definition geography and tourism

• Subject List
• Take a Tour
• For Authors
• Subscriber Services
• Publications
• African American Studies
• African Studies
• American Literature
• Anthropology
• Architecture Planning and Preservation
• Art History
• Atlantic History
• Biblical Studies
• British and Irish Literature
• Childhood Studies
• Chinese Studies
• Cinema and Media Studies
• Communication
• Criminology
• Environmental Science
• Evolutionary Biology
• International Law
• International Relations
• Islamic Studies
• Jewish Studies
• Latin American Studies
• Latino Studies
• Linguistics
• Literary and Critical Theory
• Medieval Studies
• Military History
• Political Science
• Public Health
• Renaissance and Reformation
• Social Work
• Urban Studies
• Victorian Literature
• Browse All Subjects

How to Subscribe

• Free Trials

In This Article Expand or collapse the "in this article" section Tourism Geography

Introduction, general overviews.

• Progress in Human Geography Reports
• The Institutional Environment Shaping Tourism Geography Education
• Culture and Heritage Tourism
• Tourism and Agriculture
• Economic Geography and Tourism
• Migration and Mobilities
• Destination Place Branding

Related Articles Expand or collapse the "related articles" section about

About related articles close popup.

Lorem Ipsum Sit Dolor Amet

Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae; Aliquam ligula odio, euismod ut aliquam et, vestibulum nec risus. Nulla viverra, arcu et iaculis consequat, justo diam ornare tellus, semper ultrices tellus nunc eu tellus.

• Cultural Geography
• Economic Geography
• Geography of Beer
• Geography of Wine
• Globalization
• Touristification

Other Subject Areas

Forthcoming articles expand or collapse the "forthcoming articles" section.

• GeoCapabilities in Geography Education
• Geography Faculty Development
• Urban Greening
• Find more forthcoming articles...
• Export Citations
• Share This Facebook LinkedIn Twitter

Tourism Geography by Deborah Che LAST REVIEWED: 27 April 2017 LAST MODIFIED: 27 April 2017 DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199874002-0156

Geography is the ideal discipline for studying the global tourism industry; as the key journal Tourism Geographies (under Journals ) explains, there are many fundamentally geographical aspects to tourism which (1) “occurs in places, (2) is sold and begins in a place of origin and is consumed in destination places, (3) transforms the environment of visited places in ways that are distinct from non-tourism processes, (4) involves the movement of people, goods, services, ideas, and money over space, and (5) presents a distinct way that people view, understand and relate to the world.” Given the inherently spatial aspects of tourism, geographers have contributed significantly to academic tourism studies. They have developed some of the most important conceptual models for explaining tourism development, including resort morphology, the tourist-historic city, and the tourist area life cycle. Additionally geographers have made the most sustained contributions to the study of the environmental dimensions of tourism and have been major contributors to the concepts of sustainable tourism and Ecotourism . Even though it has been at the core of tourism studies and also strengthened geography department enrollments, tourism geography ironically has been somewhat peripheral in academic geography. This status may be due in part to the inertia of academic institutions and staff in not seeing tourism as a serious subject for study, as well as the difficulty in measuring the tourism industry as compared to primary and secondary industries. This bibliography highlights the contributions of tourism geography and geographers to tourism research and education through a review of general overviews, Handbooks , Journals , Progress in Human Geography Reports , and Textbooks and publications on Tourism Geography Education , as well as those on specific topical areas including Culture and Heritage Tourism , Sustainability and Tourism , Migration and Mobilities , Economic Geography and Tourism , and Destination Place Branding .

The sources in this section provide overviews of tourism geography and are references to the extensive literature reviewed. Butler 2004 interweaves personal experiences from Butler’s academic career in geography in Canada and tourism management in the UK in discussing geographical research on tourism before 1950, from 1950–1980 and post-1980 to the early 21st century. His earlier contributions primarily concerned environmental aspects of tourism such as sustainable development, carrying capacity, and limits to use, while his later work diversified into areas including mobilities and movement, regional development, and cultural topics. Hall 2013 reviews contemporary tourism geography and argues that the subdiscipline has been a significant contributor to the melding and hybridity of geographic binaries, especially in the development of more critical applied geographies of environmental change. Hall and Page 2009 identifies themes emerging from the research of geographers, including explaining spatialities, tourism planning and places, development and its critiques, tourism as an “applied” area of research, and future prospects in the development of spatiality in tourism research. Focusing on the state of North American tourism geography, Meyer-Arendt and Lew 2003 highlights the research themes and approaches of members of the Recreation, Tourism and Sport specialty group of the Association of American Geographers. In contrast to the former pieces, which largely focus on tourism geography research published in English, Kreisel 2004 provides an insight into the German geographical research on tourism and leisure which—with the exception of Christaller’s application of his central places theory to tourism and his hypothesis that zones more distant from urban and industrial agglomerations were more favorable for tourism development—is largely unfamiliar to non-German readers. Likewise, Lazzarotti 2002 reviews French tourism geography research outside the Anglo-American dominated academic literature. The general overviews in Butler 2004 , Hall 2013 , and Hall and Page 2009 note that while geography has been foundational to tourism studies, with over one-third of the most cited tourism scholars from 1970–2007 having graduate qualifications in geography ( Hall and Page 2009 ), tourism has been marginalized in academic geography, with few positions in geography departments and barely a mention in key publications on the history of geographical thought. Likewise Butler 2004 (see also Sustainability and Tourism ) found hardly any articles on tourism and recreation were published in the leading geographical journals from 1950–1990. While the 1970s embargo on tourism research at the Annals of the Association of American Geographers ended with a change in editors and policy ( Butler 2004 ), tourism research has remained relatively peripheral in geography as contrasted to geography’s core status within tourism.

Butler, Richard. “Geographical Research on Tourism, Recreation, and Leisure: Origins, Eras, and Directions.” Tourism Geographies 6.2 (2004): 143–162.

DOI: 10.1080/1461668042000208453

Draws on the author’s four-decade involvement in the field of leisure, recreation, and tourism. Uniquely interweaves personal narratives in discussing the diverse research emphases and contributions by geographers; the explosion in tourism programs (mainly in business and management schools); and future contributions possible if a strong spatial focus and a synthesizing approach are maintained.

Hall, C. Michael. “Framing Tourism Geography: Notes from the Underground.” Annals of Tourism Research 43 (2013): 601–623.

DOI: 10.1016/j.annals.2013.06.007

While noting the context in which tourism geography operates as a foundational discipline to the study of tourism (although perceived as marginal to institutional geography) the article argues that tourism geography has been a significant contributor to bridging geographic binaries, including the applied versus theoretical and physical versus human.

Hall, C. M., and S. J. Page. “Progress in Tourism Management: From the Geography of Tourism to Geographies of Tourism—A Review.” Tourism Management 30.1 (2009): 3–16.

DOI: 10.1016/j.tourman.2008.05.014

Provides a review of the state of tourism geography thirty years from when the journal first began publishing articles by geographers; especially timely given the subdiscipline is at a crossroads with the retirement of those who contributed significantly to tourism studies and the emergence of a new generation of tourism geographers.

Kreisel, Werner. “Geography of Leisure and Tourism Research in the German-speaking World: Three Pillars to Progress.” Tourism Geographies 6.2 (2004): 163–185.

DOI: 10.1080/1461668042000208435

This article provides an insight into German-language research in this subdiscipline, from Hans Poser’s 1939 on landscape and tourism regions to current applied foci on sustainable tourism, including strategic resource and quality management planning and the transformation of former industrial landscapes for recreation, leisure, and tourism.

Lazzarotti, Olivier. “French Tourism Geographies: A Review.” Tourism Geographies 4.2 (2002): 135–147.

DOI: 10.1080/14616680210124909

This article provides an historical overview of the French geographical literature on tourism since the end of the 19th century, which has been hampered by academic institutional assumptions of what is/is not geography.

Meyer-Arendt, Klaus J., and Alan A. Lew. “Recreation, Tourism and Sport.” In Geography in America at the Dawn of the 21 st Century . Edited by Gary L. Gaile and Cort J. Willmott, 526–542. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.

A useful overview that identifies the broad tourism geography themes and approaches in which recreation, tourism and sport academics have published, including travel; historical tourism; perception; environmental aspects; destination studies; specialized tourism including cultural, farm, and rural tourism and resorts and marketing; and economic aspects of tourism.

back to top

Users without a subscription are not able to see the full content on this page. Please subscribe or login .

Oxford Bibliographies Online is available by subscription and perpetual access to institutions. For more information or to contact an Oxford Sales Representative click here .

• About Geography »
• Meet the Editorial Board »
• Abortion, Geographies of
• Accessing and Visualizing Archived Weather and Climate Dat...
• Activity Space
• Actor Network Theory (ANT)
• Age, Geographies of
• Agent-based Modeling
• Agricultural Geography
• Agricultural Meteorology/Climatology
• Animal Geographies
• Anthropocene and Geography, The
• Anthropogenic Climate Change
• Applied Geography
• Arctic Climatology
• Arctic, The
• Art and Geography
• Assessment in Geography Education
• Atmospheric Composition and Structure
• Automobility
• Aviation Meteorology
• Beer, Geography of
• Behavioral and Cognitive Geography
• Belt and Road Initiative
• Biodiversity Conservation
• Biodiversity Gradients
• Biogeography
• Biogeomorphology and Zoogeomorphology
• Biometric Technologies
• Biopedoturbation
• Body, Geographies of the
• Borders and Boundaries
• Brownfields
• Carbon Cycle
• Carceral Geographies
• Cartography
• Cartography, History of
• Cartography, Mapping, and War
• Chicago School
• Children and Childhood, Geographies of
• Citizenship
• Climate Literacy and Education
• Climatology
• Community Mapping
• Comparative Urbanism
• Conservation Biogeography
• Consumption, Geographies of
• Crime Analysis, GIS and
• Crime, Geography of
• Critical GIS
• Critical Historical Geography
• Critical Military Geographies
• Cultural Ecology and Human Ecology
• Cultural Landscape
• Cyberspace, Geography of
• Desertification
• Developing World
• Development, Regional
• Development Theory
• Disability, Geography of
• Disease, Geography of
• Drones, Geography of
• Drugs, Geography of
• Economic Historical Geography
• Edge Cities and Urban Sprawl
• Education (K-12), Geography
• El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO)
• Elderly, Geography and the
• Electoral Geography
• Empire, Geography and
• Energy, Geographies of
• Energy, Renewable
• Energy Resources and Use
• Environment and Development
• Environmental Electronic Sensing Systems
• Environmental Justice
• Ethics, Geographers and
• Ethics, Geography and
• Ethnography
• Ethnonationalism
• Everyday Life, Geography and
• Extreme Heat
• Family, Geographies of the
• Feminist Geography
• Film, Geography and
• Finance, Geography of
• Financial Geographies of Debt and Crisis
• Fluvial Geomorphology
• Folk Culture and Geography
• Future, Geographies of the
• Gender and Geography
• Gentrification
• Geocomputation in Geography Education
• Geographic Information Science
• Geographic Methods: Archival Research
• Geographic Methods: Discourse Analysis
• Geographic Methods: Interviews
• Geographic Methods: Life Writing Analysis
• Geographic Methods: Visual Analysis
• Geographic Thought (US)
• Geographic Vulnerability to Climate Change
• Geographies of Affect
• Geographies of Diplomacy
• Geographies of Education
• Geographies of Resilience
• Geography and Class
• Geography, Gramsci and
• Geography, Legal
• Geography of Biofuels
• Geography of Food
• Geography of Hunger and Famine
• Geography of Industrialization
• Geography of Public Policy
• Geography of Resources
• Geopolitics
• Geopolitics, Energy and
• Geospatial Artificial Intelligence (GeoAI)
• GIS and Computational Social Sciences
• GIS and Health
• GIS and Remote Sensing Applications in Geomorphology
• GIS and Virtual Reality
• GIS applications in Human Geography
• GIS, Geospatial Technology, and Spatial Thinking in Geogra...
• GIS, Historical
• GIS, History of
• GIS, Space-Time
• Glacial and Periglacial Geomorphology
• Glaciers, Geography of
• Health Care, Geography of
• Hegemony and Geographic Knowledge
• Historical Geography
• Historical Mobilities
• Histories of Protest and Social Movements
• History, Environmental
• Homelessness
• Human Dynamics, GIScience of
• Human Geographies of Outer Space
• Human Trafficking
• Humanistic Geography
• Human-Landscape Interactions
• Humor, Geographies of
• Hydroclimatology and Climate Variability
• Identity and Place
• "Imagining a Better Future through Place": Geographies of ...
• Immigration and Immigrants
• Indigenous Peoples and the Global Indigenous Movement
• Informal Economy
• Innovation, Geography of
• Intelligence, Geographical
• Islands, Human Geography and
• Justice, Geography of
• Knowledge Economy: Spatial Approaches
• Knowledge, Geography of
• Labor, Geography of
• Land Use and Cover Change
• Land-Atmosphere Interactions
• Landscape Interpretation
• Literature, Geography and
• Location Theory
• Marine Biogeography
• Marine Conservation and Fisheries Management
• Media Geography
• Medical Geography
• Migration, International Student
• Military Geographies and the Environment
• Military Geographies of Popular Culture
• Military Geographies of Urban Space and War
• Military Geography
• Moonsoons, Geography of
• Mountain Geography
• Mountain Meteorology
• Music, Sound, and Auditory Culture, Geographies of
• National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in Geog...
• Nations and Nationalism
• Natural Hazards and Risk
• Nature-Society Theory
• Neogeography
• New Urbanism
• Non-representational Theory
• Nuclear War, Geographies of
• Nutrition Transition, The
• Orientalism and Geography
• Participatory Action Research
• Peace, Geographies of
• Pedagogical Content Knowledge in Geography Education
• Perspectives in Geography Internships
• Phenology and Climate
• Photographic and Video Methods in Geography
• Physical Geography
• Polar Geography
• Policy Mobilities
• Political Ecology
• Political Geography
• Political Geology
• Popular Culture, Geography and
• Population Geography
• Ports and Maritime Trade
• Postcolonialism
• Postmodernism and Poststructuralism
• Pragmatism, Geographies of
• Producer Services
• Psychogeography
• Public Participation GIS, Participatory GIS, and Participa...
• Qualitative GIS
• Qualitative Methods
• Quantitative Methods in Human Geography
• Questionnaires
• Race and Racism
• Refugees, Geography of
• Religion, Geographies of
• Retail Trade, Geography of
• Rural Geography
• Science and Technology Studies (STS) in Geography
• Sea-Level Research, Quaternary
• Security and Securitization, Geographies of
• Segregation, Ethnic and Racial
• Service Industries, Geography of
• Settlement Geography
• Sexuality, Geography of
• Slope Processes
• Social Justice
• Social Media Analytics
• Soils, Diversity of
• Sonic Methods in Geography
• Spatial Analysis
• Spatial Autocorrelation
• Sports, Geography of
• Sustainability Education at the School Level, Geography an...
• Sustainability Science
• Sustainable Agriculture
• Synoptic Climatology
• Technological Change, Geography of
• Telecommunications
• Teleconnections, Atmospheric
• Terrestrial Snow, Measurement of
• Territory and Territoriality
• Terrorism, Geography of
• The Climate Security Nexus
• The Voluntary Sector and Geography
• Time, Geographies of
• Time Geography
• Time-Space Compression
• Tourism Geography
• Transnational Corporations
• Unoccupied Aircraft Systems
• Urban Geography
• Urban Heritage
• Urban Historical Geography
• Urban Meteorology and Climatology
• Urban Planning and Geography
• Urban Political Ecology
• Urban Sustainability
• Visualizations
• Vulnerability, Risk, and Hazards
• Vulnerability to Climate Change
• War on Terror, Geographies of the
• Weather and Climate Damage Studies
• Whiteness, Geographies of
• Wine, Geography of
• World Cities
• Young People's Geography
• Privacy Policy
• Cookie Policy
• Legal Notice
• Accessibility

Powered by:

• [66.249.64.20|185.66.15.189]
• 185.66.15.189

Geography, tourism

• Living reference work entry
• Later version available View entry history
• First Online: 01 January 2015
• Cite this living reference work entry

• Geoffrey Wall 3  

105 Accesses

In a very general sense, geographers study the earth as the home of human beings. As such, tourism has been one of their legitimate concerns for almost a century. There has always been a close relationship among tourism, exploration, and geography, as well as the description of other people and their cultures, the lands inhabited, and the resources used. Early academic tourism papers, predominantly of a descriptive nature, date to the 1930s.

Geographical research on tourism was spearheaded in Europe , although American geographers, often working in government agencies, played a prominent role in the evaluation of the perception, use, and management of wilderness areas. At the time, the focus was on recreation , illustrating the rather different trajectories of tourism research of geographers based in Europe and North America and the somewhat artificial distinctions among research on leisure , recreation, and tourism that scarcely existed among tourism geographers but had been slow to...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

Butler, R. 1980 The Concept of a Tourism Area Cycle of Evolution: Implications for Management of Resources. Canadian Geographer 24(1):5-12.

Article   Google Scholar  

Gill, A. 2012 Travelling Down the Road to Postdisciplinarity? Reflections of a Tourism Geographer. Canadian Geographer 56(1):3-17.

Hall, M., and S. Page 2006 The Geography of Tourism and Recreation. London: Routledge.

Google Scholar  

Lew, A., Hall, M., and A. Williams 2004 A Companion to Tourism. Malden MA: Blackwell.

Book   Google Scholar  

Mathieson, A., and G. Wall 1982 Tourism: Economic, Physical and Social Impacts. Harlow: Longman.

Mitchell, L., and P. Murphy 1991 Geography and Tourism: Annals of Tourism Research 18:57-70.

Nepal, S. 2009 Traditions and Trends: A Review of Geographical Scholarship in Tourism. Tourism Geographies 11:2-22.

Pattison, W. 1964 The Four Traditions of Geography. Journal of Geography 63:211-216.

Smith, S. 2010 The Discovery of Tourism . Bingley, UK: Emerald.

Williams, S. 2002 Tourism Geography. London: Routledge.

Download references

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Department of Geography, University of Waterloo, N2L 3G1, Waterloo, Canada

Geoffrey Wall

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Geoffrey Wall .

Editor information

Editors and affiliations.

School of Hospitality Leadership, University of Wisconsin-Stout, Menomonie, Wisconsin, USA

Jafar Jafari

School of Hotel and Tourism Management, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR

Honggen Xiao

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2013 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this entry

Cite this entry.

Wall, G. (2013). Geography, tourism. In: Jafari, J., Xiao, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Tourism. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-01669-6_92-1

Download citation

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-01669-6_92-1

Received : 17 August 2013

Accepted : 17 August 2013

Published : 16 September 2015

Publisher Name : Springer, Cham

Online ISBN : 978-3-319-01669-6

eBook Packages : Springer Reference Business and Management Reference Module Humanities and Social Sciences Reference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

• Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Chapter history

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-01669-6_92-2

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-01669-6_92-1

• Find a journal
• Track your research

Human Geography

• Defining human geography
• Cultural geography
• Economic geography
• Feminist geography
• Migration and detention
• Statelessness
• Feminist political geography
• Geopolitics
• Population studies
• Travel and tourism
• Gentrification
• Scholarly communication This link opens in a new window

Subject Librarian

The library collection has a limited number of current travel guides. There are older editions located on Baker Level A or B . You can do a subject search for " guidebooks " to see how many different ones we have.

• guidebooks This search will show all of our guidebooks.
• boston mass guidebooks A search example for finding a guidebook for a specific location.

Journal articles & titles

Articles and other writings about Tourism can be found in many publications. Our collection includes several journals and trade magazines which look at Tourism. Below is a short list of some of the journal titles we have in our Library's collection.   Or you can use the search box at the top of the page.

Internet resource(s)

Keeping up with the journal literature

You can get the app from the App Store or Google Play.

Don't own or use a mobile device? You can still use BrowZine! It's now available in a web version. You can get to it here . The web version works the same way as the app version. Find the journals you like, create a custom Bookshelf, get ToCs and read the articles you want.

A short definition of Travel & Tourism

A term to cover travel to places away from one’s home environment undertaken principally for leisure but also for business. Tourist activities generally involve spending money in a new location and do not involve remuneration from within the place or country visited. Definitions of tourism by international organizations such as the World Tourist Organization recognize anyone who spends at least one night but no longer than one year somewhere other than their country of residence as a tourist. Tourism is often distinguished from recreation because it takes place further from the home and is more commercialized. It overlaps with leisure , but includes business travel. In The Tourist Gaze (1991) John Urry argued persuasively that the core feature of tourism was the desire to gaze upon what was different or unusual. Much of tourism can be understood in terms of the arrangements of places and landscapes to be viewed, and the cultivation of techniques of viewing and circulating images, e.g. photography, video, postcards, etc. But tourist activities do more than please the sense of sight, and often involve multiple embodied experiences, e.g. kayaking, dining, and sunbathing. Tourism is a form of and has its origins in travel, but a distinction is often made between the two; travel is described as a more specialized, niche, or selective activity, while tourism is associated with organized popular or mass activities. In part, the difference is one of marketing or discourse.

Although tourism now includes an increasingly diverse range of activities, perhaps too many for convenient classification, it is often described as the world’s largest industry. The World Travel and Tourist Council estimates that tourism accounts for 11 per cent of world GDP and 8 per cent of all waged work (200 million employees). But tourism as it is now understood is a relatively recent phenomenon. Most historical accounts trace its origins to the Grand Tour, undertaken by elite young European men between the 17th and 19th centuries. They would travel within Europe to see and learn about cultural matters, notably the fruits of the Renaissance and Greek and Roman classical civilizations. Health spas, seaside towns, and mountain resorts also became fixtures for the wealthy traveller. The 19th century saw the development of journeys to wild places inspired by romantic ideas or picturesque or sublime landscapes: England’s Lake District was a leading attraction ( see wilderness ). The spread of road and rail travel in the 19th century allowed the urban working classes to enjoy annual trips to seaside resorts such as Long Island, New York, ushering in the first organized tourist industry. But it was not until the combination of greater affluence, more leisure time, and air travel after the Second World War that modern mass tourism took off. Until the late 20th century, however, it remained open largely to Westerners, and Europe itself accounted for the majority of international tourist journeys. The globalization of tourism in the past two or so decades has involved almost every country becoming both an origin and destination of tourist travel to some degree. Close to a billion international tourist visits are now made annually, with China established in the top five for destinations and origins, alongside the USA and European countries. Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, and Dubai also count among the top tourist urban destinations.

The geographical interest in tourism has developed strongly since the 1980s, although there are studies dating back to the 1930s. It draws upon the same range of methods and perspectives as the rest of human geography , although there are important overlaps with environmental geography (for example, in coastal and marine environment management) and a strong element of applied geography . Given that tourism hinges precisely on the differences between one place and another, it is intrinsically geographical. The main areas of research are on factors of supply and demand, but also on social, economic, and environmental impact ( see resort life-cycle model ). There are separate studies of urban and rural tourism, as well as a concern for regional differences (Hudman and Jackson 2003). The different forms of tourism and their related bodily and sensuous experiences—heritage visits, ecotourism , package holidays, adventure travel, and backpacking among them—are also well studied. In unpacking the experiences of tours, however, it becomes apparent how many of its core characteristics—difference, exoticism, cosmopolitanism , leisureliness—are increasingly found more widely and even close to home. The interests of tourist studies in mobility , pleasure, and difference are, in this regard, central to much of current human geography.

Rogers, A., Castree, N., & Kitchin, R. (2013). " Tourism ." In  A Dictionary of Human Geography . Oxford University Press. Retrieved 9 Feb. 2022

In the Library's Collections

Tourism as a subject search brings up many results. Below are a few of the narrower, more specific subject headings.

     General books on Travel and Tourism are located in the call number range G 149 through G 180 on Baker Level A . Books on specific tourism spots or tourist trade in specific countries are located with books about that country. The online catalog is your best guide for finding these items.

• heritage tourism
• sex tourism
• culture and tourism
• agritourism
• [insert name of country] description and travel To find travelogues or other travel writings, do a subject search for the country name followed by "description and travel."
• jamaica description and travel An example for the subject heading described above.
• maine description and travel Another example.
• anthropology AND tourism This is a keyword search on the online catalog.

Introductory reading(s)

Selected book titles

Other library resource(s)

• << Previous: Place
• Next: Urban geography >>
• Last Updated: Apr 12, 2024 10:28 AM
• URL: https://researchguides.dartmouth.edu/human_geography

Geotourism is defined as tourism that sustains or enhances the distinctive geographical character of a place—its environment, heritage, aesthetics, culture, and the well-being of its residents.

• Terms of Use
• Privacy Policy
• Your US State Privacy Rights
• Children's Online Privacy Policy
• Interest-Based Ads
• About Nielsen Measurement
• Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information
• Nat Geo Home
• Attend a Live Event
• Book a Trip
• Inspire Your Kids
• Shop Nat Geo
• Visit the D.C. Museum
• Learn About Our Impact
• Support Our Mission
• Advertise With Us
• Customer Service
• Renew Subscription
• Manage Your Subscription
• Work at Nat Geo
• Sign Up for Our Newsletters
• Contribute to Protect the Planet

Copyright © 1996-2015 National Geographic Society Copyright © 2015-2024 National Geographic Partners, LLC. All rights reserved

What is geotourism and why is it important?

Disclaimer: Some posts on Tourism Teacher may contain affiliate links. If you appreciate this content, you can show your support by making a purchase through these links or by buying me a coffee . Thank you for your support!

Geotourism is a term that I hear more and more these days, yet not many people really know what it means! So here at Tourism Teacher I am going to tell you all about the concept of geotourism, what it means and why it is so important in today’s tourism industry.

What about geography?

A note on defining geotourism, what is the difference between geotourism and ecotourism, geotourism examples, the benefits of geotourism, the disadvantages of geotourism, geographical geotourism destinations, geological geotourism destinations, geotourism- further reading, what is geotourism.

Geotourism is a tricky one to define. One way of looking at it is as the term for ‘geological tourism’. To break that down, let’s first look at what geology is. This is the study of the structure, dynamics and evolution of the Earth itself, as well as its natural and mineral energy resources. It is all about examining the processes that have made the planet what it is today.

So, how does that fit into tourism? Geotourism is generally about visiting sites or areas of geological importance. In their book Handbook of Geotourism , Dowling and Newsome define geotourism as follows:

Geotourism is tourism based on geological features. Over time it has been variously described as being a type of tourism that is either ‘geological’ or geographical’ in orientation. Whereas the former view was that geotourism was a ‘type’ of tourism in a similar vein to ecotourism, the latter view was wider and encompassed it thereby representing a new ‘approach’ to tourism. Over a decade ago we espoused the former view that geotourism is a niche form of natural area tourism based on geology and landscape. Four years later we added to the definition by suggesting the fact that geotourism could be undertaken through either ‘independent visits’ or ‘guided tours’ to geological features.

Another , simpler, definition is simply ‘Tourism that sustains or enhances the geographical character of a place – its environment, culture , aesthetics, heritage, and the well-being of its residents’ . This has much less of a science-led focus, and can be applied to anywhere rather than geologically important areas… However, this is the definition used by National Geographic. As such, it relates to geography rather than geology. A long-buried quote from Nat Geo says that: 

Geography –from which ‘geotourism’ derives– is not just about where places are. It’s also about what places are. It’s about what makes one place different from the next. That includes not only flora and fauna, which is the realm of ecotourism, but also historic structures and archaeological sites, scenic landscapes, traditional architecture, and locally grown music, cuisine, crafts, dances, and other arts.

As with many types of (or approaches to) tourism, there are varying definitions of geotourism. “What is geotourism?” is a difficult question to answer completely, as people have different views on the matter. The best we can do is look at the academic research behind the phenomenon, and see how that relates to real-world travel and tourism . Dowling and Newsome, quoted above, have done extensive research into what geotourism is and the impact it has on the industry. They go on to say:

By now the definition of geotourism had expanded to encompass a number of attributes – geology, tourism, geosites, visits and interpretation. The ‘geo’ or geology part of geotourism includes geological features or attributes which are considered worthy of tourist interest. The ‘tourism’ part refers to the conversion of geological features or attributes into tourism resources as ‘geo’ attractions or tours often at designated ‘geosites’.

However, the definition used by National Geographic tends to be the most popular one. It is succinct and easy to understand – and also has more of an impact (so perhaps more of an importance) than the geology-based term…

Geotourism is not the same as eco tourism . In fact, they are two very different things. Eco tourism tends to generally be more hands-on – beach clean ups, litter picking, conservation work and so on. The two types of tourism have been said to be ‘sisters’, in a way, with eco tourism more focused on nature and ecology instead of built environments. 

Of course, it all depends on which definition of geotourism you feel is most correct. If we take the geographic definition above, which talks about sustaining and enhancing the geographical character of an area, then we do start to see similarities with eco tourism. In this case, however, there are still major differences. Eco tourism is more focused on nature – green spaces, the ocean , sustainability. Whereas geotourism encompasses the people, the culture, the cuisine and so much more.

There are many examples of geographic geotourism around the world. The Destination Center says that ‘ destination-stewardship leaders have taken a variety of ways to establish geotourism as a preferred strategy. The goal is to help develop a geotourism mindset—a constituency of stewardship—with corresponding protection of natural and cultural distinctiveness, economic benefits, and improved quality of life. ’

This type is about projects which help the community. They are self-aware in name and nature. This might be something like Lake Tahoe’s annual Geotourism Expo. The festival looks to restore the character of a recreational destination which has been long-dominated by generic resorts. Fogo Island, Newfoundland, is also using geotourism in order to reinvent itself as a cultural centre and retreat for artists. To do so it is adapting food, design and materials which are distinctive to this area.

But if we look at Newsome and Dowling’s version, examples differ. There are many sites of geological importance and interest around the world! West Coast Fossil Park in South Africa , for example, is a beautiful geology-based tourist site you can visit. Here you can see ancient fossils and gain some perspective of history. Other geological sites, like caves, craters and waterfalls , are beautiful as well as really interesting. Geotourism in this sense goes beyond just appreciating the aesthetic of a place…

There are many benefits to both types of geotourism. With Newsome and Dowling’s geological version, the educational tourism opportunities are vast. You can learn a lot more about geology by visiting sites of geological importance than you can do in a classroom. By visiting the Undara Lava Tubes in Australia , for example, you can understand more about the effects of lava on the ecosystem.

With the other (geographical) approach, we can also see vast benefits. The whole point is that it enhances or sustains an area and the culture/cuisine/heritage/environment and so on. To this end, it is no surprise that geotourism is seen as a good thing! It ploughs money into local causes and communities, while improving an area so that future generations can visit and enjoy too. It teaches visitors about tourist responsibility, and also protects the heritage of an area – meaning locals can have pride in where they are from. There is also a real sense of community spirit with geotourism projects!

It is hard to see the disadvantages of either type of geotourism. With our geographic type, everything is so totally focused on the improvement of an area or at the very least enhancing what is already there. Money is going to local people and local businesses, and visitors are able to enjoy a place knowing that they are supporting a community. The only issue with this might be a ‘white saviour’ complex of sorts for tourists visiting destinations that are perhaps still developing. I have spoken about this previously in my article regarding slum tourism !

When it comes to the geology type of geotourism, issues can occur with people visiting sites that are particularly delicate. However, if tourists are responsible and respectful when visiting this type of location then there are few disadvantages to geotourism. Geological sites are interesting and provide an insight into how the planet works – people learning about this is definitely a good thing.

Destinations

I’ll split this section in two again – one for geographical and one for geological destinations!

These are destinations that are part of the National Geographic geotourism content marketing platform. They are supported by Nat Geo, providing a “platform for destinations to inventory and promote the places that locals most respect and recommend, in partnership with National Geographic.” The list below is not exhaustive – just some great examples of their destinations and projects!

• Tennessee River Valley
• Heart of the Continent : Northeast Minnesota and Northwest Ontario
• Bay Islands in the Bahamas : Utila, Roatan, and Guanaja
• Tibet & the Himalayas 
• Teton Geotourism Center, Driggs, Idaho
• Fogo Island, Newfoundland
• The Hurtigruten cruise ship fleet
• The GeoWisata project in Bogor, Java, Indonesia

It should be said that Nat Geo are no longer adding new destinations to this platform, following their acquisition by Disney.

Below you’ll find a list of fascinating destinations. These are all sites of some geological importance or interest.

• Faial’s Badlands, the Azores, Portugal
• Aletsch Glacier, Valais, Switzerland
• Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky
• El Teide, Tenerife
• Mingsha Singing Sand Dunes, Dunhuang, China
• The Matterhorn, Switzerland
• Hunstanton Cliffs, Norfolk , UK
• Meteor Crater in Arizona
• Niagara Falls, New York
• Siwalik Fossil Park, India

If you enjoyed this article I am sure that you will love these too!

• Ecotourism: Everything you need to know
• What is sustainable tourism and why does it matter?
• The Best Eco Lodges in the World
• What is responsible tourism and why does it matter?
• Agritourism: What, where and why

Liked this article? Click to share!