Trajectories of embodiment in Tourist Studies

Abstract

In this article we map the 20 year trajectory of theorising embodiment in Tourist Studies. From its inception in 2001, embedded within the turn in the social sciences towards embodiment, Tourist Studies has paved the way in pushing the boundaries of theorising the links between embodiment, sensuality and performativity. Tourist Studies has opened up novel trajectories in tourism research away from the traditional focus on vision, towards multi-sensual analysis including the role of taste, smell, touch and sound. In this article we draw attention to these important contributions in understanding the body-practices and body-subjects within tourism, including work that utilises non-representational analyses, relational materiality, affect, more-than-representational and more-than-human. About 20 years on we remind readers of what theorising embodiment can bring to understanding encounters in tourism spaces, and specifically how attention to embodiment moves analysis away from fixed and static notions of culture and power, towards dynamic interplays between bodies and more-than-human modalities.