The Emergence of Slow Travel - Slow Travel and Tourism - page 3

with slow food and beverages, exploration of localities in rela-
tion to patrimony and culture at a slower pace and, what might
best be described as, support for the environment. (Dickinson et
al, 2010b)
The implicit conceptual framework on which the discussion focuses is that of
slow consumption, a counter-cultural wave against the plethora of products
and services that emphasize speed and convenience over quality of experience
(Honoré, 2004). The rationale underpinning this emerging work is that slow
ways of doing things bring more meaning, understanding and pleasure to any
given form of activity, whether it be food or travel. It is a conceptual alterna-
tive to speed as one of the driving forces in the lives of people living in western
cultures (Germann Molz, 2009). It takes forward the notion that Peters (2006,
p1) refers to when he comments:
… I will challenge the basic assumption underlying this line of
thinking, the idea that time spent travelling can be reduced to a
neutral and measured unity which can be saved if we speed up.
The core of my argument is that travel not only takes time, but
it also makes time.
To a lesser extent the discussion has also extended to the role of the supply
sectors. Several commentators, for example, have turned their attention to a
critique of food supply. In particular, they discuss the ecological justice or oth-
erwise of global food production systems. They ask how it can be ethically
right to produce 50 per cent of crops in order to feed animals and 10 per cent
to fuel vehicles, while starvation exists in many parts of the developing world
(Fonte, 2006; Pollan, 2007). Is there not a parallel with tourism? How can we
move towards more equitable and sustainable forms of travel? How might
such new forms of tourism flourish in a world that is changing to meet the
strictures of the ecological limits to growth? These are fundamental issues
which tourism scholars need to address; this topic seeks to offer a contribu-
tion to the discussion.
Slow travel has many parallels with slow food. Nilsson et al (2007) dis-
cuss the development of slow food and the interfaces with slow cities
(Cittáslow) in terms of improving quality of life, principally for residents, but
also coincidentally for the tourist. The authors refer to the emergence of slow
food as a response to 'globalised homogenisation' and Cittáslow as a reaction
to the 'globalization of our townscapes' (Nilsson et al, 2007, p2). The threads
of the argument are similar. There is a resistance to an economic domain
which prioritizes globalization, standardization and rationality. Instead, the
focus, it is argued, should be on the vernacular, local distinctiveness and place-
based knowledge. Individuality and diversity are essential for the health of
towns and for tourism.
It is interesting to note that in a series of in-depth interviews with partic-
ipants from Cittáslow towns in Italy, Nilsson and his colleagues discerned a
cautionary approach to tourism. The concern was about exploitation.