Connecting business war volunteer tourism scholarship and practice: Critical insights from practitioners in Ukraine

This commentary engages with the recently introduced category of business war volunteer tourism through dialogue with those enacting it. Drawing on exploratory interviews with eleven practitioners travelling to Ukraine since 2022, five Ukrainian organizational partners, and one government tourism official, we identify three disconnects between scholarship and practice: a definitional gap, in which practitioners resist the “tourist” label; a motivational gap, in which their “whys” remain untheorized; and a procedural gap, in which the category has been built without practitioner voices. We propose reimagining the category in terms participants accept and co-developing it through humble, sustained partnership. With over 120 active armed conflicts globally, building such categories alongside those enacting and receiving them is both a scholarly and moral obligation.