40 years of tourism studies – a remarkable story

Abstract

The formal study of tourism as a distinct subject in the academy is about 40 years old, the same age as Tourism Recreation Research. Over these 40 years, it has shown remarkable growth and development and in the process has changed and adapted. This paper, drawing inter alia on the author's own 40 years in the tourism academy and on his writings over the period, plots the past, present and future of tourism studies. The paper begins with the vocational origins and the rapid changes that brought tourism to a kind of maturity to take its place alongside other social sciences as a subject for research and teaching. It then explores the tensions and challenges that it has faced in more recent years as global competition has forced universities to focus more on their finances and reputations. In this environment, influenced by performance against various metrics, the position of tourism in the academy has been challenging. The paper then turns to consider the current problems created by a metrics driven agenda and how there is an opportunity for tourism to meet the needs of a post-industrial world by focusing not on immediate metrics but on the characteristics that tourism offers as a complex area of study.