The good place – a tourism-oriented conceptual outline

Abstract

The term "good place" has become an integral part of our everyday communication, most often used to describe a leisure service, a settlement or a region, to disseminate experiences related to there. By investigating the posts and topics on social media platforms influencing travel decisions (e.g. Instagram, TripAdvisor), it can be seen, that hundreds of thousands of them include the term "good place" when sharing of tourism experiences. While a theoretical construct focusing on the term "good place" can both contribute to broaden the research on place as well support the activities of tourism destination management organisations, a conceptual outline is needed to fill the gap. Although Ray Oldenburg used the term "good place" as a synonym for the so-called third place, "good place" has not become an integral part of the terminology of the social sciences.

This study is the first attempt to provide a theoretical framework for future transdisciplinary studies of theterm ‘good place’, yet prevalent in tourism related communication, and to manage implications that can be drawn from the expected results. Based on a keyword analysis using the Web of Science database, it can be concluded that the concept of ‘good place’, based on place attachment theory, helps to understand the whole process of engagement with a tourist destination and catalyse the actions that result from it. In order to narrow the theoretically perceived gap in the third place theory, this study undertakes to model the process of becoming a ‘good place’ and to define place understanding in the context of tourism.

The spread of the concept of 'good place' based on a transdisciplinary approach to tourism may be catalysed by (1) the need for theoretical constructs from the growing research community on the visitor economy, (2) the outlining of conceptual links to facilitate dialogue between the disciplines involved, and (3) receptiveness to tourism industry innovations (e.g. branding). The application of the concept of ‘good place’ offers an opportunity to better understand the total tourism appearing in the second decade of the 21st century, to better manage its undesirable processes and impacts, and to successfully translate scientific findings into educational outcomes. Placing the spatial and temporal processes of tourism in the context of place understanding can enrich the toolbox of destination management organisations.