By Kelsey Johansen
About the Journal of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism
Journal of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism (JORT) offers a dedicated outlet for research relevant to social sciences and natural resources. The journal publishes peer reviewed original research on all aspects of outdoor recreation planning and management, covering the entire spectrum of settings from wilderness to urban outdoor recreation opportunities. It also focuses on new products and findings in nature based tourism and park management.
JORT is an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary journal, articles may focus on any aspect of theory, method, or concept of outdoor recreation research, planning or management, and interdisciplinary work is especially welcome, and may be of a theoretical and/or a case study nature. Depending on the topic of investigation, articles may be positioned within one academic discipline, or draw from several disciplines in an integrative manner, with
overarching relevance to social sciences and natural resources.
The Journal of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism has an Impact Factor of 3.8, a CiteScore of 5.2, and is abstracted and indexed in the Academic Journal Guide (Chartered Association of Business Schools), the Social Sciences Citation Index, the Journal Citation Reports - Science Edition, and Current Contents - Social & Behavioral Sciences.
Special Issue Guest Editors
Dr. Kelsey Johansen, University of Eastern Finland
Prof. Dr. Marius Mayer, München University of Applied Sciences, Germany
Prof. Dr. Markus Pillmayer, München University of Applied Sciences, Germany
Dr. phil Tim Harms, FH Westküste, Germany
Mr. Christian Eilzer, FH Westküste, Germany
Please direct informational inquiries to Dr. Kelsey Johansen using “Geographies and Mobilities of Hiking Special Issue” or "Geographies and Mobilities of Hiking Special Session"as the subject heading.
Open Call for Contributions to the JORT Special Issue on Geographies and Mobilities of Hiking in the Post-Pandemic Anthropocene
The popularity of hiking, as proximity and nature-based recreation and tourism, boomed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Trail infrastructure, including trail towns and gateway communities, are important applied recreation and tourism products and are driving many communities' post-pandemic tourism recovery as recreationists and tourists continue to engage in hiking.
Despite this, hiking and hiking trails remain under-theorized within the academic literature. This special issue therefore explores the geographies and mobilities of hiking in the post-pandemic Anthropocene, including how we understand and conceptualize the geographies of hiking, including hiking places, spaces, cultures, impacts, and economies, and the mobilities of hiking, including as a form of slow, embodied, and sensory immersion in the
outdoors.
This special issue will also discuss hiking culture in transition, including retention and integration of new and more diverse hikers into the hiking market post-COVID, and the economic, environmental, and cultural impacts of hiking and hiking tourism in times of polycrisis and as the recreation and tourism industries are becoming central to a just
transition away from unsustainable systems, practices, and industries.
In exploring these emerging topics, this special issue will also reflect on their implications for trail user safety and risk management planning; the development and spread of online hiking communities; destination management of long distance trails; innovative approaches to developing and financing accessible and inclusive hiking trail infrastructure; inter- and intra-user group conflicts on shared use trails; and, the economic geography of hiking trails, trail towns, trail economies, and visitor spending.
Lastly, this special issue will begin to explore human-nature connections and hiking, connecting to the more-than human world through hiking; embodied hiking experiences; hiking experiences and destination development and marketing; innovative technology in trail tourism and recreation product development and marketing, including AR and VR experiences; technology enhanced wayfinding systems; and, using technology to document visitor behaviour and crowding, and to support risk management and visitor safety.
Expression of Interest
There are two options for Expressions of Interest (EOI).
The first is through an abstract submitted to the IGC2024 Conference Special Session by the same name (see details on page 6 of the .pdf attached below). Please submit your expression of interest through the official IGC2024 conference abstract website by January 12th, 2024, and note your interest in participating in the Special Issue; and,
The second is through submission of an EOI through the Open Call for Papers for the Special Issue (SI). This option is available to author(s) unable to attend IGC2024, but who wish to have their papers considered for inclusion in the Special Issue (see details on page 7 of the .pdf attached below). Please submit your expression of interest by email to Kelsey Johansen by January 12th, 2024.
A Note on Expressions of Interest: Authors who miss the January 12th, 2024 EOI deadline will be unable to present their research in the IGC2024 Special Session; however, they can still submit their full paper to the Journal's submission portal between September 1st, 2024 and December 20th, 2024.
Abstract Submission Essential Details and Key Dates
Author(s) will receive email responses to their expressions of interest, whether submitted through the IGC2024 Special Session or Open Call, on February 19th 2024. From there, accepted author(s) are invited to begin preparing their Research Papers (conceptual or applied) or Research Notes in accordance with the Journal’s authors guidelines.
Journal’s submission portal opens for full papers: September 1st, 2024.
The deadline for submission of full papers via the Journal’s submission portal is: December 20th, 2024.
Anticipated Notification: April 14th, 2025.
Anticipated Publication of the Special Issue: November 17th, 2025 (World Take A Hike Day).
A Note on Peer Review: All papers, both Research (conceptual and applied) and Research Notes, whether presented at IGC2024 in Dublin, or submitted as a part of the Open Call for this Special Issue, will go through an identical peer review process. From the close of the submission site the reviewing process should be completed with final decisions made on all manuscripts within 16 weeks. Any papers that fail to complete within this timeline may
have to be excluded from the Special Issue.