods that facil­it­ate both — what should travel, tour­ism, and hos­pit­al­ity stake­hold­ers do? K Michael Hay­wood reck­ons industry and the academy should put aside long-stand­ing differences.

It’s a “Good Tour­ism” Insight. [You too can share.]

Democracies in decline …

Demo­cra­cies are in decline and gov­ern­ments are under­min­ing inde­pend­ent sources of inform­a­tion and know­ledge. Autonom­ous gov­ern­ment agen­cies are being side­lined, the media are being muzzled, law firms and the rule of law are under attack, and high­er edu­ca­tion is being weakened and defun­ded. 

The con­sequences and implic­a­tions for tour­ism are more ser­i­ous than pre­vi­ously thought and all com­munit­ies (wheth­er or not they are des­tin­a­tions) should be worried. 

While com­monly asso­ci­ated with author­it­ari­an regimes, such tend­en­cies are becom­ing increas­ingly pre­val­ent as so-called demo­crat­ic coun­tries wage cul­ture wars and adopt anti-lib­er­al sentiments. 

While not­able in coun­tries like Hun­gary and Tur­key, more per­plex­ing is what is hap­pen­ing in the United States. With­in the former bas­tion of soft power and free trade an over­reach of exec­ut­ive power is in full swing, includ­ing a mul­ti­fa­ceted cam­paign against the freedoms of col­leges and universities.

Read more “Good Tour­ism” con­tent about places in the Amer­icas

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… curtailing the good in tourism

A rise in author­it­ari­an­ism is bound to cur­tail the ‘good‘ in tour­ism; tour­ism that:

• encour­ages inter­ac­tion; 
• pro­motes tol­er­ance; 
• cel­eb­rates diverse loc­al cultures; 
• invests in infra­struc­ture and pub­lic places; 
• diver­si­fies eco­nom­ies; 
• sup­ports loc­al businesses; 
• provides gov­ern­ments with scarce tax rev­en­ues; and 
• incentiv­ises sus­tain­ab­il­ity. 

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… and the effectiveness of tourism education

Ima­gine what would hap­pen to tour­ism edu­ca­tion in your jur­is­dic­tion if the exec­ut­ive branch of your government:

• defun­ded the Depart­ment of Education; 
• demon­ised uni­ver­sit­ies and threatened to take over their governance; 
• deepened dis­trust in sci­ence, research, and expertise; 
• cen­sored spe­cif­ic words; 
• banned cer­tain books; 
• sought to dis­mantle cer­tain aca­dem­ic pro­grams; and
• pulled fund­ing, grants, and con­tracts from research universities? 

Chaos, undoubtedly.

Now, ima­gine what would hap­pen if your gov­ern­ment also attacked your free­dom of expres­sion and the free exchange of ideas. 

Cer­tainly, you would expect stu­dents as well as fac­ulty mem­bers to be pet­ri­fied, fear­ful of being a dissident. 

What do you expect would be going through the minds of cit­izens, espe­cially in all the insti­tu­tions, organ­isa­tions, and enter­prises in ser­vice to and depend­ent on tourism? 

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Authoritarianism is bad for business …

The rise in author­it­ari­an­ism in the United States is res­ult­ing in declines in vis­it­or arrivals, boy­cotts, and the exclu­sion of vis­it­ors from a host of coun­tries, as well as:

• new visa require­ments; 
• skep­ti­cism regard­ing free­dom of movement; 
• lack of receptiv­ity to cer­tain eth­nic groups; 
• arbit­rary detain­ment of some vis­it­ors; and 
• fear of deport­a­tion (per­haps to jails in El Salvador).

That’s not to men­tion a host of unin­ten­ded con­sequences eman­at­ing from chaos and uncer­tainty, includ­ing the loss of tour­ism rev­en­ues and sub­sequent job losses.

As the United Nations’ World Social Report 2025 reveals: “Eco­nom­ic insec­ur­ity, stag­ger­ing levels of inequal­ity, declin­ing social trust and social frag­ment­a­tion are (already) destabil­ising soci­et­ies world­wide”; prob­lems exacer­bated by self-imposed and infla­tion­ary trade wars among friends and foes alike.

While many indus­tries will suf­fer the con­sequences of these tar­iffs and re-align­ments for years to come, travel & tour­ism is bound to bear a heavy bur­den as indi­vidu­als and house­holds will­ingly sac­ri­fice nice-to-have vaca­tions (even stayc­a­tions) for need-to-have, safe­guarded reserves for high pri­or­ity items: health, food, edu­ca­tion, and housing.

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… and travel & tourism’s talent pool

Add into the mix travel & tour­ism work­ers, who were already feel­ing under­val­ued and under-sup­por­ted. They too remain notice­ably absent. 

From air traffic con­trol­lers to res­taur­ant work­ers, house­keep­ers to tour guides, front desk to head office, labour and tal­ent short­ages are stark in the United States as elsewhere. 

Sure, the deport­a­tion of immig­rants is partly to blame, but gen­er­ally speak­ing the travel, tour­ism, and hos­pit­al­ity sec­tors have under-inves­ted in edu­ca­tion and training. 

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Tourism education and industry relations were already under strain …

No one can deny how import­ant train­ing, edu­ca­tion, and voca­tion­al and edu­ca­tion­al insti­tu­tions are to tour­ism, yet I con­tend that the rela­tion­ship between tour­ism edu­ca­tion and the tour­ism industry was and remains strained (based on work I con­duc­ted with a col­league more than 30 years ago and my rad­ic­al pro­pos­al for hos­pit­al­ity and tour­ism edu­ca­tion).

That rela­tion­ship is likely to become even more aggrav­ated giv­en the ten­or of the time and the extreme pres­sures facing col­leges and uni­ver­sit­ies; issues ignored in the most recent edit­or­i­al for the Journ­al of Hos­pit­al­ity & Tour­ism Edu­ca­tion, “Look­ing into Hos­pit­al­ity and Tour­ism Edu­ca­tion in the 2030s”. 

Read more “GT” con­tent tagged tour­ism edu­ca­tion & training

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… so it is time to come together

While academia’s insu­lar­ity and estrange­ment from the real world has been prob­lem­at­ic for ages, now is the time for every stake­hold­er involved in the travel, tour­ism, and hos­pit­al­ity indus­tries to come togeth­er and relearn how to cooper­ate and, more import­antly than ever, ensure that the Glob­al Code of Eth­ics for Tour­ism be applied and upheld. 

It is up to us to put demo­cracy into action.

The impact of polit­ics and tour­ism (explored more here) has nev­er been more pro­found: From “travel policies and reg­u­la­tions to eco­nom­ic sta­bil­ity, image per­cep­tion, and inter­na­tion­al rela­tions, polit­ics shape the oppor­tun­it­ies and chal­lenges facing des­tin­a­tions and busi­nesses in the glob­al tour­ism landscape”. 

Answers to a mul­ti­tude of prob­lems related to devel­op­ment, employ­ment, and eco­nom­ic growth, and the health, safety, secur­ity, and well-being of people and the plan­et require ongo­ing res­ol­u­tion. This neces­sit­ates fur­ther study and research; study and research that is under­stand­able, rel­ev­ant, and applicable. 

Read more “GT” Insights by K Michael Haywood

To this end, efforts to restore a sense of bal­ance and trust are essen­tial. It helps to cla­ri­fy and under­stand the pur­pose of tour­ism, the goals to be attained and why they matter. 

Once people are on board, con­ver­sa­tions need to take place about the work to be done, how best to coordin­ate among stake­hold­ers, make decisions, provide feed­back, shift course if neces­sary, and cel­eb­rate jobs well done. 

In essence, people need to be con­trib­ut­ing and listen­ing. Both advocacy and inquiry need to be present. Mutu­al learn­ing, respect, and pro­gress must be in evidence.

To max­im­ise real and per­ceived value for all stake­hold­ers, it is crit­ic­al to put demo­cracy back into action. But first, it must be built into busi­nesses and com­munit­ies through edu­ca­tion­al pro­cesses, engage­ment, and participation. 

To stop the back­slid­ing pro­cesses at work in our soci­et­ies, those of us involved in travel & tour­ism — the academy, the industry, and its insti­tu­tions — are obliged to inform cit­izens about the dam­age being done, forge coali­tions, broaden their appeal, and enhance the resi­li­ence of civil society. 

That, I believe, is ‘good tour­ism’ at work!

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What do you think? 

Share your own thoughts in a com­ment below on how travel & tour­ism stake­hold­ers might lever­age awe. (SIGN IN or REGISTER first. After sign­ing in you will need to refresh this page to see the com­ments section.)

Or write a “GT” Insight or “GT” Insight Bite of your own. The “Good Tour­ism” Blog wel­comes diversity of opin­ion and per­spect­ive about travel & tour­ism, because travel & tour­ism is everyone’s business.

“GT” doesn’t judge. “GT” pub­lishes. “GT” is where free thought travels.

If you think the tour­ism media land­scape is bet­ter with “GT” in it, then please …

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About the author

K Michael Hay­wood is Pro­fess­or Emer­it­us, School of Hos­pit­al­ity, Food and Tour­ism at the Uni­ver­sity of Guelph in Ontario, Canada.

“As a former pro­fess­or and con­sult­ant to the hos­pit­al­ity and tour­ism indus­tries, I now host the Des­tin­a­tions-in-Action blog on substack from my Tour­ism Studio.”

Michael has also writ­ten for The “GT” Travel Blog.

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Featured image (top of post)

Protest out­side Trump build­ing in Chica­go in 2018. Image by Rob Walsh (CC0) via Unsplash. “GT” cropped it and added the question.

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