Tourism geography

Tourism geography is a subfield of human geography that deals with the spatial aspects of tourism and travel. The International Labour Organization defines "tourism" as activities of people in places other than their normal environments for up to one year at a time. This includes trips for leisure, business purposes, or other reasons.

As with many specialized branches of geography, tourism geography was not formally established as an academic discipline until the late twentieth century. Prior to that, tourism was most commonly studied as an economic activity rather than framed in the elements of geography, such as territory, landscape, and space. As an interdisciplinary field, tourism geography continues to take economic behavior into consideration while incorporating issues and methods from sociology, anthropology, and other disciplines. For instance, it develops theories to explain spatial distribution patterns related to consumer supply and demand, analyzes movement between places, forms models for tourism development, and studies the dynamics of tourists’ experiences.

Overview

For much of history, most people spent their entire lives in a geographic territory circumscribed by ancestral familial roots, with a relatively small number engaging in travel for purposes of trade, religion, or conquest. To travel for pleasure—the common understanding of "tourism"—arose in the Western world toward the end of the seventeenth century, when the aristocracy conceived of international leisure traveling as a way to complete a young man’s education. Known as the Grand Tour, this type of trip was later imitated by many men and women of the bourgeoisie, and the tradition was influential for centuries.

In time, international leisure travel expanded to include trips for health purposes, scientific exploration, and other reasons. As the global economy became increasingly interconnected, travel for business purposes also became common. Tourism affected global cultures in myriad ways, including the formation of robust industries of hotels and health spas, the development of travel literature, and the creation of art inspired by faraway places. For a long time, however, tourism remained an activity reserved for the privileged.

The notion of tourism for the masses—both domestic and international—only became widespread in the early twentieth century, fueled by labor reforms that provided benefits such as paid vacations and the growing separation of work and leisure. The postwar economic boom saw an expansion of income, improved highways, and mass production of cheap automobiles. As these changes shaped society they attracted the attention of scholars, including those within geography, which in the early twentieth century had begun to focus on human and cultural concerns.

As an academic discipline, tourism geography examines not only the locations in which tourism occurs but all factors relating to the tourism process. Its interests include the interrelations of tourist activities, the impact on the territory in which these activities take place, political and commercial support and planning for tourism, and issues of environmental sustainability, among others. Researchers have identified unique forms of tourism including ecotourism, medical tourism, and dark tourism, often incorporating sociological theory to move beyond the basic understanding of tourism as purely a form of consumption.

Critics argue that tourism geography is an ambiguous field that needs to develop more in-depth theoretical and methodological frameworks. Nevertheless, the huge economic importance of tourism ensures it will continue to be studied.

Bibliography

Boniface, Brian G., Chris Cooper, and Robyn Cooper. Worldwide Destinations: The Geography of Travel and Tourism. 7th ed. New York: Routledge, 2016. Print.

Goeldner, Charles R., and J. R. Brent Ritchie. Tourism: Principles, Practices, Philosophies. 12th ed. Hoboken: Wiley, 2012. Print.

Hall, Colin Michael, and Stephen J. Page. The Geography of Tourism and Recreation: Environment, Place and Space. 4th ed. New York: Routledge, 2014. Print.

Leahy, Kate. "What's the Problem with Overtourism?" National Geographic, 7 Sept. 2023, www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/what-is-overtourism. Accessed 30 Dec. 2024.

Lew, Alan A. New Research Paradigms in Tourism Geography. London: Routledge, 2015. Print.

Lew, Alan A., Colin Michael Hall, and Dallen J. Timothy. World Regional Geography: Human Mobilities, Tourism Destinations, Sustainable Environments. Dubuque: Kendall, 2011. Print.

Nelson, Velvet. An Introduction to the Geography of Tourism. Lanham: Rowman, 2013. Print.

White, Leanne, and Elspeth Frew, eds. Dark Tourism and Place Identity: Managing and Interpreting Dark Places. New York: Routledge, 2013. Print.

Williams, Stephen, and Alan A. Lew. Tourism Geography: Critical Understandings of Place, Space and Experience. 3rd ed. New York: Routledge, 2015. Print.