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Dr Alexandra Witte's Outputs (15)

Navigating tourism ethnographies – fieldwork embroiled in time, movement and emotion (2022)
Journal Article
Witte, A., Wilson, J., Burrai, E., & Dashper, K. (2023). Navigating tourism ethnographies – fieldwork embroiled in time, movement and emotion. Current Issues in Tourism, 26(9), 1394-1408. https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2022.2057841

In this paper, we reflect on the challenges of ethnographic fieldwork in tourism research. Specifically, we discuss the intense, messy and complex dynamics of doing (tourism) ethnographic fieldwork, highlighting how key challenges have affected us as... Read More about Navigating tourism ethnographies – fieldwork embroiled in time, movement and emotion.

Revisiting walking as mobile place-making practice: a discursive perspective (2021)
Journal Article
Witte, A. (2023). Revisiting walking as mobile place-making practice: a discursive perspective. Tourism Geographies, 25(1), 334-356. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2021.1878269

Embodied mobilities are an important factor in how people engage with their environment, and thus contribute to the formation, contestation, and affirmation of place. Walking is a mobile place-making practice that most people engage in on an almost d... Read More about Revisiting walking as mobile place-making practice: a discursive perspective.

“Chinese don’t walk?” – The emergence of domestic walking tourism on China’s Ancient Tea Horse Road (2020)
Journal Article
Witte, A. (2021). “Chinese don’t walk?” – The emergence of domestic walking tourism on China’s Ancient Tea Horse Road. Journal of Leisure Research, 52(4), 424-445. https://doi.org/10.1080/00222216.2020.1847624

Walking is a potential key growth area for a diversifying domestic leisure and tourism demand in China. This research discusses the emergence of walking as a touristic activity among Chinese domestic tourists on the Ancient Tea Horse Road (ATHR) in Y... Read More about “Chinese don’t walk?” – The emergence of domestic walking tourism on China’s Ancient Tea Horse Road.

Theorising Deep and Shallow Diversity: Critiquing The North Face’s Allyship in the Outdoors program (2025)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Witte, A., & Stanley, P. (2025, August). Theorising Deep and Shallow Diversity: Critiquing The North Face’s Allyship in the Outdoors program. Presented at Royal Geographical Society International Conference, Birmingham, UK

Recreational access to the outdoors is good for human bodyminds (Natural England, 2016a, 2016b). But for many reasons —conceptually divisible into tangible and intangible constraints (Urry, 2007)— some people do not regularly access outdoors spaces.... Read More about Theorising Deep and Shallow Diversity: Critiquing The North Face’s Allyship in the Outdoors program.

Hiking on Uneven Ground: Women’s Negotiations of Access and Inclusion in Scotland (2025)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Witte, A. (2025, August). Hiking on Uneven Ground: Women’s Negotiations of Access and Inclusion in Scotland. Presented at Royal Geographical Society International Conference, Birmingham

Although the Scottish Outdoor Access Code promises to empower everyone to enjoy nature, access is influenced by complex socio-cultural and structural factors. Neither access nor benefits of participation in outdoor leisure are consistently realised f... Read More about Hiking on Uneven Ground: Women’s Negotiations of Access and Inclusion in Scotland.

(Im)mobilities on and of China’s Ancient Tea Horse Road (2024)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Witte, A. (2024, August). (Im)mobilities on and of China’s Ancient Tea Horse Road. Presented at 35th International Geographical Congress, Dublin, Ireland

This research examines how various stakeholders’ practices on the ground mobilise and immobilise the history and heritage of China's Ancient Tea Horse Road as a historic trade and caravan route. It departs from Cresswell’s (2006) view of mobile herit... Read More about (Im)mobilities on and of China’s Ancient Tea Horse Road.

Hokkien Chinese diaspora visitors’ image construction of their ancestral hometown: the role of the tourist gaze (2023)
Journal Article
Wang, Q., & Witte, A. (2023). Hokkien Chinese diaspora visitors’ image construction of their ancestral hometown: the role of the tourist gaze. Journal of Heritage Tourism, 18(6), 768-784. https://doi.org/10.1080/1743873x.2023.2252112

This study examines how diaspora tourists’ secondary and primary image of their ancestral home is constructed and how the tourist gaze is implied within. The study focuses on the Hokkien Chinese diaspora travelling to their ancestral hometown of Quan... Read More about Hokkien Chinese diaspora visitors’ image construction of their ancestral hometown: the role of the tourist gaze.

Tourism routes through a mobile lens: The case of China’s Chamagudao (2023)
Journal Article
Witte, A. (2023). Tourism routes through a mobile lens: The case of China’s Chamagudao. Tourist Studies, 23(3), 181-207. https://doi.org/10.1177/14687976231189834

This article examines how various stakeholders’ practices on the ground mobilise and immobilise the Chamagudao’s heritage as a historic trade and caravan route. The research is based on ethnographic fieldwork in Yunnan, China, following movements of... Read More about Tourism routes through a mobile lens: The case of China’s Chamagudao.

Pandemic immobilities as provocative pauses: Reflections from Macau’s non-resident worker community (2022)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Witte, A. (2022, June). Pandemic immobilities as provocative pauses: Reflections from Macau’s non-resident worker community. Presented at 9th Critical Tourism Studies Conference, ' With in Dangerous Times', Maó, Menorca

This research explores the lived experience of waiting and its social implications in the context of travel restrictions and resulting immobilities for Macau’s non-resident worker community during COVID-19. Waiting has become a defining experience fo... Read More about Pandemic immobilities as provocative pauses: Reflections from Macau’s non-resident worker community.

Gendered (Im)mobilities in China: The Impacts of COVID-19 on Women in Tourism (2022)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Muldoon, M., Witte, A., & Xu, Y.-H. (. (2022, June). Gendered (Im)mobilities in China: The Impacts of COVID-19 on Women in Tourism. Presented at 9th Critical Tourism Studies Conference, ' With in Dangerous Times', Maó, Menorca

It became evident early on in the pandemic that many of the impacts on livelihood, employment, income, and work mobilities are of a gendered nature (Assoumou Ella, 2021; Zulver, Cookson, & Fuentes, 2021). As women across the world are more likely to... Read More about Gendered (Im)mobilities in China: The Impacts of COVID-19 on Women in Tourism.

Gendered tourism experiences in China: exploring identity, mobility, and resistance online (2021)
Journal Article
Muldoon, M. L., Witte, A., Guan, S., Fang, H. Y., Xie, Y., & Zhou, L. (2023). Gendered tourism experiences in China: exploring identity, mobility, and resistance online. Annals of Leisure Research, 26(3), 433-453. https://doi.org/10.1080/11745398.2021.1878379

This paper presents research exploring the narratives Chinese women and men share online regarding gendered tourism experiences. Data were collected from 260 blog postings and resulting discussion threads on Chinese social media travel sites from Mar... Read More about Gendered tourism experiences in China: exploring identity, mobility, and resistance online.

Tourist’s mobilities: Walking, cycling, driving and waiting (2021)
Journal Article
Hannam, K., Butler, G., Witte, A., & Zuev, D. (2021). Tourist’s mobilities: Walking, cycling, driving and waiting. Tourist Studies, 21(1), 57-69. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468797621992931

This commentary reviews recent research in terms of tourist’s mobilities in terms practices of walking, cycling and driving. It concludes by reflecting on the contemporary lock down of travel in terms of the global pandemic and its consequences for w... Read More about Tourist’s mobilities: Walking, cycling, driving and waiting.

Theorising practices of walking in tourism (2018)
Book Chapter
Hannam, K., & Witte, A. (2019). Theorising practices of walking in tourism. In Theories of Practice in Tourism (29-40). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315162171

This chapter discusses the theorisation of practices of walking in tourism and leisure contexts. It begins by examining the theorisation of practices in the context of the mobilities turn in social science and further develops the conceptualisation o... Read More about Theorising practices of walking in tourism.

Walking online: A netnography of China's emerging hiking communities (2017)
Book Chapter
Witte, A., & Hannam, K. (2017). Walking online: A netnography of China's emerging hiking communities. In C. Michael Hall, Y. Ram, & N. Shoval (Eds.), The Routledge International Handbook of Walking. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315638461-15

This chapter is based on a netnographic approach that was chosen due to the development of Chinese online communities dedicated to specific leisure and tourism pursuits. In China, the development of online communities has allowed the formation of new... Read More about Walking online: A netnography of China's emerging hiking communities.