3 Main Research Paradigms in Tourism Studies

Tourism is the world’s largest industry with nature-based ecotourism seeing rapid growth since its initial arrival in the 1980s. It is estimated by the World Tourism Organisation that nature tourism generates 7% of all international travel expenditure (Lindberg, 1997) and this figure will have increased rapidly over recent years. It’s increase in popularity is due to a number of factors; tourists becoming increasingly bored of the typical sun, sea and sand holiday’s, the increase in global awareness or environmental issues such as global

Kuhn (1996) describes a paradigm as the accepted norm of a science. The standards, rules, and scientific tradition one follows in a particular area of scientific study comprise the paradigm. Research, such as the one described here, “is a cumulative enterprise, eminently successful in its aim, the steady extension of the scope and precision of scientific knowledge” (p. 52). The study provided

In Thomas Kuhn’s paradigm cycle, normal science inevitably leads to an anomaly, which eventually leads into a crisis. If the current existing theory in the paradigm fails to solve the puzzles of normal science, it will eventually call for a new theory to take its place. Kuhn further expresses that, although, normal science holds the objective of creating boundaries and structure in the scientific community, and thus, suppressing ideas and findings outside of this structure, normal science is also a driving force of the creation of anomalies and an eventual paradigm shift. Scientists’ ultimate goal is to unravel the truth of the universe. Normal science and the existing paradigm are successful, in the beginning, in aiding and justifying scientific findings of that time. However, as experiments and research methods progress and advance with time, the polished version of the theories and concepts may start to conflict with the initial paradigm. It is the success of normal science, which is inevitable through time, that leads to an, thus, inevitable crisis. The increasing precision and improvement of understanding the paradigm, makes the paradigm an easier target to find

Kuhn argues that paradigms contribute to a sense of order within communities because the community’s research is based off of a prearranged set of accepted beliefs. Paradigmatic boundaries contribute to a sense of clarity that results from fact-gathering activities within scientific communities. In contrast, the collection of “mere facts”, which do not stem from paradigmatic boundaries of explanation, results in nothing but puzzlement (Kuhn, 2012, p. 35). As a result, Kuhn argues that paradigms are vital for establishing validity in regard to the questions and findings that are related to fact-gathering activities. In contrast, the absence of a paradigm would pose a major disadvantage for a hypothetical scientific community that does not use a paradigm-based approach for fact-gathering activities. Kuhn believes nothing but confusion could be derived from a collection of facts that belong to endeavors that are not rooted in a scientific community’s paradigm. In class, a paradigm was metaphorically compared to the glue that binds a scientific community together. This metaphorical comparison was used in an effort to illustrate the intimate relationship between paradigms and normal science that Kuhn describes in this book. After reading Kuhn’s book, and becoming well acquainted with his usage of paradigm in the context of his book, I could not agree more with the argument that he is making throughout this book. Therefore, it is obvious that paradigms mold fact-gathering activities related to normal science, that there are advantages to fact-gathering activities stemming from paradigms, and that absence of a paradigm would possibly plague a scientific community when scientists would try to approach fact-gathering

destination and the development towards economical mass tourism along unmistakable natural , incremental and actuated directions. It was legitimate that consideration then ought to swing to the conceivable outcomes of practical mass tourism abetted by jafari's contextualization of both mass and elective tourism as economical choice under fitting circumstances and hunter's(1997) previously stated thought of manageability as versatile worldview with the solid and frail signs Jafari and Hunter both supplement and profoundly persuasive Brundland report, which eagerly grasped the attractive quality of development however restrictively as an alternate type

Kuhn (1962) was the first to coin the term paradigm. He defined it as a body of accepted theory which can illustrate successful applications that can be compared to observations and experiments. In his work ‘The structure of scientific revolutions’, he defines a paradigm as the entire constellation of beliefs, values and techniques shared by the members of a given community. It is the universally recognized scientific achievements that for a time provide model problems and solutions to a community of practitioners (Kuhn, 1962). Paradigms inform researchers what the object of their science should be, to which questions they should try to find ‘acceptable’ answers and which methods can be considered as ‘geographical’ (Holt-Jensen, 1995).

However, the status of Science is often embellished leading to refutation of disciplines as scientific, due to their ‘dependence’ on Science (Schiffer 2013). Furthermore, Science is influenced by theoretical frameworks, and therefore somewhat affected by human subjectivity (Wylie 1989; Clark 1993; Huffman 2004; Johnson 2010). However, Science is universal and the effect of theoretical frameworks does not hinder the validity of reliability of scientific knowledge (Wylie 1989; Chalmers 1999).

Tourism is playing an important role in the economy of a country as well as now, these days it is growing in European countries and increasing the economy of European economy and world economy. As a result the living standard of people rise, an increasing proportion of income is spent on leisure travel and other elements

The Travel and Tourism industry is still one of the largest single businesses in world commerce and its importance is widely recognized. The tourism industry is now one of the largest sectors earning foreign exchange. In the face of many benefits, many countries have started assigning due weight age to the tourism industry in their national development agenda. Tourism is an industry that operates on a massively broad scale: it embraces activities ranging from the smallest sea-side hotel; to air-lines, multi-national hotel chains and major international tour operators. Originally, non-traditional industries such as tourism emerged as a solution to strike a balance between ecology and industry

Ecotourism is becoming a larger phenomenon with more concentration on the environment and society. According to Buckley, “Ecotourism has now been debated in theory, and attempted in practice, for at least two decades.” Buckley has shown supportive information that ecotourism can be utilized in a positive way: “mechanisms by which

In spite of the growing interest for the topic, there is still a lack of systematic approaches to this field and a high fragmentation tends to prevail. Besides, also the works devoted to tourism experience focus on the demand side, while there is little attention to the territory as a possible source of experience.

The concept of Ecotourism ( a concept pioneered during the early 1970’s to combat the negative impacts of mass tourism) is defined as “environmentally conscious, enlightening travel, to relatively undisturbed natural areas in order to enjoy and appreciate nature, while promoting local environmental conservation…and providing local socio-economic benefits through the participation of the local communities”. Responsible ecotourism programs are those that (1) minimize negative aspects of mass tourism on the environment, (2) contributes to environmental preservation efforts, (3) is economically beneficial for the local population and, (4) educates the tourist themselves. Ecotourism today is one of the tourism industry 's fastest growing subsector, with an estimated global annual growth of 15-19%. With this much money involved, governments as well as, tourism corporations heavily promote ecotourism programs, with their claims of environmental and social sensitivity but, there exist well founded concerns on its actual environmental impact, and whether it is viable as a solution to the world 's environmental problems. In this paper we will try to dissect the supposed benefits brought by ecotourism and provide an alternative and more viable solution.

The tourism system is complex. Tourism has been analysed using a systems approach since the 1960s – the idea that a single structure is comprised of multiple related and dependent groups. Key to this approach is the idea of interdependence; because everything is related, a change in one component of the system will affect other components in the system. Neil Leiper designed a ‘basic whole tourism system’ (Leiper, 2004) that showed tourism

Based on the most recent annual report published by the World Tourism Organization, over one billion people travel around the world and the number continues to grow every year. In the year 2013, a 5% growth is shown and it is expected to increase in the following years. While such growth has produced benefits such as employments, business opportunities, and increased revenues from exports and services, mass tourism is often questioned because of its contribution to negative impacts to the travel destinations in their economic, social, cultural, and physical environment (“Why Tourism,” 2015). Depending on the intensity of traveler site-use, the destination can easily ran out of the facilitation and resources necessary to accommodate the travelers, and let alone the local residents. In order to fulfill the increased traveler demands, developers will have to construct more hotels and facilities, which may involve buying lands and getting additional resources. In doing so, the developers may over exploit the very environment that attracts travelers and change the destination’s character. They can transform the natural environment into an artificial attraction and this may not only impact the daily lives of the local, but also the economy and unique culture of the destination.

Responsible tourism/travel is about making better places for people to live in and better places for people to visit. It also means that you travel lightly, with a small carbon footprint, respecting people and places, while making a positive contribution where possible. Ecotourism is one of the fastest growing sectors of the tourism industry worldwide. It has spawned voluntourism, wildlife tourism and geotourism (tourism to areas of geological interest.) There’s also a growing interest in ‘sustainable tourism’, whereby tourism businesses that aren’t essentially nature-based. Including hotels and airlines, are finding ways to operate more sustainably.