Geography: the substance of tourism

Geographers were among the very earliest academics to ponder, theorize and examine the socio-spatial manifestations of tourism. Geographers’ analytical toolkits were especially valuable in understanding regional patterns, tourism's impacts on places, the industry's spatial growth, and the flows of people between their homes and their destinations. Since the 1980s and 1990s, however, the contributions of geography have far surpassed the normative perspectives that are commonly assumed to be the province of geographers. While this may relate directly to the post-disciplinarity of the twenty-first century, it is more likely that geographers are now assuming a broader role in understanding not only spatial patterns and human–environment interactions but also behavioral patterns, socio-economic impacts, sense of place and place-bound identities, globalization, and management.

In the past quarter century, we have seen the pervasive hand of economic, social, political, historical, cultural, development, environmental, health, urban, rural, and population geographies, as well as other subfields of geography, in shedding light on many aspects of tourism. There has been an increase in geographical analysis of tourism planning, urban development, tourism policy, and economic and social development through tourism (Brouder & Ioannides, 2014; Rodríguez, Williams, & Hall, 2014; Saarinen & Rogerson, 2014; Scheyvens, 1999; Wall & Mathieson, 2006). Research on tourism landscapes, gendered spaces, and many aspects of heritage tourism is gaining prominence among tourism geographers (Aitchison, MacLeod, & Shaw, 2014; Krakover, 2017; Pritchard & Morgan, 2000; Terkenli, 2004; Timothy, 2011), and given the increasingly turbulent world we live in, we are seeing a proliferation in research about globalization, border issues, security and geopolitics in the context of tourism (Gelbman, 2008; Gelbman & Timothy, 2011; Mostafanezhad & Norum, 2016; Prokkola, 2010; Więckowski & Cerić, 2016).

A prominent area of increasing importance is the crossover between tourism and geospatial technology. Much scholarly attention is currently being devoted to ‘neogeography’ or ‘volunteered geographic information (VGI)’, commonly known as user-generated content. Social media and various GIS-related applications and platforms have become a salient source of tourism data in recent years (Ricker, Johnson, & Sieber, 2013). Platforms such as Google Earth, Wikitravel, TripAdvisor and Wikimapia enable and encourage travelers to provide their own opinions, ratings, and practical information for other travelers. As well, social media is now targeted by destinations and individual service providers as a means of disseminating information and undertaking promotional campaigns. GIS technology as both an enhancer of tourist experiences (e.g. mobile phone apps and heritage site guides) and as a means of tracking tourists’ movements and behaviors (Bohlin & Brandt, 2014; Shoval, Isaacson, & Chhetri, 2013) has recently become a prominent domain of geography-inspired research.

Geography has long informed the field of heritage tourism, most likely because time and space are inseparable, and heritage is about both time and space (Graham, Ashworth, & Tunbridge, 2016; Lowenthal, 2015). Heritage entails what we inherit from the past, use, and value today, and hope to pass on to future generations (Graham et al., 2016). Heritage tourism is regarded by many scholars to be the most pervasive form of tourism, with the vast majority of travel encompassing some element of cultural heritage (Timothy, 2011). Given the broad definition of heritage and its tourist uses, geographers have taken an active role in forwarding the notion that heritage tourism is far more comprehensive than only visits to old buildings or archaeological sites. It also entails one's own valuation of the patrimony being consumed and how identity on many scales may be bolstered through its use as a tourism product. Many other tourism types fall clearly within the boundaries of heritage tourism or are closely aligned with it, including dark tourism, food tourism, religious pilgrimage, agritourism, and many elements of volunteer tourism, to name only a few that geographers have actively studied (Hartmann, 2014; Nelson, 2017; Olsen, 2006; Timothy, 2016).

Resource management, socio-ecological transformations, biodiversity challenges, climate change, and related concerns are at the forefront of today's geography-based research schema (Hall, 2010; Hall, Scott, & Gössling, 2013; Lew & Cheer, 2017; Saarinen, Hambira, Atlhopheng, & Manwa, 2012). These and other elements associated with the mounting sustainability agenda fit firmly within the time-honored geographical traditions of human-environment interactions and global change. Trying to understand climate change, resilience, adaptation, and biodiversity is pointless without considering geography and its tenets and methods.

Geographers are certainly not limited to the methods they use nor the types of tourism they concentrate on. We are known for qualitative and quantitative analysis and utilizing a wide range of data-collection methods. As well, geographers are used to addressing a variety of concepts and research questions related to many types of tourism. We are especially adept at, and equipped to, tackle issues of human and fiscal mobility, colonialism and indigenous rights, environmental changes, resilience, conservation, globalization, spatial behavior and performance, transportation, planning, place branding, urbanization, rural development, destination impacts, landscape changes, gender and sexuality, sustainable development, policy formation and implementation, GIS applications and much more.

Perhaps more than with any other phenomenon, the qualities of geography – space, place, location, and environment – affect tourism in countless ways and determine its successes or failures. The simultaneity of space and time, and production and consumption are what requires geographical input. Geography defines destinations, market hinterlands, ecological sensitivities and socio-cultural values. It determines access to places, who is able to travel, and how societies value their pasts and their presents. While space, place, and location are the core of geography, geographers are increasingly fortified to go beyond these doctrines to evaluate tourism more holistically. Perhaps geographers’ best quality is our multidexterity in being pragmatic in our efforts to understand the global forces of tourism, for tourism is above all else a geographical phenomenon in all its manifestations.