Reading Tourism Education: Neoliberalism Unveiled

This article deploys poststructuralist discourse theory to examine ideological influences in tourism higher education in England. It foregrounds neoliberalism and managerialism circulating from government policy to higher education institutions and illustrates how the notions of competition, markets, performativity and quality assurance, commonly associated with industry and commerce, converge in tourism higher education. It highlights the role of power in mediating the relationship between tourism higher education and institutions responsible for producing and disseminating the texts analyzed. It points to the discursive construction of tourism higher education in England and concludes by posing the question: to what extent has this state of affairs contributed to furthering its venerability within the broader higher education academe?