The Aims, Scope & History
of Tourism Geographies

Current TG Journal Metrics -Impact Factors and More

Aims & Scope

Scope of the Journal
Tourism Geographies is the flagship social science journal focused on tourism from a geographic perspective. The journal publishes critical, multidisciplinary work from social science fields such as geography, anthropology, sociology, area studies, urban and regional planning, and environmental studies. Tourism Geographies is committed to publishing manuscripts based on rich empirical and theoretically rigorous scholarship that engages with and advances tourism geographies knowledge.   

Tourism Geographies serves to create a community of students, academics and practitioners with a shared interest and devotion to the geography of tourism.  To achieve this, Tourism Geographies promotes new ideas, models and paradigms, encourages new research scholarship, and fosters interdisciplinary contributions that expand our knowledge of tourism as a place process and a spatial phenomenon that is shaping the environments in which we live.
We believe that there are many fundamentally geographical aspects to tourism:
  • Tourism occurs in places
  • Tourism is sold and begins in a place of origin and is consumed in destination places
  • Tourism transforms the environment of these places in ways that are distinct from non-tourism processes
  • Tourism involved the movement of people, goods, services, ideas and money over space
  • Tourism presents a distinct way that people view, understand and relate to the world

Tourism Geographies seeks to incorporate these aspects under the unique perspective of geography as a holistic discipline that synthesizes both the social sciences and physical sciences in its understanding of places, regions and the world in which we live.  It attempts to explicitly incorporate and integrate the physical/environmental sciences and place/regional perspectives in both pure and applied research.  While contributors are not be required to take this perspective, they are encouraged to do so, where appropriate.

Tourism Geographies publishes blind reviewed research articles, review articles and literature reviews . In general, the journal does not publish case studies or consulting reports that do not contribute to broader theoretical or methodological issues in tourism and geographical research and understanding.
  • More detailed information on the types of papers currently accepted for review in Tourism Geographies can be found in the Notes of Authors.
Tourism Geographies is currently indexed in:

RANKINGS
ABSTRACTING
  • CC/S&BS - Current Contents/Social and Behavioral Sciences
  • IBSS - International Bibliography of the Social Sciences and Tourism
  • SCOPUS - Multidisciplinary Indexing and Abstracting Database
  • Zeller Verlag IBZ/IBR - Internationale Bibliographie der Zeitschriftenliteratur
  • Geographical Abstracts: Human Geography/International Development, Environmental, & Leisure/Recreation
  • CABI Leisure, Recreation and Tourism Abstracts
  • EBSCO Information Services

Tourism Geographies is also a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)

History & Development

  • 1996-1997- Pre-Journal Period
    • Alan Lew started the IGUST-L email list for the International Geographical Union's Sustainable Tourism Study Group (which later became the Commission on the Geography of Tourism, Leisure and Global Change).
    • Alan Lew and Myriam Jansen-Verbeke worked together on an edited book for the IGU Sustainable Tourism Study Group . That book was not successful, however, the contributions from leading scholars eventually comprised most of the first two issues of Tourism Geographies.
  • 1997-1998- Journal Idea and Proposal
    • In 1997, Alan Lew posted on the IGU Tourism Commission's IGUST email list that perhaps tourism geographers need their own journal. Shaul Krakover emailed Alan shortly after that and suggested that yes, this was a good idea and that Alan should pursue it.
    • After discussing issues related to journal editing with editors of other journals, Alan asked Allan Williams and Michael Hall to join Shaul and him to write a proposal for a new journal focusing on the tourism geography. The four of them selected Routledge to receive the initial proposal. After a review process Routledge accepted the proposal in early 1998.
    • Although he does not remember doing so, Tou Chuang (TC) Chang proposed to the title "Tourism Geographies" in his review of the original proposal.
  • 1999 (February) - First Issue of Tourism Geographies was Published
    • Because many of the papers for the first issue had already gone through a vetting and review process for the unsuccessful IGU Tourism Study Group book, the first two issues of Tourism Geographies were able to be produced relatively quickly, with the first one coming out in February 1999.
    • Filling subsequent issues was, of course, more challenging in those early years.
  • 2002- Applied for Thompson Reuters Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) Listing 
    • To meet the growing number of requests from colleagues working in developing economies, especially in Africa, Alan asked Routledge to apply for SSCI status for Tourism Geographies in 2002. 
  • 2008- Accepted by Thompson Reuters SSCI 
    • Tourism Geographies was one of four tourism journal accepted into SSCI in 2008. These were the first tourism journals to be included in SSCI beyond the three that had been accepted many years earlier. Many more tourism journals have been accepted in more recent years.
  • 2011 (June) Tourism Geographies' First Citation Impact Factor was released at 0.63
    • This Impact Factor covered the years 2009 and 2010. The editors and publisher were very happy with this score.
  • 2011- Tourism Geographies started to publish articles online before they would come out in print.
    • This helped to relieve the gradually growing time from acceptance to publication. The time to print publication, however, still remained a challenge, despite a low acceptance rate and a strictly imposed 8000 word limit on papers. 
  • 2014- Tourism Geographies increased from four to five issues a year in 2014.
    • The journal had increased it page numbers in both 2012 and 2013 to address the backlog of papers waiting for print publication. The increase to five issues a year, a 20% increase in pages, finally enabled the journal to clear out all of the paper awaiting print publication. In addition, the page size was also increased some in 2014, adding space for a few more words to each issue.
  • 2015- Tourism Geographies' Citation Impact Factor for June 2015 was 1.695 (for the years 2013 and 2014).
    • Although Impact Factors are not necessarily the best way to judge a journal, this ranking does places Tourism Geographies among a select grouping in the second tier below the top three journals in the field of tourism studies.
  • 2022 - Alan Lew retired as the founder and EIC of Tourism Geographies and Joseph Cheer and Mary Mostafanezhad became the new, co-EICs.
  • 2023- Tourism Geographies increased from five to eight issues a year.
  • 2023 (January)- Tourism Geographies' Citation Impact Factor reached 11.355.​
Articles About Tourism Geographies
  • Lew, Alan A. (2015) Spotlight on Journals: Tourism Geographies. Editors Bulletin 10(1):4-6. DOI:10.1080/17521742.2015.1013808

  • Taylor & Francis Featured Editor Interview (2014) Tourism Geographies Editor-in-Chief, Alan A. Lew, Northern Arizona University, USA - Audio - Transcript