Geographies of tourism: space, ethics and encounter

At the heart of tourism is encounter - perhaps its defining, distinguishing feature (Crouch et al., 2001). We travel to encounter other places, landscapes, people, sights, weather. While the tourism industry relies on all manner of material commodities to turen a profit (hotel beds, postcards, luggage, etc.), and has been incorporated into a symbolic economy of marketing representations, its most cherished, commodified, essential elements is cncounter.