Le tourisme, matière à penser de la science géographique

Abstract

This article analyses the emergence, the constitution and evolution of the research on tourism from the point of view of French geography and its relationships with other disciplines. It presents the latest trends, especially the movement towards a “geographical approach of tourism”, and the essential elements of its heuristical perspectives: criticism of words through places, practicecentred approach, importance of the historicity of places. Inspiring the concept of “dwelling”, those reflections are able to trigger others, such as existential, political, economical and memorial issues. Thus, tourism offers to the geographical science an open range of its manifestations, linking various phenomena, materiality and practices and their social interpretations.