Tourism, Geography of

Abstract

Tourism geography is concerned with the space, place, and environmental dimensions of tourism. Beyond this, the main difficulties in defining its field of study relate to the generic problems of defining tourism, especially in respect of, on the one hand, migration studies, and on the other, recreational studies. Nevertheless, a distinctive research area can be defined for tourism geography on the basis of the economic, cultural, and environmental consequences, which are contingent on traveling away from home. Over time there have been a number of shifts in the dominant perspectives in tourism geography, and this paper maps out three of these. The positivist approach has largely been inductive and has involved the construction of four main types of spatial models. The political-economy approach has drawn on capital accumulation and regulation theories, whilst cultural interpretations have drawn on typologies of tourists, the notion of ‘the tourist gaze,’ and debates on representation and place identity. The way in which tourism geography is increasingly engaging with other social sciences is exemplified by their work on environmental issues, especially sustainable tourism, and the role of tourism in restructuring the economies and images of places.