Is there a Field of Tourism Studies?

Bertrand Réau

doi:10.54055/ejtr.v14i.239

Abstract

This paper questions the status of tourism studies and invites academics to participate in an international "collective reflexivity". The author proposes conceptual and methodological tools for scientifically analysing the tourism studies area. The article articulates three dimensions of scientific activity most often treated separately: the institutional and cognitive dimensions and the analysis of audiences. The study suggests that the concept of field proposed by Bourdieu as well as the notions of “configuration” and “interdependency chains” proposed by Norbert Elias allow tourism scholars to account for these dimensions.

Highlights

Tourism represents a global industry, which is the subject of numerous studies
The vast majority of the authors come from the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Scotland, Canada and Great Britain, there is a growing readership in China (Tribe, Xiao & Chambers, 2012)
De facto, the publications in other languages circulate little in the Anglophone universe. This weak internationalization in regards to authors in English-language journals does not, prevent the circulation of scholars, nor does it stop the spread of concepts, methods, and theories between North America, Great Britain, other European countries, Australia and Asia. How does this circulation of ideas and people function? Does a “field” (as defined by Bourdieu) of tourism studies exist? And if so, does it exist at an international level or only in national spaces?

Summary

Introduction

Tourism represents a global industry, which is the subject of numerous studies. The proliferation of conferences bringing together scholars from various countries leads one to think that this subject of research constitutes a “international” field of study.