The Study of Tourism by Sharpley Richard;

Author:Sharpley, Richard;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group
Published: 2011-03-31T00:00:00+00:00

Table 2.7 Thematic categorization of articles published in four tourism journals, 2005-2010

Of course, the broad categorization of research themes in both studies means that trends and changes in the specific topics addressed under each heading are not revealed. However, in undertaking my study, it rapidly became clear that a number of topics and themes were common across all research areas. Moreover, and rather surprisingly, given the apparent broadening of the tourism knowledge base over the last two decades, these topics have long concerned tourism researchers: market/ tourist group segmentation; destination branding and image; tourists’ experiences of destinations; motivation; the influence of advances in information and communication technology; destination choice factors; destination management; risk and crisis in tourism; environmental issues/impacts; networks and collaboration; and visitor management. Thus, although the volume of tourism research has increased exponentially, the same cannot be said for its breadth and scope. New methodologies or perspectives are often proposed in the literature, but these are largely applied to ‘old’ problems and questions.

This is not to say that there has been a total absence of new themes that push the boundaries of tourism research: see, for instance, the diverse content of The Sage Handbook of Tourism Studies (Jamal and Robinson 2009). Moreover, I have no doubt that many of the more recent specialist tourism journals have provided an outlet for such work. At the same time, many factors are at play that influence the nature and focus of contemporary tourism research and, consequently, the published content of tourism journals. For example, much contemporary empirical research is geographically located in China/Taiwan, perhaps reflecting the large number of students from those countries currently undertaking postgraduate study in tourism. Conversely, European countries (with the exception of Spain, including the Balearics and the Canary Islands) tend to be under-represented in current tourism research, despite the region’s continuing dominance of international tourism flows. It is therefore difficult, and perhaps dangerous, to draw conclusions from these two studies of journal content; and there is undoubtedly a need for a more comprehensive and detailed analysis of trends in tourism research.

Nevertheless, it would appear that much, if not the majority, of tourism research remains focused upon the practice of tourism and specifically on issues related to the supply and consumption of tourism services. This is not necessarily a problem. As tourism continues to expand in scope and scale, it is necessary for research into the phenomenon to reflect that expansion. Moreover, this predominant focus of tourism research also reflects and supports the practical/vocational perspective of most tourism education programmes, as discussed earlier in this chapter. However, the more limited attention paid by tourism researchers to what may be described as philosophical issues – or what we may learn, through tourism, about ‘our world’ – is certainly a little surprising, given the extent to which both the volume and disciplinary foundations of tourism research have expanded over the last two decades. As will be discussed in Chapter 4, this means that there is an opportunity for future research in these areas.

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