Understanding the relationship between terminal illness and tourism: An exploratory study.

Hunter-Jones, Philippa ORCID: 0000-0002-0880-7357, Sudbury-Riley, Lynn ORCID: 0000-0001-5097-3407 and Al-Abdin, Ahmed ORCID: 0000-0002-5818-5736 (2022) Understanding the relationship between terminal illness and tourism: An exploratory study. Tourism Management, 88. p. 104397.

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Abstract

Two research questions lie at the heart of this paper: what are the needs of terminally ill patients and their families and what can tourism providers do to better meet these needs? We offer both theoretical and managerial contributions to these questions, drawing insights from our extensive empirical research into terminal illness, positioned here as a profound form of unsettled times. We mine the stories collected from in excess of 200 patients and their families diagnosed with a terminal illness through to bereavement. Domestic tourism, visiting friends and relatives and respite care all dominate this space. We propose a hierarchy of service needs categorised as: emotional; informational; environmental; restorative; and aftercare, offering also a temporal understanding of which services are needed, and at which point in time. Future opportunities to test the validity of this hierarchy in other health-tourism contexts to aid tourism business planning and practice are outlined.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Palliative care, End of life care, Trajectory Touchpoint Technique, Emotions, Fear, Hospice, Respite
Divisions:	Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Management
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	02 Aug 2021 10:12
Last Modified:	03 Aug 2023 01:30
DOI:	10.1016/j.tourman.2021.104397
Related URLs:	Author Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3131367