Abstract

This essay provides a commentary on tourism research that has emerged over the past decade or so and which I believe has contributed significantly to our knowledge and understanding of the complexity of this phenomenon in our contemporary lives. My focus is on specific ‘movements’ or ‘turns’ in tourism research rather than on discrete topics or subject areas. My central argument is that these ‘turns’ have pushed beyond traditional research frontiers and have thus transformed the way we think about and do tourism. Three ‘turns’ are briefly discussed – the critical turn, the postdisciplinary turn and the mobilities turn. I conclude with a call for tourism researchers to avoid knowledges which are produced via the easy path of imitation, and instead to embrace the bitter and noble routes to the creation of tourism knowledges which stem from our own reflections and experiences of being in tourism.