Tourism Paradoxes

Book excerpt: At a time when COVID-19 is transforming the tourism industry, this book presents a collection of some of the many contemporary contradictions and inconsistencies apparent in tourism contexts and tourism studies. Increasingly, tourism is regarded as an agent of social and cultural change, in ways which inevitably throw up new and inescapable paradoxes. The chapters draw attention to paradoxes (such as Anglo-Western-centrism/Non-Western imperatives, continued colonisation/decolonisation, political apparatus/people’s empowerment, global standards/local dynamics) and their prominence in the tourism field as well as in other disciplines. The volume offers a reconsideration of what may be needed, conceptually and methodologically, in order to equip researchers and practitioners in tourism and related social science fields to better interpret and manage the future of tourism.