Evolution of Tourism Studies: Developing Generation T Knowledge

Tourism as an academic field is at a generational crossroad. The founders are retiring and being succeeded by a new generation of scholars often with tourism focussed undergraduate and postgraduate degrees. This new generation could be labelled Generation T and is characterised by a multidisciplina...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Filep, S., Hughes, Michael, Wheeler, F.
Other Authors: Jenny Davies
Format: Conference Paper
Published: University of South Australia 2011
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/14976
Description
Summary:Tourism as an academic field is at a generational crossroad. The founders are retiring and being succeeded by a new generation of scholars often with tourism focussed undergraduate and postgraduate degrees. This new generation could be labelled Generation T and is characterised by a multidisciplinary education associated with a broad field of study. This generation is commonly considered to lack the advantages of a specific discipline focussed education in terms of theoretical and methodological foundations. However, theoretical and methodological development in tourism will become a primary responsibility of this new generation and there is uncertainty about how Generation T could contribute constructively to this development. This paper outlines the potential of Generation T to contribute to the evolution of tourism studies through the development of tourism theory and adoption of mixed methodological perspectives.