Tourism and decolonisation: Locating research and self

•This paper critically explores decolonial theory and its relevance for tourism.•Postcolonial theory’s inability to deliver emancipatory objectives is discussed.•Epistemological decolonisation is presented as a more radical project.•An ‘other’ way of thinking, being and knowing about tourism is proposed.

This paper critically explores decolonial theory and its relevance for tourism studies. We suggest that while postcolonial and related critical theoretical perspectives furthered understandings of the consequences of colonisation, such critical theorising has not provided an epistemological perspective of tourism which legitimises the cosmologies of, and actively empowers, traditionally marginalised groupings. We review published tourism research which adopts critical and postcolonial perspectives, and argue that while these have been valuable in terms of exposing the existence and effects of dominant discourses and practices in tourism, their emancipatory objectives are limited because tourism knowledge is still predominantly colonial. Epistemological decolonisation is thus presented as a more radical project which can provide an ‘other’ way of thinking, being and knowing about tourism.