The Truth about Tourism

This article examines the extent to which there is congruence between the theorized world of tourism (the canon of tourism knowledge) and the phenomenal world of tourism. Adopting a social constructionist approach it conceptualizes and analyses the knowledge forcefield which is demonstrated to mediate between these two worlds. The five key factors that operate in the knowledge force-field are found to be person, rules, position, ends and ideology. The tourism literature is interrogated to demonstrate how these forces contribute to a doubleselectivity in knowledge creation. Despite many truths being established, the whole truth about tourism is left untold resulting in gaps, silences and mis-constructions.