Challenges in Tourism Research

Tej Vir Singh is Director and Professor at the Centre for Tourism and Development, Lucknow, India. His main research interests are impact studies, tourism geography, education and mountain tourism. He is Editor-in-Chief of the international journal Tourism Recreation Research and has worked in the field for over 40 years. He was the winner of the 2013 UNWTO Ulysses Prize.

This book grabs your attention by probing into several of tourism's most intriguing and lively debates. It brings together contributions by leading tourism researchers about several of the subject's more important tensions, dilemmas, ambiguities and disputed relationships. It succeeds in encouraging readers to think more deeply and in more nuanced ways about tourism.

• Erik Cohen: ForewordTej Vir Singh: PrefaceTej Vir Singh: Introduction1. I am a Traveller, You are a Visitor, They are Tourists; ‘But who are Post-tourists’?1.1 Scott McCabe: Are We all Post-tourists now? Tourist Categories, Identity and Postmodernity1.2 David Dunn: Those People were a Kind of Solution: Post-Tourists and Grand Narratives 1.3 Natan Uriely: Exploring the Post-Tourist: Guidelines for Future Research2. Is Tourist a Secular Pilgrim or a Hedonist in Search of Pleasure?2.1 Dan Knox and Kevin Hannam: The Secular Pilgrim: Are We Flogging a Dead Metaphor?2.2 Peter Jan Margry: Whisky and Pilgrimage: Clearing Up Commonalities2.3 Noel B. Salazar: To Be or Not to Be a Tourist: The Role of Concept-Metaphors in Tourism Studies3. Do Tourists Travel for the Discovery of ‘Self’ or to Search for the ‘Other’?3.1 Gianna Moscardo: A Journey in Search of Self and the ‘Other’? 3.2 Graham Dann: The Quest for the Self or the ‘Other’ as Motivation for Travel: Simple Choice or Spoiled for Choice?3.3 Bob McKercher: Tourism: The Quest for the Selfish 4. Is Volunteerism a New Avatar of Travelism?4.1 Stephen Wearing, Simone Grabowski and Jennie Small: Volunteer Tourism: Return of the Traveller4.2 Kevin Lyons: Reciprocity in Volunteer Tourism and Travelism4.3 Daniel Guttentag: Volunteer Tourism: Insights from the Past, Concerns about the Present and Questions for the Future4.4 Alexandra Coghlan: Volunteer Tourism: A New Narrative between Hosts and Guests5. Tourism’s Invulnerability: Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics5.1 Julio Aramberri: Is Tourism Vulnerable?5.2 Richard Sharpley: Tourism and Vulnerability: A Case of Pessimism? 5.3 Carson L. Jenkins: Is Tourism Vulnerable? An Ambiguous Question6. Vanishing Peripheries: Does Tourism Consume Places?6.1 C. M. Hall: Elaborating Core–Periphery Relations in Tourism 6.2 David Harrison: Vanishing Peripheries and Shifting Centres: Structural Certainties or Negotiated Ambiguities? 6.3 David Weaver: Moving in from the Margins: Experiential Consumption and the Pleasure Core  6.4 Geoffrey Wall: Tourism in Peripheries7. Tourism is More Sinned Against than Sinning7.1 Richard Sharpley: In Defence of Tourism7.2 Noel Scott: Original Sin: A Lack of (Tourism) Knowledge7.3 Jim Macbeth: Tourism: The Good, the Bad and the Sinner? 7.4 Peter Smith: In Defence of Tourism: A Re-assessment 8. Is Concept of Sustainability Utopian? Ideally Perfect but Hard to Practice8.1 Stephen McCool: Sustainable Tourism: Guiding Fiction, Social Trap or Path to Resilience?8.2 Richard Butler: Sustainable Tourism – The Undefinable and Unachievable Pursued by the Unrealistic?8.3 Ralf Buckley: Tourism and the Sustainability of Human Societies 8.4 David Weaver: Whither Sustainable Tourism? But First, a Good Hard Look in the Mirror 8.5 Brian Wheeller: Sustainable Tourism: Milestone or Millstone?9. What is Wrong with the Concept of Carrying Capacity?9.1 Ralf Buckley: Tourism Capacity Concepts9.2 Sagar Singh: A Twist in the Tale of Carrying Capacity: Towards a Formula for Sustainable Tourism? 9.3 Gene Brothers: Tragedy of the Tourism Commons: A Need for Carrying Capacities9.4 Simon McArthur: Why Carrying Capacity Should be a Last Resort?  10. Knowledge Management in Tourism: Are the Stakeholders Research-Averse?10.1 Chris Cooper: Transferring Tourism Knowledge – A Challenge for Tourism Educators and Researchers10.2 Lisa Ruhanen: Transferring Tourism Knowledge: Research on Climate Change and Sustainability10.3 Noel Scott: A Market Approach to Tourism Knowledge11. Tourism for Whom? – The Unmet Challenge11.1 Richard Butler: What has Tourism Ever Done for Us?11.2 C. M. Hall: What has Tourism Ever Done for Us? Depends Where You’re Looking from and Who’s Looking 11.3 Geoffrey Wall: Tourism has Done a Lot for Us, for Both Good and Ill11.4 John Swarbrooke: Are we going to Use Tourism or to be Used by Tourism?Index