The origins of academic work on tourism: a European perspective

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to fill in the gap in knowledge about early academic work on tourism which had developed first of all in Europe. The author has tried to achieve this aim by conducting a retrospective analysis of chronological and institutional-methodological aspects of the evolution of tourism studies. As a result, he has distinguished two aspects (each divided into two): 1) chronological: a period of precursors and a formal academic period; 2) methodological: research within one discipline and interdisciplinary research. The results enabled the author to formulate general conclusions for critical discussion. It primarily concerns the domination of the English language and the Anglo-American tradition in the literature which is the reason why the global picture of achievements in tourism studies is incomplete and thus imperfect. The accomplishments of smaller, yet well-established, “national schools” are often ignored and remain almost unknown internationally. The author hopes that the article will be an encouragement to undertake research on early tourism studies in individual countries and to publish its results internationally as this will broaden knowledge of the origins of academic work in tourism.

The Consolidation Stage of the Tourism Area Life Cycle (TALC) Model: The Case of Ibiza from 1977 to 2000

“…The historiographic analysis of tourism in Ibiza [4], especially that of the stage of stagnation that is analyzed in this article, adopts the tourism area life cycle (TALC) model as a theoretical reference, which takes as its starting point the consideration that the tourist destination, when understood as a global product, experiences a life cycle that is similar to the product life cycle of conventional consumer goods [19]. The TALC model was introduced by Butler in 1980 [6][7][8], but several previous authors had already outlined similar ideas [20]. Both in Butler's model and in previous papers, tourism development is considered to be a process that evolves through several stages, from an initial situation of almost no tourism to the maximum number of tourists and a process of degradation of the tourism sector and various elements of the social and natural environment.…”

Exploring the foundations of tourism geography: between flat ontology and J. Searle’s vertical social ontology

“…The discipline began to develop mostly in continental Europe after World War I, particularly in France, e.g., works of Blanchard (1925) and Borrel (1933), as well as in Germany along with German-speaking Austria and Switzerland in works by, among others, Stradner (1905), Grünthal (1934) and Poser (1939). The latter countries became the primary academic centers focusing on tourism studies until the 1960s (Butowski, 2020). In Poland (that is, the author's country), the first institution conducting regular geographical research and academic education on tourism was established in the 1930s at Jagiellonian University in Kraków (Jackowski et al, 2016).…”

“…These general remarks seem to be justified, especially in relation to those sub-disciplines of human geography that developed relatively late. Certainly, the geography of tourism is one of them (Warszyńska & Jackowski 1976, 1978Kowalczyk 2001;Butowski 2020). Additionally, the sub-discipline is in a particularly difficult position because it deals with tourism, which appears as a complex social phenomenon-a phenomenon that is perceived as extremely "under-theorized, eclectic, and disparate" (Meethan, 2001: 2).…”

Exploring Ontology of Tourism: A New-Realist Approach

“…With regard to the first task, an attempt has been made to build an ontological foundation on which individual disciplines—especially those that are ready to accept at least a moderately realist approach—could develop their investigations on tourism. Such a base could serve as a common ontological platform for sciences dealing with tourism (Butowski 2020b) and taking up both its external manifestations (e.g., tourism as a socio-economic system; cf. Dwyer 2011; Mason 2017; Nash 2006) and internal determinants (tourism as psychological experiences; cf.…”