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for more spatially contingent models of the impact of tourism, which, while still in their
infancy, will only grow through time. The continued relevance of applied geography based
on external funding refl ects that 'the basic tenets of Mode 2 may have increasing relevance to
tourism studies within higher education in a manner that, as yet, has not been identifi ed'
(Coles et al. , 2006: 300), but which appears to have substantial potential value for problem-
focused post-disciplinary approaches in tourism, especially such cross-disciplinary problems
as climate and GEC. Similarly, Hellström et al. (2003: 251-2) note that, although discipli-
narity and paradigmatic policing within disciplines has traditionally guided researchers
towards particular problems, new modes of knowledge production are necessary that chal-
lenge, 'received understandings of disciplinarity (for instance, a hardcore of interrelated
common concepts and questions that guide problem choice together with a corresponding
social organisation)'.
The future
Any review of the contribution of a discipline to the study of tourism is usually characterised
by a combination of continuity and change: indeed these are the basic tenets underpinning
the geographer's analysis of tourism and are pertinent to the analysis of the wider develop-
ment of the fi eld over the last decade or so. This chapter has been necessarily limited in scale
and scope due to the space available, but it does seek to illustrate the change, evolution and
new directions which tourism geographers have engaged as well as debates within the subject
area. Previous reviews of geographical studies of tourism (e.g. Butler, 2004) have noted that
while the fi elds of tourism and recreation studies remain outside much mainstream academic
geography, geographers have made considerable contributions to the understanding of
tourism and recreation phenomena, even if treated as different ends of the same spectrum -
our leisure lives and the way we use the free time we have. To an extent several of the geog-
raphies of tourism, and particularly those dealing more directly with tourism management
issues, exist outside the corpus of whatever one might describe as mainstream geographies.
While institutionally, tourism geography would appear to be in reasonable health, there are
a number of challenges with respect to cross-disciplinary mobility that affect the discipline as
a whole and the sub-discipline in particular, as well as the impact of research assessments
(Coles et al. , 2006). Nevertheless, a number of key areas of development emerge, particularly
with respect to the spatialities of mobility and GEC. The latter continue the 'impact' tradi-
tion in tourism studies but refl ect a far more sophisticated account of change at various scales
than previously appreciated.
Several of the issues identifi ed in this chapter are likely to continue and even intensify in
the immediate future, particularly in an environment in which governments are often
providing more direction in terms of research areas they will fund and courses they will
support. A key issue will clearly continue to be the tension between 'applied' and 'theoretical'
research, particularly given the increasing pressure being applied to public universities with
respect to developing closer relationships with business and attracting more 'third stream'
funding. This is occurring not only within geography but is also a signifi cant issue in other
academic areas, such as business schools and environmental studies, where geographers are
employed and is arguably part of broader issues surrounding the role of universities and their
research in contemporary society. However, for a fi eld such as tourism geography the pres-
sures to conduct industry-related research are likely to be substantial given the interpretation
of some tourism academics that their role is to undertake research for the tourism industry
rather than of the industry.
 
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