Progress in tourism planning and policy: A post-structural perspective on knowledge production

• Progress in tourism planning and policy is assessed using a post-structural approach.
• A thematic bibliographic analysis and a critical policy archaeology was used.
• We reveal the constitutive grid of forces that shape policy knowledge.
• Progress is shaped by problematization and social regularities.
• A paradox of policy problematization is uncovered.

This paper examines progress in tourism planning and policy knowledge and identifies gaps and future directions for research. The study employs a post-structuralist perspective presented in two analytical movements: a bibliographic study of tourism policy and planning publications in Scopus and Science Direct and thematic analysis, plus an archaeological excavation. This combined approach pays attention to the disruptions, silences and diversity of knowledge in tourism policy and planning. It highlights the way tourism planning and policy has been problematized and reveals the social regularities shaping the production of tourism planning and policy knowledge. Multi-disciplinary, mainstream subjects related to destination development and management dominate while critical analysis of economic and political structures, interests and values is lagging. The results point to an urgent need to progress tourism planning and policy towards greater visibility, legitimacy and importance in tourism studies through more critical engagement with tourism public policy and planning practice.