The scientification of tourism.

The purpose of this paper is to provide retrospective and prospective views on tourism s scientific journey. More specifically, the aim is to identify some of the past conditions that have helped tourism to assume its present scholarly dimensions and depth; to sketch the formation of this landscape of knowledge, to selectively extract from this context emerging central socioeconomic issues; to suggest research crossroads for advancing to new frontiers; to sample the richness of the state of knowledge —along with challenges and opportunities ahead— that, in turn, can guide present and future planning and operation of this diverse