Fieldwork Without Remorse: Travel Desires in a Tourist World

Abstract

This article reviews the answers posed to the question of travel motivation in recent research. Much of this research, whether in tourism studies or related disciplines such as anthropology, critical theory, and cultural studies, begins by assuming a clear-cut and specific distinction between "travelers" and "tourists" and a more generalized but just as clear distinction between "travelers", "tourists" and "fieldworkers". These distinctions are based on an over-reliance on defining specific tourist types that downplay the role that gender, ethnicity, nationality and socioeconomic privileges have in the question of who goes where. Given this, theories that seek to explain why people go to particular places are neither right nor wrong, but are simultaneously valid in a partial sense. This is because each describes not just a different type of traveler but more importantly also individuals at different stages along their journeys.