Geopolitics of the geopolitics of tourism: a Latin American tradition?

Abstract

Recognizing that tourism has evolved into a global activity, its economic importance—stemming from its integration and expansion within the capitalist system—alongside its social significance (as a mechanism for conflict stabilization, social classification, and hierarchy), cultural role (as adherence to values, affirmation of belonging, and secularized rituals), and political function (as an ideological means of promoting a type of integration of peripheral societies into the world system) have progressively increased in contemporary society, particularly in the post-World War II context. This theoretical essay maps, through an unsystematic and narrative review, the main analytical approaches to the geopolitics of tourism in the first two decades of the 20th century, aiming to identify their key characteristics, components, central ideas, and authors, as well as their theoretical developments (schools of thought). Despite the recent increase in studies on the geopolitics of tourism, this subfield remains fragmented at the international level. This paper argues for the existence of an autonomous Latin American tradition dating back to the 1970s, whose continuity, persistence, and renewal (through the training of new generations) can be characterized as a school, albeit one whose dissemination is relatively limited by linguistic barriers. Finally, the essay proposes a research agenda aimed at recovering this autonomous tradition, updating it, and eventually engaging it in dialogue with theories, concepts, and frameworks from other paradigmatic traditions, in order to advance studies in this field.