Hopeful tourism: A New Transformative Perspective

This paper makes a philosophical and ontological contribution to tourism knowledge. It discusses emergent perspectives and paradigms, identifies major omissions in tourism knowledge and challenges its dominant assumptions, reviewing the imperatives for a regime change in the field. The paper argues that the new hopeful tourism perspective which combines co-transformative learning and action offers a distinctive approach to tourism study. It defines the characteristics of this values-led humanist perspective and presents a reflexive accounting of its evolution. It concludes with a three part agenda for tourism educators and researchers concerned to embrace co-transformative learning, which responds to the challenges of creating just and sustainable tourism worlds.

Research highlights
► Makes a philosophical and ontological contribution to tourism enquiry.
► Reviews emergent perspectives and paradigms.
► Identifies major omissions in tourism knowledge
► Presents hopeful tourism as a new transformative perspective.
► Demonstrates how it shapes research choices and produces transformative acts.