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Small tourism focuses on local experiences intentionally designed for a limited number of participants at a time, or for niche groups, and is offered by a micro-enterprise—ideally based in and supported by the community. This approach provides inspiration for touristic products in small places as well as those generated by neighbourhoods in larger cities. Organizers of small tourism experiences serve as a meeting point for artists and artisans, highlight diverse professions and living cultures, provide spaces for sharing cultural expressions and practices, and create collaborative social networks among individuals and community-based organizations. Through a small tourism lens, can we reimagine what the future could be? Is it possible that small tourism can be a part of a sustainable future, where the interests of travellers and destination communities can merge?

In the introduction to this book, Kathleen Scherf discusses various dimensions of thinking about small tourism today, from highlighting outside-the-mainstream approaches fuelled by motivations connected to altruism, education, experimentation, and immersion; to reconsidering and engaging with the significance of specific places (from neighbourhoods within urban centres to communities located in remote peripheries) and tapping into the life forces and dynamics that drive “everyday” cultures and communities. Rooted in very different contexts, the threads she traces relate to common ideas, concerns, and inspirational ideas across the case studies and stories presented in this book. She emphasizes the ways in which small tourism can enable deeper connections between the people …