THE POTENTIAL OF ARTS-BASED TRANSFORMATIVE RESEARCH

This paper contributes to tourism’s conceptual, methodological and ethical debates by discussing the potential offered by arts-based participatory approaches to enrich tourism knowledge and promote co-transformation at a number of levels. To demonstrate the value of this approach, we discuss how a group of Central and Eastern European (CEE) migrant women engaged with a research project and created artworks to represent their trajectories, mobilities, identities and tourism employment experiences. We outline the benefits and limitations of the methodology and explore how it impacts on: participant involvement and empowerment; voices, self-representation and public engagement; participant, researcher and community (co)transformation; data ownership and anonymity.

► Discusses the methodological potential of arts-based participatory approaches.
► Explores participant involvement and empowerment in an arts-based participatory project.
► Addresses public engagement and (co)transformation in tourism enquiry.
► Engages with the ethics of data ownership and anonymity in tourism.