This paper explores international migration inflows in two small islands in the outermost archipelagic regions of the European Union, El Hierro (Canary Islands, Spain) and Pico (Azores, Portugal), focusing on their connection to tourism and the intertwined work and life-cycle transitions of international immigrants. Drawing on data from the ELDEMOR project (www.eldemor.es) and the RE-PLACE project (https://replace-horizon.eu), the study is based on fieldwork involving in-depth interviews with 30 international immigrants and key informants on both islands. The findings argue that tourism provides valuable insights into the life cycle transitions of international immigrants attracted by the unique tourist-economic appeal of remote locations. These immigrants also play a critical role in shaping tourism development in these areas.

The research hypothesis underpinning the article posits that life-cycle transitions—from tourists to permanent immigrants, or from workers to entrepreneurs—highlight the dynamic relationship between migration and tourism. The early stages of tourism on small islands often coincide with the arrival of foreign-born workers and investors, whose personal and professional transitions reflect and shape the evolving tourism models of these destinations. In turn, tourism partly triggers migration, while migration influences specific forms of tourism development.

El Hierro and Pico are significant case studies in sustainable tourism for small, remote islands with fragile ecosystems. Both islands emphasize environmental sustainability and niche tourism over mass tourism, focusing on unique attractions that appeal to specialized market segments. Their approaches support local economies without overwhelming them, integrating tourism with traditional sectors like agriculture. These sustainable models offer valuable lessons for other fragile destinations, balancing economic, environmental, and social priorities.

Moreover, these islands attract immigrants drawn not only by typical lifestyle aspirations, such as seeking a "rural idyll" or "a new life," but also by a desire for "differentiation" and "uniqueness." This distinct motivation underscores how migration and tourism intersect in shaping the socio-economic fabric of remote island communities, offering a framework for understanding and promoting sustainable and resilient tourism development worldwide.

Spending time in second homes has long been a popular activity for tourists, especially in wealthier countries. Still, work and school schedules traditionally limited the use of these properties to weekends and holidays. The Covid-19 pandemic, however, highlighted how the digitalization of work made it possible for a larger portion of the population to work remotely, thereby facilitating the development of multilocal living arrangements. In this new context, second homes have increasingly become central to these spatial arrangements. This paper aims to explore how the use of second homes has evolved during and after the Covid-19 pandemic, focusing on northern Sweden as a case study. The research addresses the challenge of measuring mobility by using geo-coded cellphone data. By combining cellphone location data with second-home ownership patterns, the study assesses how second home usage has shifted and identifies geographic characteristics that correlate with multilocal living. Preliminary findings suggest that not all second home areas are part of multilocal living arrangements, with properties in more desirable locations being used more frequently. The paper concludes by discussing the potential impacts of these changing patterns on destination communities.

Thematic routes connecting natural and cultural attractions offer innovative opportunities for promoting responsible tourism development and addressing the challenges of overtourism in today’s polycrisis environment. By distributing visitor flows more evenly across time and space, these routes not only mitigate the negative effects of concentrated tourism but also encourage the inclusion of less-visited settlements and regions in tourism networks. Such initiatives align with the principles of slow tourism, providing more meaningful travel experiences that emphasize quality over quantity. Linear thematic routes are particularly appealing to modern, experience-driven tourists due to their flexible and customizable nature. Pilgrimage routes offer unique opportunities for physical (walking routes), spiritual (reflective journeys), and intellectual (cultural and historical) enrichment. However, the success and sustainability of such routes depend on stakeholder collaboration requiring continuous communication, shared goal-setting, and coordinated management strategies. The proposed research explores the potential of pilgrimage routes to embody principles of responsible tourism focusing on sites associated with the heritage of Saint Ladislaus I of Hungary (c. 1040-1095) within the Carpathian Basin. The findings contribute to the discourse on sustainable tourism mobility, showcasing how pigrimage routes connecting both popular and emerging sites can serve as tools for local empowerment as well as the reimagination of tourism mobility in a more balanced and responsible manner. In addition to creating an inventory of the region’s Saint Ladislaus-related sites and mapping their possible connection with existing hiking trails, the study is based on interviews with stakeholders (representing religious sites, nature protection, hiking associations and DMOs).

Silence is a millennia-old legacy of the Judeo-Christian cultural community and a pillar of European sustainability. Parallel to when Europe's map of silence began to be redrawn at the dawn of the industrial revolution, the understanding of silence broadened. As urbanisation progressed, the noise, initially characterizing the big cities, gradually encroached into the countryside, and more sources appeared as the erosion of silence. The opposite of silence, noise is now not only an unwanted auditory perception, but also a phenomenon that has a negative impact on the individual’s peacefulness. The tourism mobility, which nowadays become a lifestyle, has contributed significantly to the decline of quiet places; moreover, the development of transport networks and technological progress have made tourists themselves the carrier of noise. In the era of total tourism, travellers not only spread in Europe horizontally and vertically, but also the seasonality of the demand narrowed. As a result, destinations and sites that had been built on and integrated silence as an attraction became noisy places. One of the paradoxes of tourism, which has become increasingly widespread in space and time, is that the tourist, escaping from the noise of everyday life, eliminates that very silence he or she craves. The phenomenon of over-tourism in the 21st century has led to a restriction of tourist flows and consumption of spaces, and to the preservation of silence by different means. The results presented in this presentation have been explored in the research project "Geographical dimensions of understanding the notion of good place within the context of total tourism" (OTKA K134877) and they answer the following questions: (1) How can silence be understood as an attraction in tourism? (2) Which destinations and sites include silence as an integral part of their attractiveness? (3) How much silence plays a role in becoming a good place? (4) What are the threats to quiet places in the age of total tourism? (5) What can management do to preserve silence as Europe's heritage? Silence has been a surprisingly under-studied topic in tourism sustainability and heritage conservation research; for this reason, this presentation aims to narrow this gap by focusing on Europe.