Epistemology of Tourism

Epistemology is the deconstruction of a body of knowledge to establish the essential elements that is comprises.

In order to be defined as a discipline, any body of knowledge must demonstrate academic rigour and apply conceptual frameworks. Tourism courses in developed countries were not established until the 1970s and 1980s and so given the relative immaturity of the study of tourism, there has been some debate about whether it can be described as a discipline in its own right. Indeed, the study of tourism draws upon many different subjects including geography, economics, sociology, business, marketing, political science, psychology and many others. In the light of this ‘borrowing from other subject areas’ some writers (such as Goeldner, 1988), have referred to tourism as a ‘discipline in its early stages’. Indeed, taking all this into consideration, it may be most appropriate to describe the study of tourism is best described as multi-disciplinary.

John Tribe has written an excellent article which develops a model around the epistemology of tourism and the current status of this subject.

This blog will focus on the contribution to an understanding of tourism from sociology (tourism in society) and psychology (tourism from an individual perspective).