Editorial
Abstract
JOURNAL OF TEACHING IN TRAVEL & TOURISM 2019, VOL. 19, NO. 1, 1–7 https://doi.org/10.1080/15313220.2018.1560527 a b c Brendan Paddison , Emily Höckert and Émilie Crossley a b c York St John University; Linnaeus University; Otago Polytechnic Storytelling is a powerful way of exploring the past, crafting values in the present and imagining the future. Stories, told from different perspectives and drawing from diverse experiences, can build shared understandings, empathy and care. Everyday stories of tourism – coping, success, empowerment, nurturing, disruption, relationship building and activism – are important tools that help students, teachers, researchers, practitioners and community members reflect and learn. The stories that we tell join the streams of wider narratives, shaping our understanding of the world and the ways in which we encounter it, thus providing a worldmaking function. Engaging in storytelling is anything but a benign activity as different narratives are continuously constituting and naturalizing the world and our relationships with others. Tourism scholar Keith Hollinshead (2004) describes worldmaking as collaborative processes that essentialize and normalize peoples, places and practices. Hence, the notion of worldmaking calls for critical reflection on the ways in which stories enact, reinforce and alter power relationships by erasing alternative stories and