Embracing principles of hospitality, responsibility and participation all require a readiness to suspend one’s own ways of doing, knowing and being. It is in this light that Ms Höckert notes, "at the intersection of international tourism and migration, it is important to stop and think what kind of openness we expect from others, and how we welcome the other".


Tourism development and echoes of colonialism in the highlands of Nicaragua

Emily Höckert follows the trail of development practitioners and researchers to the coffee-growing communities in Nicaragua. The research focuses on encounters between rural communities and tourism experts, meetings designed to promote local possibilities to benefit from the rapid growth of the Nicaraguan tourism sector. This type of small-scale tourism development is often seen as a sustainable and responsible form of tourism development, as it is based on active local participation.

Recalling a crucial observation, Ms Höckert notes: "In the course of this study, I remarked that the guests' desire to develop and help could almost silence the local hosts. On a broader level, I noticed that the guests' expectations of unconditional hospitality in their encounters with rural communities included an uncomfortable echo of a colonial and egocentric mind-set".

She goes on to conclude that openness and making space for the other are not only the host’s responsibility. Ethics of hospitality encourage us to meld the roles of host and guest, teacher and learner, and to leaving the door open to the unexpected.


Information about the doctoral candidate

Emily Höckert, MSocSc, will publicly defend her doctoral thesis, titled Ethics of Hospitality: Participatory Tourism Encounters in the Northern Highlands of Nicaragua, in the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Lapland in Lecture Room 3 on 14 November 2015 at 12 noon. The Opponent will be Associate Professor Kellee Caton from Thomson Rivers University in Canada. Acting as Custos will be Professor Soile Veijola of the University of Lapland. Welcome!


Information about the doctoral candidate


Photo: Marko Junttila

Suvi Emily Höckert (born 1981 in Turku) completed her matriculation examination at Kuninkaanhaka Secondary School in Pori in 2001. She received a master's degree in tourism research from the University of Lapland in 2009.

Ms Höckert has also studied tourism research and development in Sweden and Spain. She has worked in international development cooperation in Nicaragua and participated in a course on tourism and development organized by the United Nations' tourism organization UNWTO.

She began her doctoral studies at the Multidimensional tourism institute (MTI) at the University of Lapland in 2011. During her doctoral research Ms Höckert worked at the University of Helsinki, in the research project known as POLITOUR, financed by the Academy of Finland and directed by Professor Jussi Pakkasvirta.


For additional information, please contact

Emily Höckert
emily.hockert (at) ulapland.fi
Tel. +46 733 184 455

Press copies of the thesis are available from Lapland University Press, tel. 040 821 4242, publications (at) ulapland.fi

The printed copies of the book can be purchased via Verkkokauppa Juvenes.


Publication details

Emily Höckert: Ethics of Hospitality: Participatory Tourism Encounters in the Northern Highlands of Nicaragua. Acta Universitatis Lapponiensis 312. Lapland University Press, Rovaniemi. 2015. ISNB 978-952-484-855-8. ISSN 0788-7604. Electronic thesis (pdf): Acta Electronica Universitatis Lapponiensis 180. ISBN (pdf) 978-952-484-856-5. ISSN (pdf) 1796-6310.