Welcome to Volume 19 of Tourism Geographies. The last time I wrote an editorial for Tourism Geographies was in Volume 6(4) in 2004. I am not planning to restart that tradition, but I did want inform our community about some of the changes that have taken place recently with the journal, and what we are planning in the coming years.
Tourism Places: critical perspectives on tourism development and experiences
Starting in 2017, Tourism Geographies will publish an annual special edition with the title of ‘Tourism Places: Critical Perspectives on Tourism Development and Experiences'. This special edition (like a special issue) will include high-quality tourism studies that provide an in-depth understanding of tourism phenomena in a place or region, or of a type of tourism. The quality of place analysis and insight is the primary criterion for peer review, rather than contributions to conceptual theory, which is what we normally emphasize.
Tourism Places was proposed as a potential outlet for some of the many papers that are submitted to Tourism Geographies that are more place oriented rather than theory oriented. We receive a lot of papers that are primarily describing tourism in a place because people tend to associate place description with the discipline of geography. Some of these papers are very interesting, although they violate the journal's emphasis on theoretical research. The special edition will still be published under the Tourism Geographies heading and would, therefore, carry and contribute to the journal's impact factor. Submissions to Tourism Places will be made through the regular Tourism Geographies ScholarOne portal. Referees will be informed that papers are being reviewed for the Tourism Places special edition, with its distinct editorial orientation.
Please see the instructions on the Tourism Geographies' Notes for Authors webpage on how to submit a paper for Tourism Places <http://www.tgjournal.com/notes-for-authors.html>.
The changing of the editors
Last year saw the first change in the senior editors of Tourism Geographies since the journal began publishing in 1999. Both Allan Williams (editor for Europe and Eurasia; University of Surrey, UK) and Shaul Krakover (editor for Africa and the Middle East; Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel) gradually phased out of their editor positions starting mid-2016. Shaul was one of the first to propose a journal focused on geographic perspective on tourism, and Allan has possibly been the most energetic supporter of Tourism Geographies since its origin. Their hard work has been much appreciated and will be missed.
On the other hand, Tourism Geographies is very pleased to announce the appointment of two new editors. Jarkko Saarinen (University of Oulu, Finland) and Honggang Xu (Sun Yat-Sen University, China) have joined Michael Hall (University of Canterbury, New Zealand) and myself as editors responsible for overseeing the review of papers submitted to the journal. Professor Saarinen has been a leader in the International Geographical Union (IGU) and has significant tourism research involvement in southern Africa. Professor Xu is among China's more prominent tourism geographers and is a frequent presenter, along with her students, at international conferences. We are looking forward to the new dynamism that these two eminent scholars will bring to Tourism Geographies.
More information about both our departing and newly appointed editors can be found on the ‘Tourism Spaces Blog’ at <http://www.tgjournal.com/tourism-spaces-blog>.
20th anniversary volume coming in 2018
Next year, 2018, will see publication of the 20th volume of Tourism Geographies. To make that volume special requires that we plan for it early. We hope to produce some interesting special issues, as well as virtual special issues (see below). We will also be working with our colleagues on the IGU's Tourism Commission and in the Canadian Association of Geographers to support the IGU Regional Meeting in Quebec City, Quebec, 6--10 August 2018. If you have some thoughtful ideas to contribute to Volume 20 or to the Quebec City meeting, feel free to contact me.
Special issues and virtual special issues (VSIs)
Tourism Geographies has, or so I have been told, long been known for its themed issues. In part, this is because I have always kept an eye out for papers that are related to one another and which might form a special topic, if not necessarily an entire special issue. Although we did not have any special issues in 2016, several will be published in 2017 with more planned for the future. Unlike some journals, we do not announce open calls for papers for our special issues (at least not yet). Instead, each paper is individually invited by the guest editor(s), and all papers are subject to a double-blind review process to ensure quality. We will also start to produce online virtual special issues (VSIs), which are made up of articles that were previously published in Tourism Geographies. VSIs can be created to support conferences and other academic events, for which they would be made free access. If you might be interested in organizing a special issue or a VSI, then please see our guidelines at <http://www.tgjournal.com/special-issue-proposals.html>.
Thanks
Finally, I want to thank the Tourism Geographies community (which includes anyone who has submitted a paper to the journal, whether accepted or not, and anyone who reads this editorial) for your support as the journal has evolved and matured these past two decades. I hope we can continue to earn your support by providing a venue for interesting research, and that you in turn will continue to read and support our authors.