Tourism mobilities: still a current issue in tourism?

Abstract

It is over a decade since the mobilities agenda first emerged in substantive form. Cohen and Cohen’s (2014) paper provides a timely opportunity to reflect on the achievements of mobilities thinking as it relates to travel and tourism, in other words ‘tourism mobilities’. Viewed in multiple historical contexts, the emergence of a mobilities approach to understanding tourism is entirely justified. However, it is an important backdrop for any state-ofthe-art or cutting-edge analysis of tourism mobilities. Three enduring but fundamental issues regarding the study of tourism mobilities are raised, including whether the tourism mobilities agenda travels well. International comparative work of this nature on emerging world regions is clearly welcome and offers significant insights. However, viewed against its historical backdrop, it raises questions about the level of interest and penetration of the tourism mobilities agenda generally, and beyond Europe, North America and Australasia specifically. In the process, it raises the spectre that interest in tourism mobilities is perhaps not what it once was and the tourism academy may have moved on to the next grand challenge.