The Discovery of Tourism

Citation

Brown, G. (2011), "The Discovery of Tourism", International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 23 No. 2, pp. 275-276. https://doi.org/10.1108/09596111111119374

In the words of the editor, The Discovery of Tourism “offered me a chance to ‘meet’ geographers whom my colleagues held in high esteem and to become acquainted with their scholarship” (p. xvi). For the reader it offers the same and much more. The book is divided into 15 chapters, each of which reports the personal narrative of a geographer who has made a significant contribution to the tourism literature. They were asked to address their social background and employment history, how they became interested in tourism and their views about how the field has evolved. Many of the authors will be familiar to readers of this journal and their accounts report a number of firsts; as pioneers of tourism research, as editors of new tourism journals and as people who established tourism programmes at universities around the world.

The contributors are based in ten countries (UK, USA, Canada, China, New Zealand, Australia, India, France, Belgium, and Spain) which suggests a wide national coverage. However, two are based in England, one in Scotland and another five grew up in the UK. With a book of this kind, one is drawn to the identification of common patterns of behaviour and threads that seem to link disparate lives and the formative influence of trips to the British seaside as part of family holidays is clearly evident as is the number who read the National Geographic magazine at an early age. For many, this helped create a love of travel, a desire to experience and understand the world and to “pay homage to the geographical spaces in which I enriched myself” (p. 12). In their studies, many were interested in historical geography and gained valuable knowledge while taking part in field studies. This is insightful as very few tourism programmes include a course in history and many universities no longer organise field trips due to their costs, the modular structure of degrees programmes and, increasingly, risks associated with liability.

The study of geography created a strong interest in place that was translated, for some, into research that used case studies and regional analysis. Institutional solutions to the schism between human geography and physical geography forced some to make decisions between science and “pseudo‐science”. For others, the “in‐between” nature of geography offered opportunities and it is notable that many of the contributors have used both quantitative and qualitative research techniques and calls for multi‐disciplinary approaches to tourism are made throughout the book. Either directly, or sometimes by implication, tourism has been treated in research conducted by the authors as a system. Knowledge of how the system operates has been informed by studies that range from mathematical models of tourist flows to the analysis of social relations in host communities.

The authors took different routes to gain a belief in the value of their work and to achieve confidence in their abilities. A sense of success was marked by statements such as “I never had so much fun in my life” (p. 197) and “I began to realize that my research effort, more than an academic pursuit, was a patriotic obligation” (p. 110). For some, confidence was gained when engaging with industry representatives and when serving on industry committees for others it was gained through academic camararderie. Attending conferences and feeling part of an academic community has been important for many of the authors. Also, a large number pay tribute to value of friendship and mutual respect that developed with the doctoral students that they have supervised.

The Discovery of Tourism presents the collective wisdom of leading academics who have been witness to the dramatic development of tourism in the post‐war period and the changes associated with this development. Some, through their work, have influenced these changes, others express regret that they have been merely witnesses to some of the negative tourism impacts on places with which they have become attached. Their personal journeys are aptly captured by the editor as “migrations across departments, universities, countries and academic fields” (p. xv). During these migrations they have been subject to considerable changes and some voice strong views about the merits of the changes that have occurred. Accessibility to resources and the speed of communication are dramatically different now to the situation that existed 30 of 40 years ago when books about tourism were rare, the few articles on the subject took weeks to arrive by inter‐library loan and data analysis involved spending days punching cards before they could be run through very slow computers. However, this era is also regarded favourably by those who consider it to be a period when there was time to read and think.

Concerns about the prospects for tourism education are evident. Although the relative status varies from country to country, some similarities exist in the way tourism and tourism academics are perceived. After a lack of recognition, the level of credibility accorded by colleagues in other disciplines improved. This was associated with an increase in the economic importance of tourism and high levels of student demand. However, the tourism geographers who have moved into business faculties have been faced with new challenges. Some have grasped the opportunity to demonstrate the value of their geographical knowledge to new academic colleagues and been adept at translating concepts associated with distribution from geography to marketing. However, there are an uncomfortable number of examples in the book of colleagues in business expressing scepticism or even contempt towards tourism. In an era when metrics are used to measure outcomes, problems associated with the low ranking of tourism journals are recognised by the authors.

The comments above reflect my review and the beauty of a book of this kind is that readers will interpret the authors' lives in different ways. The narratives inevitably call for introspection on the part of the reader. Fortunately, there is sufficient variety in the chapters for most readers of a certain age to see similarities with their personal journeys. The book will be of interest to students who wish to learn more about some of the people who have made major contributions to the study of tourism but will be of particular appeal to academics who have experienced similar motivations and challenges to those described by the authors.