Author Identifier (ORCID)
Erwin Losekoot: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6077-3724
Abstract
This paper introduces humanitarian hospitality as a conceptual framework for understanding relational ethics and care practices in crisis-affected tourism. While volunteer tourism, disaster recovery travel, and solidarity-based travel bring individuals into crisis-affected destinations, the hospitality that unfolds in these non-commercial encounters remains under-theorised. Drawing on philosophical perspectives and exploratory qualitative insights from 145 Red Cross and Red Crescent volunteers and aid workers, the study examines how emotional labour, ethical care, and informal hosting are enacted in contexts of conflict and displacement. The findings both parallel and complicate conventional host–guest dynamics, highlighting the ethical and emotional complexities of providing care under conditions of scarcity and trauma. The proposed Humanitarian Hospitality Framework (HHF) positions humanitarian encounters as an underexplored domain of tourism and hospitality research. It extends hospitality theory by integrating principles of dignity, neutrality, and relational accountability into crisis-driven encounters. While not claiming empirical validation, the paper conceptually grounds the HHF as a starting point for future tourism scholarship, with implications for post-crisis recovery, volunteer mobilisation, and ethical engagement in vulnerable destinations.
Keywords
Crisis tourism, emotional labour, humanitarian hospitality, post-crisis recovery, relational ethics, volunteer tourism
Document Type
Journal Article
Date of Publication
2-1-2026
Volume
42
Publication Title
European Journal of Tourism Research
Publisher
Varna University of Management
School
School of Business and Law
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Comments
Hajal, G. E., Westerlaken, R., & Losekoot, E. (2026). Humanitarian hospitality: A framework for ethical encounters in crisis tourism. European Journal of Tourism Research, 42, 4212. https://doi.org/10.54055/ejtr.v42i.4351