The paradoxes of space tourism^*

* An earlier version of this paper was presented as a keynote address to the International Sociological Association’s RC 50 In-Between Conference, Chiang Mai, 5–8 April 2016.

ABSTRACT

Space tourism is widely considered to be the next step in the expansion of tourism. In this article, I focus on several paradoxes inherent in the long-range development of space travel and space tourism within the scope of the wider project of human expansion in the cosmos. I discuss the future of space tourism development from a critical sociological perspective, highlighting specifically four principal paradoxes inherent in that process: (1) the limitations on human cosmic expansion; (2) the subversion of ‘adventure’ in space tourism; (3) the banalisation of the sublimity of the experience of space tourism and (4) the deflowering of the pristinity of other celestial bodies by space exploitation and tourism development. I draw some speculative conclusions regarding the prospects and limitations of the emergent direction of the future expansion of the tourism industry.

KEYWORDS:

• Space travel
• space tourism
• space industry
• space exploration
• adventure
• tourist experience

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to my daughter, Bosmat Cohen, for her comments on an earlier draft of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Erik Cohen is the George S. Wise Professor of Sociology (emeritus) at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His current research interests are tourism, mobilities, festivals, human/animal interaction and Thai society.

Notes

* An earlier version of this paper was presented as a keynote address to the International Sociological Association’s RC 50 In-Between Conference, Chiang Mai, 5–8 April 2016.