Chapter 2

Development(s) in the Geographies of

Tourism: Knowledge(s), Actions and
Cultures
C. Michael Hall
University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand

Abstract: Depending on the research approach one uses, the develop-

ment of particular bodies of knowledge over time is the result of a
combination of agency, chance, opportunity, patronage, power, or struc-
ture. This particular account of the development of geographies of tour-
ism stresses its place as understood within the context of different
approaches, different research behaviors and foci, and its location within
the wider research community and society. The chapter charts the devel-
opment of different epistemological, methodological, and theoretical tra-
ditions over time, their rise and fall, and, in some cases, rediscovery. The
chapter concludes that the marketization of academic production will
have an increasingly important influence on the nature and direction of
tourism geographies. Keywords: Academic capitalism; Anglo-American
geography; academic periphery; rankings

INTRODUCTION

In the second decade of the third millennium, the geography of tourism is

undergoing a significant generational change as the geographers who
gained their doctorates in the 1970s or previous decades enter retirement

Geographies of Tourism: European Research Perspectives

Tourism Social Science Series, Volume 19, 11 34
Copyright r 2013 by Emerald Group Publishing Limited
All rights of reproduction in any form reserved
ISSN: 1571-5043/doi:10.1108/S1571-5043(2013)0000019002
12 Geographies of Tourism: European Research Perspectives

(Hall & Page, 2009, 2012). Such a change is leading to the desire to “stock
take” the field before cultural and disciplinary memories fade (Hall &
Page, 2009; Smith, 2010). This is clearly not the first generation of tourism
geographers to have retired, but it is the first generation whose work
has simultaneously existed in the academic fields of both geography and
tourism studies. They are also part of the first generation whose work is
truly internationalized as a result of their work becoming widely circulated
outside of their own countries due to the impacts of information and com-
munication technology and the adoption of English as the lingua franca of
international business and the academy.
However, academic production and dissemination, along with the labor
market, are subject to the vagaries of globalization as any other industry or
sector. Therefore, this chapter seeks to provide an account of the develop-
ment of the geography(ies) of tourism in a global setting. It does this by
reference to some of the main factors that have affected the geography of
tourism in both a historic and a contemporary sense. Although the aca-
demic literature is substantially referenced, this review is also informed
from the author’s institutional roles in the geography of tourism, observa-
tions from international conferences, travels, and the somewhat schizoid
perspective of being primarily based in a business school at the time of
writing. As with any global overview, it is also limited by the author’s own
language limitations and access to journals and publications.

STUDYING THE GEOGRAPHIES OF TOURISM

The study of tourism geography is embedded in the trends and issues of

scientific and academic discourse and in the societies and institutions of
which one is a part (Butler, 2004; Coppock, 1980; Coles, 2004; Hall, 2013;
Mieczkowski, 1978; Nepal, 2009; Wilson, 2012a). As Johnston noted in his
study of post-World War II Anglo-American geography, despite “ivory
tower” accusations to the contrary, academic life “is not a closed system but
rather is open to the influences and commands of the wider society which
encompasses it” (Johnston, 1991a, p. 1). Discipline development, and the
how, where, and why of what we do and do not study “is an investigation of
the sociology of a community, of its debates, deliberations and decisions as
well as its findings” (Johnston, 1991a, p. 11). Unfortunately, tourism geo-
graphy has received only marginal coverage in the various editions of
Johnston’s work, a situation which is commonplace in many accounts of the
history of geographical thought. For example, the only mention of tourism
 Development(s) in the Geographies of Tourism 13

by Peet (1998) is with respect to its perceived irrelevancy by radical and

Marxist geographers in the 1960s and 1970s:

There was a growing intolerance to the topical coverage of

academic geography, a feeling that it was either an irrelevant
gentlemanly pastime concerned with esoterica like tourism,
wine regions, or barn types, or it was an equally irrelevant
“science” using quantitative methods to analyze spatial trivia
like shopping patterns or telephone calls, when geography
should be a working interest in ghettos, poverty, global capi-
talism, and imperialism. (1998, p. 109)

Similarly, tourism receives only brief mentions in works such as Massey,

Allen, and Sarre’s (1999) Human Geography Today, Holt-Jensen’s (2009)
Geography: History and Concepts, Castree, Rogers, and Sherman’s (2005)
Questioning Geography, Massey’s (2005) For Space, Crang and Thrift’s
(2000) Thinking Space, Cloke and Johnston’s (2005) Spaces of Geographical
Thought; and was not essential to Agnew, Livingstone, and Rogers’ (1996)
Human Geography: An Essential Anthology. Tourism is not mentioned at
all in De Blij’s (2005) Why Geography Matters but is at least recognized in
his later book on the power of place (2009) which has a discussion of medi-
cal tourism as an example of globalization. There are no tourism geogra-
phers who are Key Thinkers on Space and Place (Hubbard, Kitchin, &
Valentine, 2004). Given this situation, it is no wonder that the relatively
peripheral nature of the study of tourism within geography, or at least
accounts of the history, philosophy, and theorization of human geography,
is a significant issue in many reviews of the geography of tourism (Butler,
2004; Carlson, 1980; Gibson, 2008; Ioannides, 2006). Indeed, such a situa-
tion is mirrored in Gibson’s (2008) comment, “Tourism geography has its
own geography of production and circulation, variegated differently
than for other parts of geography. It still struggles to pervade publishing in
‘global’ journals, and yet, when eventually appearing elsewhere, tourism
geography looks like to be on the whole more cosmopolitan.” This seems
“an important—even defining—contradiction of tourism in contemporary
geography,” according to Gibson (2008, p. 418) who also observed in the
first of a series of reviews for Progress in Human Geography, “Although
not taken seriously by some, and still considered marginal by many, tour-
ism constitutes an important point of intersection within geography, and its
capacity to gel critical, integrative and imperative research appears to be
increasingly realized” (2008, p. 407).
14 Geographies of Tourism: European Research Perspectives

Of course any question of marginality and peripherality requires the

response of peripheral in relation to what? Gibson (2008) used the Social
Science Citation Index (SSCI, now Web of Science) to analyze tourism
within geography journals and argued that very little work was conducted
on tourism geography in the 1960s and 1970s (averaging about five or six
articles per year internationally).

Growth occurred in the late 1980s and particularly into the

1990s, as human geography itself diversified. About 40 arti-
cles have been published annually in the last decade, across
the selected geography journals (not including the specialist
Tourism Geographies), and their breadth and diversity is
striking. (2008, p. 409)

Nevertheless, the rate suggested by Gibson’s analysis is equivalent to

about one paper per ISI geography journal each year. A slightly higher rate
was found in an analysis of tourism articles (defined by “tourism” being
present in title, keyword, or abstract) from select leading geography jour-
nals during 1998 2009 (Table 1). Furthermore, as Gibson noted, “many
researchers featuring in the SSCI bibliography would probably not

Table 1. Articles in Selected Leading Geography Journals 1998 2009a

Journal Thomson 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 Average

Scientific Per Year
Impact Factor
2009 Ranking
in Geography

Annals of the 6/62 (2.568) 1 1 3 0.42

Association of
American
Geographers
Antipode 20/62 (1.434) 1 1 1 1 0.33
Area 17/62 (1.528) 1 1 1 1 0.33
Australian 27/62 (1.290) 1 1 1 1 2 1 3 2 1
Geographical
Studies/
Geographical
Research
Canadian 41/62 (0.780) 2 2 0.33
Geographer
 Development(s) in the Geographies of Tourism 15

Table 1. (Continued )

Journal Thomson 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 Average

Scientific Per Year
Impact Factor
2009 Ranking
in Geography

Geografiska 26/62 (1.321) 1 1 2 1 3 1 1 2 3 1.25

Annaler, Series B:
Human
Geography
Progress in Human 2/62 (3.590) 1 2 1 0.33
Geography
The Geographical 29/62 (1.226) 1 2 1 1 1 2 1 0.75
Journal
The Professional 12/62 (1.712) 1 1 1 3 1 1 0.66
Geographer
Tijdschrift voor 45/62 (0.717) 2 1 1 2 1 1 0.66
Economische en
Sociale Geografie
Transactions of the 4/62 (3.413) 1 1 2 1 2 1 0.66
Institute of British
Geographers
Total 5 2 4 4 8 7 7 9 7 6 11 8 0.61

a
Tourism in abstract, keywords, or title.

consider themselves tourism geographers or may not even list tourism as a

specialist research interest” (2008, p. 409).
What about the geography of tourism which is published in tourism and
related journals? Unfortunately, until recently, very limited coverage of
tourism journals in Web of Science suggests that this is not a very useful
tool to analyze the scope of tourism geography. However, the Scopus
database provides a significantly broader coverage of both geography and
tourism journals. Table 2 provides a citation analysis of the title/abstract/
keywords of publications with geography/ies of tourism/recreation/leisure
and variations thereof in the Scopus database. The most cited paper is that
of Britton (1991), while the list also includes a book (Hall & Page, 2006).
All of the top 25 most cited papers are written in English with the most
cited non-English paper being that of Knafou et al. (1997), written in
French with 15 citations. However, citation analysis is dependent both on
the categories that are used and on what is actually included in the
16 Geographies of Tourism: European Research Perspectives

Table 2. Most Cited Tourism Geographya Publications in Scopusb

Rank Scopus Google Title Year Publication Authors Country

Citations Scholar of
Citations Affiliation
of Author

1 149 366 Tourism, capital, 1991 Environment & Britton, S. NZ

and place: Planning D:
Towards a Society &
critical Space
geography of
tourism
2 71 374 The Geography of 1999 Book Hall, C., NZ/UK
Tourism and (1st ed) (Routledge) Page, S.
Recreation
3 69 140 “Cracking the 1998 Environment Cloke, P., UK/NZ
canyon with the and Planning Perkins, H.
awesome D: Society
foursome”: and Space
representations
of adventure
tourism in New
Zealand
4 46 83 Accounting for 1994 Progress in Squire, S. Canada
cultural Human
meanings: The Geography
interface
between
geography and
tourism studies
re-examined
5 39 81 Places around us: 2000 Leisure Studies Crouch, D. UK
Embodied lay
geographies in
leisure and
tourism
6= 37 93 Tourism, economic 2001 Tourism Milne, S., NZ/NZ
development Geographies Ateljevic, I.
and the global-
local nexus:
Theory
embracing
complexity
6= 37 81 Forms of religious 1992 Annals of Rinschede, G. Germany
tourism Tourism
Research
8= 36 68 New cultural 1999 Leisure Studies Aitchison, C. UK
geographies:
The spatiality of
leisure, gender
and sexuality
8= 36 61 Poststructural 2000 Leisure Studies Aitchison, C. UK
feminist theories
of representing
others: A
response to the
“crisis” in
leisure studies’
discourse
 Development(s) in the Geographies of Tourism 17

Table 2. (Continued )

Rank Scopus Google Title Year Publication Authors Country

Citations Scholar of
Citations Affiliation
of Author

8= 36 74 Signs of the post- 1998 Geografiska Hopkins, J. Canada

rural: Annaler,
Marketing Series B:
myths of a Human
symbolic Geography
countryside
11 30 37 Representations 2000 Progress in Casino Jr., V., USA/USA
and identities in Human Hanna, S.
tourism map Geography
spaces
12 = 26 34 Conceptualising 1999 Journal of Hall, D. UK
tourism Transport
transport: Geography
Inequality and
externality
issues
12 = 26 67 Tourism and the 1991 Leisure Studies Hughes, G. UK
geographical
imagination
12 = 26 75 Atlantic City and 1978 Annals of Stansfield, C. USA
the resort cycle Tourism
background to Research
the legalization
of gambling
15 = 24 38 Constructing 2000 Tourism Pritchard, A., UK/UK
tourism Geographies Morgan, N.
landscapes
Gender,
sexuality and
space
15 = 24 55 Circuits of 2000 Tourism Ateljevic, I. NZ
tourism: Geographies
Stepping
beyond the
“production/
consumption”
dichotomy
17 21 28 Weather, climate 2005 Annals of Gómez Martı́n, Spain
and tourism: A Tourism M.
geographical Research
perspective
18 = 20 47 Local uniqueness 1999 Professional Chang, T. Singapore
in the global Geographer
village: Heritage
tourism in
Singapore
18 = 20 51 Geographical 2000 Annals of Li, Y. China
consciousness Tourism
and tourism Research
experience
20 = 18 46 Exploring the 2004 Annals of Papatheodorou, UK
evolution of Tourism A.
tourism resorts Research
18 Geographies of Tourism: European Research Perspectives

Table 2. (Continued )

Rank Scopus Google Title Year Publication Authors Country

Citations Scholar of
Citations Affiliation
of Author

20 = 18 42 Tourism and 2002 Applied Kent, M., UK/UK/

sustainable Geography Newnham, R., UK
water supply in Essex, S.
Mallorca: A
geographical
analysis
22 = 17 0 Geography and 1991 Annals of Mitchell, L., USA/
tourism Tourism Murphy, P. Canada
Research
22 = 17 32 Where geography 1996 Annals of the Johnson, N. Canada
and history Association
meet: Heritage of American
tourism and the Geographers
big house in
Ireland
22 = 17 63 Towards a 1991 Annals of Pearce, D. NZ
geography of Tourism
tourism Research
25 = 16 37 Reconsidering the 2005b Geographical Hall, C. NZ
geography of Research
tourism and
contemporary
mobility
25 = 16 47 Strengthening the 1995 Professional Ioannides, D. USA
ties between Geographer
tourism and
economic
geography: A
theoretical
agenda

a
Scopus search: TITLE-ABS-KEY (“tourism/recreation/leisure geographies” OR “tourism/recreation/leisure geogra-
phy” OR “geography of tourism/recreation/leisure” OR “geographies of tourism/recreation/leisure” OR tourism
AND geography OR geographies.
b
As on October 10, 2010.

database. For example, what for many is arguably the most cited paper in
tourism geography—that of Butler’s (1980) tourism area life-cycle with 514
citations—is not included, while neither is the most cited paper in Tourism
Geographies by Williams and Hall (2000) (Table 3).
The development of the journal Tourism Geographies, the first volume of
which came out in 1999 (Lew, 1999), undoubtedly signaled a new stage in
the development of the subfield, particularly as the editorial board includes
 Development(s) in the Geographies of Tourism 19

Table 3. Twenty-five most Cited Articles in Tourism Geographiesa

Rank Citations Title Year Authors Country of

Affiliation of
Author

1 57 Tourism and migration: 2000 Williams, A., UK/NZ

New relationships Hall, C.
between production and
consumption
2 37 Tourism, economic 2001 Milne, S., Ateljevic, I. NZ/NZ
development and the
global local nexus:
Theory embracing
complexity
3= 34 Comparing temporary 2000 Bell, M., Ward, G. Aust./Aust.
mobility with permanent
migration
3= 34 Tourism and international 2000 Williams, A., UK/UK/UK/
retirement migration: King, R., UK
New forms of an old Warnes, A.,
relationship in southern Patterson, G.
Europe
5 31 Photography and travel 2003 Jenkins, O. Aust.
brochures: The circle of
representation
6 28 Gazing on communism: 2000 Light, D. UK
Heritage tourism and
post-communist
identities in Germany,
Hungary and Romania
7= 24 Constructing tourism 2000 Pritchard, A., UK/UK
landscapes Gender, Morgan, N.
sexuality and space
7= 24 Circuits of tourism: 2000 Ateljevic, I. NZ
Stepping beyond the
“production/
consumption”
dichotomy
9 19 Strengthening backward 2000 Telfer, D., Can./Can.
economic linkages: Local Wall, G.
food purchasing by three
Indonesian hotels
10 17 Gay men, tourism and 2003 Visser, G. S. Africa
urban space: Reflections
on Africa’s “gay capital”
11 = 16 Landscapes of tourism: 2002 Terkenli, T. Greece
Towards a global
cultural economy of
space?
20 Geographies of Tourism: European Research Perspectives

Table 3. (Continued )

Rank Citations Title Year Authors Country of

Affiliation of
Author

11 = 16 Celebrating group and 2001 De Bres, K., Davis, J. USA/USA

place identity: A case
study of a new regional
festival
13 = 14 Tourism distribution 2005 Stuart, P., Pearce, D., NZ/NZ/NZ
channels in peripheral Weaver, A.
regions: The case of
Southland, New Zealand
13 = 14 Toward a better 2002 Torres, R. USA
understanding of
tourism and agriculture
linkages in the Yucatan:
Tourist food
consumption and
preferences
13 = 14 Asian ecotourism: Patterns 2002 Weaver, D. Can.
and themes
13 = 14 The Olympic spirit and 2001 Waitt, G. Aust.
civic boosterism: The
Sydney 2000 Olympics
17 = 13 Conceptualizing city image 2005 Smith, A. UK
change: The
“re-imaging” of
Barcelona
17 = 13 Tourism “non- 2003 Ioannides, D., USA/Denmark
entrepreneurship” in Petersen, T.
peripheral destinations:
A case study of small
and medium tourism
enterprises on
Bornholm, Denmark
17 = 13 Tourism smellscapes 2003 Dann, G., Steen UK/Norway
Jacobsen, J.
20 = 12 Tourists’ experiences of 2007 Carl, D., Kindon, S., UK/NZ/NZ
film locations: Smith, K.
New Zealand as
“Middle-Earth”
Geographical research on 2004 Butler, R. UK
tourism, recreation and
leisure: Origins, eras and
directions
The Resort Development 2004 Prideaux, B. Aust.
Spectrum: The case of
the Gold Coast,
Australia
 Development(s) in the Geographies of Tourism 21

Table 3. (Continued )

Rank Citations Title Year Authors Country of

Affiliation of
Author

Urban-rural migration, 2002 Paniagua, A. Spain

tourism entrepreneurs
and rural restructuring
in Spain
The political economy of 2002 Paradis, T. USA
theme development in
small urban places: The
case of Roswell, New
Mexico
Constructions of surfing 2002 Preston-Whyte, R. S. Africa
space at Durban, South
Africa
International retirement 2002 Truly, D. USA
migration and tourism
along the Lake Chapala
Riviera: Developing a
matrix of retirement
migration behaviour
Tourism and the 2000 Butler, R. UK
environment: A
geographical perspective
Localities and tourism 2000 Gordon, I., UK/UK
Goodall, B.

a
Analysis as on September 29, 2010.

representatives from a range of tourism geography specialty groups of

various national and international associations. Table 3 outlines the most
cited papers of the journal on Scopus. The publications noted in Tables 2
and 3 reflect the often made assertion with respect to the depth of topic
coverage found in tourism geography (Gibson, 2008; Hall & Page, 2009;
Wilson, 2012a), illustrating what Paasi has referred to as “the uneven
geographies of international journal publishing spaces” (2005b, p. 769).
Table 4 notes the contribution to tourism citations by the country of the
institution of the authors. With respect to the percentage contribution to
the 25 most cited papers in Scopus under tourism and geography/ies, the
leading countries were the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Canada, and
22 Geographies of Tourism: European Research Perspectives

Table 4. Comparisons by Country of Primary Affiliation of Authorsa

Country of % Contribution to % Institutions % Contribution to

Primary 25 Most Cited Contributing Two 25 Most Cited
Affiliation Publications in or More Publications in
of Authors Scopus Under Publications Listed Tourism
Tourism AND in Scopus Under Geographies
Geography/ies Tourism AND
Geography/ies

Australia 7.2 14.3

Austria 0.5
Canada 14 6.5 7.1
China 4 10.3
Czech 1.2
Republic
Denmark 0.7 1.8
Estonia 1.2
Finland 2.4
France 5.0
Germany 4 1.7
Greece 1.0 3.6
Hungary 1.2
Ireland 0.5
Israel 1.4
Italy 1.0
Japan 1.2
Mexico 0.5
Netherlands 1.2
New 24 6.5 14.9
Zealand
Norway 1.0 1.8
Poland 1.2
Romania 0.5
Russia 0.5
Serbia 0.5
Singapore 4 2.6
Slovenia 1.2
South 1.0 3.6
Africa
 Development(s) in the Geographies of Tourism 23

Table 4. (Continued )

Country of % Contribution to % Institutions % Contribution to

Primary 25 Most Cited Contributing Two 25 Most Cited
Affiliation Publications in or More Publications in
of Authors Scopus Under Publications Listed Tourism
Tourism AND in Scopus Under Geographies
Geography/ies Tourism AND
Geography/ies

Spain 4 1.9 3.6

Sweden 0.5
Switzerland 1.2
Taiwan 0.5
Turkey 1.2
UK 34 21.8 11.9
USA 14 14.1 33.9
a
Analysis as on October 10, 2010.

the United States. The United States, New Zealand, Australia, and the
United Kingdom were the leading countries for authors of most cited papers
in Tourism Geographies. Authors based in primarily English speaking coun-
tries accounted for 57.6% of institutions contributing two or more papers
listed in Scopus under tourism and geography/ies. Given the substantial
amount of non-English literature that exists, this cannot be reflective of
tourism geography on a global basis. Table 5 details the wide range of jour-
nals and serials associated with the Scopus listing for those institutions
having two or more publications lists. However, when the total number
of publications is categorized according to the language of publication, 68%
are in English, reflecting concerns not only about the peripheralization of
non-English publications (and hence ideas) in the “international” discourse
of tourism geography but also the emerging linguistic and institutional
monopolization of international publishing spaces (Paasi, 2005b) (Table 6).
There is a long legacy of account of tourism geographies by country or
region: Australasia (Hall, 1999); Austria (Lichtenberger, 1984); Bulgaria
(Bačvarov, 1984); China (Bao, 2002, 2009; Bao & Ma, 2011); Czech
Republic (Mariot, 1984; Vystoupil, Kunc, & Šauer, 2010); France
24 Geographies of Tourism: European Research Perspectives

Table 5. Institutions Making Two or More Contributionsa

Title Number Title Number

Tourism Geographies 47 Dokumentacja 3

Geograficzna
Geojournal 33 ACME 3
Annals of Tourism 29 Mitteilungen Der 3
Research Osterreichischen
Geographischen
Gesellschaft
Geografski Obzornik 20 Environment and History 3
Environmental History 3
Acta Geographica Sinica 19 Mediterranee 3
Geography 19 Environmental Monitoring 3
and Assessment
Tourism Management 19 Professional Geographer 3
Department of State 19 International Journal of 3
Publication Background Health Services
Notes Series
Environmental 13 Moravian Geographical 3
Management Reports
Singapore Journal of 12 Hommes Et Terres Du 3
Tropical Geography Nord
Geographische 12 Anatolia 3
Rundschau
Nordia Geographical 3
Publications
Leisure Studies 9 Geographische Zeitschrift 3
Frankfurter Wirtschafts 8 Geoforum 3
Und
Sozialgeographische
Schriften
Progress in Human 7 Transactions of the 3
Geography Institute of British
Geographers
Social and Cultural 7 Asia Pacific Viewpoint 3
Geography
 Development(s) in the Geographies of Tourism 25

Table 5. (Continued )

Title Number Title Number

Journal of Travel and 7 Vestnik Sankt 3

Tourism Marketing Peterburgskogo
Universiteta Seriya
Geologiya I Geografiya
Geografija V Soli 7 Journal of Environmental 3
Management
Journal of Cultural 6 Berichte Zur Deutschen 3
Geography Landeskunde
Geographie Und Schule 6 Area 3
Foldrajzi Ertesito 6 Tourism 3
Terra 6 Water Science and 3
Technology
Geography Review 6 Geographie 3
Teaching Geography 6 Fennia 3
Chinese Geographical 6 Journal of Transport 3
Science Geography
Current Issues in Tourism 6 Gender Place and Culture 3
Documents D Analisi 6 International Migration 3
Geografica
Journal of Historical 6 Anatolia 3
Geography
Annales De Geographie 6 European Urban and 3
Regional Studies
Wiener Geographische 3
Schriften
Wirtschaftsgeographische 5 New Zealand Journal of 3
Studien Geography
Espace Geographique 5
Journal of Geography in 5 Freizeit Und Erholung Als 2
Higher Education Probleme Der
Vergleichenden
Kulturgeographie
Mappemonde 5 Revue Belge De Geographie 2
Marine Pollution Bulletin 5 Regional Studies 2
Japanese Journal of 5 Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift 2
Human Geography
26 Geographies of Tourism: European Research Perspectives

Table 5. (Continued )

Title Number Title Number

Human Geography 5 Environment Development 2

and Sustainability
Norois 5 Environment & Planning A 2
Revue De Geographie 5 Nederlandse Geografische 2
Alpine Studies
Geographie Et Cultures 5 Political Geography 2
Geographia Medica 2
Geografiska Annaler 4 Geografski Vestnik 2
Series B Human
Geography
Estudios Geograficos 4 Geograficky Casopis 2
Tijdschrift Voor 4 Geographical Review of 2
Economische En Japan Series B
Sociale Geografie
Journal of Travel 4 Prace I Studia Geograficzne 2
Medicine
Environmental Health 4 Erdkunde 2
Perspectives
Geographical Review 4 Geographical Review of 2
Japan Series A
Tourist Studies 4 Espace Populations Societes 2
Folia Geographica 4 Etudes Normandes 2
Series Geographica
Oeconomica
Geographica Slovenica 4 Izvestiya Akademii Nauk 2
Seriya Geograficheskaya
Journal of Travel 4 Australian Geographical 2
Research Stidues
Lecture Notes in Computer 2
Science Including
Subseries Lecture Notes
in Artificial Intelligence
and Lecture Notes in
Bioinformatics
a
In tourism AND geography OR geographies in Scopus; analysis as on October 10,
2010.
 Development(s) in the Geographies of Tourism 27

Table 6. Language of “Tourism & Geography” in Title, Abstract, Keywordsa

Language Number of Publications Percentage (%)

English 627 68.0

French 75 8.1
German 57 6.2
Slovenian 29 3.1
Chinese 26 2.8
Spanish 14 1.5
Japanese 10 1.1
Russian 8 0.9
Hungarian 7 7.6
Polish 7 7.6
Finnish 5 0.5
Slovene 5 0.5
Portuguese 4 0.4
Otherb 13 1.4
Total number of publications 922 100.0
a
Analysis as on October 10, 2010.
b
Croatian (2), Czech (2), Italian (2), Slovak (2), Swedish (2), Bulgarian (1), Catalan
(1), Dutch (1).

(Barbier & Pearce, 1984; Lazzarotti, 2002); Germany (Benthien, 1984;

Kreisel, 2004); Italy (Pedrini, 1984); Japan (Takeuchi, 1984; Tsuruta, 1994);
New Zealand (Pearce, 2001); North America (Meyer-Arendt & Lew, 1999;
Meyer-Arendt, 2000); Poland (Warszyńska, 1984); Rumania (Jancu &
Baron, 1984); Russia (Preobrazhenskiy, Vedenin, & Stupina, 1984); South
Africa (Magi & Nzama, 2002; Visser, 2009); the United Kingdom (Coles,
2009; Duffield, 1984); and the United States (Mitchell, 1984). But many of
these reviews are idiosyncratic and do not systematically analyze the tour-
ism geography literature for that country.
Nevertheless, they can be useful for identifying some significant issues or
themes, as are some of the thematic reviews of the field (Gibson, 2008, 2009,
2010; Hall, 2013; Hall & Page, 2009, 2012; Nepal, 2009). However, there
is unfortunately little overt discussion from academics within the tourism
geography and wider community with respect to whom and what is being
published and researched, and why, although relevant literature is growing
28 Geographies of Tourism: European Research Perspectives

(Aitchison, 2006; Che, 2010; Coles & Hall, 2006; Coles, Hall, & Duval, 2006;
Hall, 2005a, 2013; Page, 2005; Smith, 2010; Tribe, 2009; Waitt, Markwell, &
Gorman-Murray, 2008; Wilson, 2012a).
This does not suggest that research and teaching interests and associated
publications are completely irrational; indeed, there is a growing literature
on the teaching of tourism geography (Che, 2009; Dornan & Truly, 2009;
Schmelzkopf, 2002). But it emphasizes that the contents of an area of study
at any one time and location do reflect “the response of the individuals
involved to external circumstances and influences, within the context of their
intellectual socialization” (Johnston, 1983, p. 4). Grano (1981) developed a
model of external influences and internal change within geography that Hall
and Page (2006) and Hall (2004) used as a framework with which to examine
the field of tourism studies. According to Grano (1981), the relationship of
academic space to external influence can be divided into three interrelated
areas: knowledge (the content of tourism studies), action (tourism research
within the context of research praxis), and culture (academics and students
within the context of the research community and the wider society).
Those who study tourism geography are a sub-community of the social
science community, including geography and tourism studies, within the
broader community of academics, scientists, and intellectuals, which itself is
a subset of wider society. The society has a culture, including a scientific/
academic subculture within which the subject matter of the geography of
tourism is developed. Action is predicated on the structure of society and its
knowledge base: research praxis is part of that program of action, and
includes tourism research (Hall & Page, 2006). Therefore, the community of
academics is an “institutionalizing social group” (Grano, 1981, p. 26);
a context within which individual academics and researchers socialize
and network and which helps define the goals of their subject area in the
context of the structures within which they operate. The content of a subject
area or discipline must, in turn, be linked to its milieu, such as changes as to
how universities and research is funded and the major social and scientific
issues of the day.

Changes in the Field

An obvious question is why should tourism be a significant subfield of

geography? Its implications can be discussed for place, space, landscape,
environment, and a range of other themes (Nepal, 2009). However, the
sheer growth in international tourism and mobility and its contribution to
 Development(s) in the Geographies of Tourism 29

economies should be noted. Indeed, shifts in terminology in the literature

from “recreation” to “tourism” parallels the increased mobility of indivi-
duals over time, more so if one is looking through the major American geo-
graphy journals, as well as in a broader context with respect to descriptions
of research projects and publications. What was once “recreation” is now
“domestic tourism.” In addition, changes in mobility patterns and the
increased competition among places to attract mobile capital have led
to changes in research funding, applications, and opportunities; the devel-
opment of new educational courses; and, in some jurisdictions, increased
government funding for tourism-related programs.
The increased mobility of individuals for leisure and business purposes is
part of broader processes of globalization in which the geography of tour-
ism and those who engage in it are embedded. Individuals are part of an
international labor market for academic talent, although some protection-
ism does exist, as well as an increasingly international set of educational
institutions via either the attraction of international students and/or the
development of new campuses or distance education modes. Teaching and
research in tourism has become highly globalized, as evidenced by inter-
nationalization of journals, books, Internet communities, and scholarly
meetings. This, however, depends on the capacity to communicate in
English. Indeed, institutional demands to be international only strengthen
the dominance of English as the current language of globalization and the
reinforcement of the prestige of academic journals and articles published in
English (Paasi, 2005b).
Given the globalization of higher education and research, is it still even
possible to talk of national or regional schools or approaches to tourism
geography? The answer is a qualified yes. Language and institutional differ-
ences still remain, even though there is arguably a more global community
of tourism geographers than ever. Globalization has had the effect of
changing the “rules of the game” in higher education. This, however, is a
complex, chaotic, multiscalar, multitemporal, and multicentric series of
processes; these in turn operate in particular structural and spatial contexts
in which pockets of resistance or conservatism offer alternatives to foreign
or international influences. In some national jurisdictions, rewards are pro-
vided for various forms of “local” research or publication, including indi-
genous research. Nevertheless, some broader trends and issues can be
identified.
First is the (supposed) tension between applied and theoretical tourism
geographies. Tourism studies have often been criticized as being atheoretical
(Franklin & Crang, 2001). Yet, this has much to do with the desire to
30 Geographies of Tourism: European Research Perspectives

promote certain types of theories over others, rather than suggesting that
the geography of tourism is purely descriptive. Nevertheless, within much
European and North American tourism geography, there has long been a
strong element of spatial description that has not been well connected to
economic, political, and/or social theory. Meyer-Arendt and Lew (1999),
for example, note the more applied nature of tourism geographical research
in North America. The perception of the geography of tourism in the
broader field of tourism studies as being strongly applied and spatially
descriptive has been projected by a number of influential reviews (Janiskee
& Mitchell, 1989; Mitchell, 1979, 1984; Mitchell & Murphy, 1991; Pearce,
1979). While spatial atheoretical description had been strongly critiqued by
geographers (Britton, 1978, 1979, 1983, 1991; Ioannides, 1995; Shaw &
Williams, 1994), this was, and perhaps by some, still has not affected the
perception of what the geography of tourism can offer more critical spatial
understanding of tourism phenomena (Hall, 2011b).
The applied vs. theory debate is not one isolated to tourism geography
and is perhaps reflective of broader debates in tourism research and the
social sciences. This also reflects on the emergence of new sets of ideas or
“turns” that are adopted as part of the discourses of tourism geography.
This means we have seen the often uncritical adoption of “gazes” (Crang,
1997a; Urry, 1990), new cultural geographies and turns (Aitchison, 1999),
the mobility paradigm or turn (Adey, 2010; Cresswell, 2006; Hall, 2005c;
Hannam, 2008; Sheller & Urry, 2006), and, more recently, the so-called
“critical turn” in tourism studies (Bianchi, 2009). This is despite the fact
that many of these “turns” have antecedents within geography that are
often unacknowledged or unrealized. Therefore, there is perhaps a need to
recognize that the discourse of tourism geography is itself embedded in the
machinations of the academic fashion cycle, “which plays out through a
particular industrial actor-network of academic knowledge production, cir-
culation and reception” (Gibson & Klocker, 2004, p. 425), within which
“favored academic personalities” are

[s]wept up into international circuits of academic celebrity, a

move that is dependent less upon internal disciplinary modes
of evaluation than on the shifting imperatives of knowledge
dissemination … Dedicated followers of fashion hurry to buy
the new … book, an act of discernment and discrimination
that starkly reveals the truism that identity is constructed
in and through the consumption of commodities. (Barnett,
1998, p. 388)
 Development(s) in the Geographies of Tourism 31

A second, and a rather shorter point, is that as in geography in general,

there is often inadequate integration between physical and human geogra-
phy, despite the increased needs of such approaches because of concerns
over environmental change at various scales (Gössling & Hall, 2006a,
2006b). This is not to suggest that geographers are not active in this field,
but it is to propose that the perception of the geography of tourism is
conditioned more by what happens within the intellectual debates of
human geography than physical geography. Although fields such as climate
change are potentially providing a new focal point for the integration of
physical and human geography (Scott, Gössling, & Hall, 2012).
Third, many tourism geographers do not work in geography depart-
ments; they invariably work in tourism departments many of which are
based in business schools. Such a situation is both a blessing and a curse.
While it potentially provides for the circulation of ideas as well as alterna-
tive career paths, it may also weaken the strengths of the subdiscipline
within geography because of the applied versus theoretical debates noted
above (Hall & Page, 2006).
Finally, these themes are part of a broader process of the globalization
of higher education marked by international sets of university and journal
rankings, increased competition for the international student market, and
the opening of new campuses as part of the export of education. Although
significant in themselves as indicators of a global “academic market” (and
workforce) which is part of a “higher education industry,” they are also
indicative of the spread of neoliberal ideas with respect to governance, edu-
cation, and research policy. Ideas that emphasize the role of market forces,
deregulation, and the state’s role in encouraging the market act as a
mechanism for distributing goods and services, and result in a reduced
social welfare role for the state. In the case of the latter, this also means
that in many countries encouraging universities to search for new sources
of income to replace declining government spending for higher education
in real terms (Hall, 2010).
Such shifts in the idea of higher education and the institutions and
individuals within them has been discussed under the rubric of concepts
such as “academic capitalism” (Paasi, 2005b; Rhoades & Slaughter, 1997;
Slaughter & Leslie, 1997, 2001; Slaughter & Rhoades, 2004), “the entrepre-
neurial university” (Clark, 1998), and “new managerialism” (Deem, 1998).
In the case of the latter, this refers both to ideologies about the application
of techniques, values, and practices derived from the private sector to public
management of services concerned with the provision of public services, and
to the actual use of those techniques and practices in publicly funded
32 Geographies of Tourism: European Research Perspectives

organizations (Deem, 2001). This is, perhaps, best reflected in higher educa-
tion by the use of teaching and research quality audits (Hall, 2005a, 2011a;
Page, 2005), increasingly marked by simplistic notions of quality, and the
international transfer of ideas and policies that surround them (Hall, 2011a,
2013).
The concept of the entrepreneurial university describes the way in which
tertiary institutions are “… pushed and pulled by enlarging, interacting
streams of demand, [and] universities are pressured to change their curri-
cula, alter their faculties, and modernize their increasingly expensive physi-
cal plant and equipment” (Clark, 1998, p. xiii). Such pressures come from
government higher education, economic development, and innovation poli-
cies; the signing of free trade agreements that include educational services
and qualifications recognition; and globalization. The notion of academic
capitalism goes “beyond thinking of the student as a consumer to consider-
ing the institution as marketer” (Slaughter & Rhoades, 2004, p. 1), with
academics acting as “state-subsidized entrepreneurs” (Slaughter & Leslie,
1997, p. 9). This means that the “encroachment of the profit motive into
the academy” identified by Slaughter and Leslie (1997, p. 210) has now
become the norm.
Academic capitalism refers to the way in which the academic staff of
publicly funded universities deploy their academic capital to generate exter-
nal revenues to the institution via the pursuit of market and market-like
activities. Leading to a situation in which profit-oriented activities are pre-
sently embedded, “as a point of reorganization (and new investment) by
higher education institutions to develop their own capacity (and to hire
new types of professionals) to market products created by faculty
and develop commercializable products outside of (though connected to)
conventional academic structures and individual faculty members”
(Slaughter & Rhoades, 2004, p. 11).
Although the precepts of academic capitalism and the entrepreneurial
university are not evenly adopted across the globe, primarily because of
local factors affecting higher education institutions, some faculties and
departments which are seen by university administrations as offering com-
mercial and income-generating potential may be more susceptible than
others to such reorientation. Those without such potential, especially in the
humanities, may be forced to cut course offerings or even be closed or
amalgamated. However, the geography of tourism, straddling both com-
mercial and public research, is a clear candidate for the further develop-
ment of entrepreneurial self-interest in commercial and research-granting
activities. Nevertheless, to adapt academic behaviors away from such
 Development(s) in the Geographies of Tourism 33

self-interest is likely to be extremely difficult, given the dominant commer-

cial focus of the institutions and structures within which the tourism acad-
emy is increasingly embedded. Furthermore, if employment is subject to
growth or maintenance of student numbers, attaining a certain number of
publications in a determined set of journals, and attracting x amount of
external income, then it is very hard to behave otherwise (Hall, 2010).
The institutional aspects of research quality are extremely important for
the assessment of tourism research. Arguably, for the allocation of aca-
demic prestige and funds, they are the most important in those jurisdictions
that have established national research quality reviews (Hall, 2005a, 2011a;
Page, 2003, 2005; Visser, 2009). This is because they set the “rules of the
game” within which research is conducted and published. At a macro level,
national structures and reviews define what constitutes “good” research by
prescribing the means by which it is analyzed, who does the analysis,
what is included in the analysis, where tourism studies lies as a body of
knowledge, and what the implications of the analysis will be (Coles, 2009;
Coles & Hall, 2006; Coles et al., 2006; Page, 2003; Visser, 2009).
These are then responded to by meso-level tertiary institutions in the
research review process. As Tewdwr-Jones commented, “Today, so much
prestige is now attached to the results of the exercise at a time of fiscal con-
cern, that results produce one of two possibilities: a better than expected
performance may result in increased resources allocated to the university; a
lower than expected result may just be the justification sought by vice chan-
cellors eager to prune back expenditure and wield the axe” (2005, p. 318).
This has a profound effect on the direction that scholarship then takes at
both individual and departmental levels. Such a situation is also indicative
of the process of economization that refers to the assembly of actions,
behaviors, devices, institutions, objects, and analytical/practical descrip-
tions which are tentatively and sometime controversially qualified as “eco-
nomic” by scholars, lay people, and/or market actors (Çalıskan & Callon,
2009). As Callon’s (1998) earlier work on the competition among calcula-
tive agencies noted:

Imposing the rules of the game, that is to say, the rules used to
calculate decisions, by imposing the tools in which these rules
are incorporated, is the starting point of relationships of domi-
nation which allow certain calculating agencies to decide the
location and distribution of surpluses. The extension of a cer-
tain form of organized market, an extension which ensures the
domination of agents who calculate according to the
34 Geographies of Tourism: European Research Perspectives

prevailing rules of that particular market, always corresponds

to the imposition of certain calculating tools. (1998, p. 46)

Significantly, the neoliberal drive for efficiency and measurement in

many government policies (Stein, 2002) has also meant the embrace of
metrics that not only define quality in an instrumental manner (a formal
set of journal rankings), but also inherently favor some publication outlets
over others (such as journals over books) because of their coverage. In
bibliometric terms, the limitation of metrics is very clearly recognized in the
literature (Leydesdorff, 2009; Pendlebury, 2009); however, in policy terms
it is not (Hall, 2011a).

CONCLUSION

Metrics are a significant part of the geography and sociology of knowledge.

For some, they identify the hegemonic nature of English and the discourses
of Anglo-American geography (whatever that really is!). However, together
with Paasi (2005b), the intent is to demonstrate that the globalization of the
geography of tourism means that debates over subject matter, focus, and
peripherality cannot be understood without recognizing that the occupation
of academic space by English language journals and publishers is a result of
the present-day practices of academic capitalism of which we are a part.