A Research Agenda for Just Tourism Futures

Elgar Research Agendas outline the future of research in a given area. Leading scholars are given the space to explore their subject in provocative ways, and map out the potential directions of travel. They are relevant but also visionary. This forward-thinking Research Agenda explores what it means to place justice at the heart of tourism, treating it not as a settled goal but as a shifting and contested practice. Through contributions from leading and emerging scholars across the global north and global south, this Research Agenda brings together diverse perspectives on justice in tourism, interrogating how it operates across gender, mobility, climate, conservation, urban resistance, and political struggle. Contributions expose how dominant tourism systems, driven by neoliberal growth logics, technocratic governance, and anthropocentric ideologies, reinforce historical and structural injustices, while also highlighting how feminist, ecological, and more-than-human perspectives unsettle these narratives and open space for resistance, solidarity, and alternative futures. Rather than offering universal solutions, the book maps critical directions for research and practice, positioning tourism as a site of both (in)justice and possibility. It invites readers to reimagine tourism not only as an economic activity, but as a terrain of struggle where more equitable, regenerative, and liveable futures might be pursued. A vital resource for students and academics in tourism, environmental and climate justice, sociology, and development studies, A Research Agenda for Just Tourism Futures is also essential for policymakers, practitioners, and activists seeking to confront tourism’s harms and imagine more just alternatives.