Published paper and report

Dr. Jessica Aquino is an Assistant Professor at Hólar University in the Department of Rural Tourism and Head of Tourism Research at the Icelandic Seal Center. She is an Academic Fellow to the Teaching Academy of Public Universities, Iceland. Her research interests are in reflexive pedagogies, community and quality of life; sustainable tourism and responsible tourism practices; volunteer tourism; and the potential contribution that tourism has on community development and responsible management of natural areas.

This paper, "Stakeholder perceptions of volunteer tourism community impact " aims to examine volunteer tourism (VT) experiences of three stakeholder groups in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The guiding research question is: how does VT influence marginalized communities from the perspectives of different stakeholders? This study was developed to address a need for further research that critically looks at the social impacts of VT in vulnerable communities and analyze the nature of VT by reviewing concepts related to sustainable tourism and social representation theory (SRT).

The purpose of Jessica's new report  Advisory Report: Resident Survey 2022 was to examine how residents perceive tourism development in Húnaþing vestra via a self-administered online survey. The research explored what tourism impacts residents perceive, what future tourism developments they favor and how they feel towards local involvement in tourism development.