This is the introduction to a special section of Tourism Geographies in Volume 20, #1 (February 2018). Not that it was actually published in mid-December 2017.

If anyone wants a copy of any or all of the Commentary papers in this issue, place send me an email request.  Additional commentaries will appear in future issues on Volume 20. 

Introduction: Tourism Geographies Today
By Alan A. Lew
 
The year 2018 marks two decades of publishing Tourism Geographies. To celebrate this occasion, we have asked members of the Tourism Geographies Editorial Board, including emeritus members, to write short commentaries on any aspect of the geographic study of tourism that they think might be of interest to our readers. I have organized these contributions into general themes that will be published through 2018 (Volume 20) of the journal. This first set of commentaries is set under the theme of ‘Tourism Geographies Today’. This is not about the state of the journal, which is very healthy, but rather the contemporary role of the geographic study of tourism in and around the world. The contributors include distinguished and emerging scholars, including Deborah Che (Australia), David Crouch (UK), Sanette Ferriera (South Africa), Carolin Funck (Japan), Alison Gill (Canada), Guosheng Han (China), Dieter Müller (Sweden), Piotr Niewiadomski (UK), Theano Terkenli (Greece) and Dallen Timothy (USA). Some of these scholars provide insights into the status of tourism geography study and research in their home countries or regions, while other look at the contemporary role of tourism geography in the broader context of the disciplines of geography and tourism studies.
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These commentaries are not intended to be comprehensive reviews of the literature, but rather personal observations that provide insight into both the field of tourism geography and the personality and perspective of some of those who identify with that field of study. While some significant issues on the are raised by the contributors to this special anniversary project, all the authors have a positive opinion on the significant benefits of a geographic perspective on tourism phenomena. This bolds well for the future of a research subject that we have come to hold dearly in our professional lives. I trust that readers will gain some of this sense of enthusiasm, as well, through these commentaries. Tourism geographers (and like-minded scholars) who are not members of the journal’s editorial board should feel free to contact me if they would like to make similar contributions to future issues of the journal. ​

Professor Victor B. Teye was on the original Editorial Board for Tourism Geographies and served on the journal until his retirement a few years ago. He was originally from Ghana, about which he wrote in Tourism Geographies (1999).  Victor was a good friend and a dedicated teacher of both tourism studies and the world, having taken an astonishingly large number of students on summer study abroad trips during his many years at Arizona State University. 

The following was excerpted from his formal obituary:

• Dr. Victor Baker Teye of Chandler, AZ passed on into God’s Glory on August 25, 2015. He was 66 years old. Victor was born on May 4, 1949 at Cape Coast, Ghana to Mr. Seth Victor Teye and Mrs. Dora Buerki Teye (née Boye- Doe) both of blessed memory. He was the fourth (4th) child of five (5) children.
  
  Dr. Victor Teye received his formal education in several schools including the Abordwe and Presbyterian Primary schools, both at Manprobi in Accra, the Presbyterian Middle Boys’ Boarding School, Bana Hill at the Odumase Krobo, Ghana, then on to the Presbyterian Secondary School (PRESEC) also at Odumase Krobo. He had wanted to join the veterinary Services as an officer but he was advised during the interview to pursue his education further due to his excellent grade in the GCE O Level. This took him to Navrongo Secondary School in Ghana for his sixth form education. His tertiary education was at the University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana and at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada.
  
  He was an educator for almost 30 years and taught at several schools and colleges including the Arizona State University (ASU), the University of Winnipeg, Canada, the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (UIUC), Cape Coast University, and the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA). He was visiting Professor at IMC University of Applied Sciences Krems in Austria. Dr. Teye also worked for international organizations like Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), was a Fulbright Scholar, co-authored two books in Tourism and published several articles in referred journals on Tourism. Dr. Teye retired in 2011 from Arizona State University as Professor Emeritus after almost thirty years of teaching. 
  

His long-time colleague. Professor Dallen Timothy, offers some memories of Victor, below.

Dear Friends and Colleagues,
 
With heavy hearts and a deep sense of loss, we at Arizona State University wish to inform the tourism community of Victor Teye’s passing earlier this week. Our forever youthful Victor B. Teye was a pioneer in tourism research. His groundbreaking work, which appeared often in the top journals, shed much light on political instability and tourism, community development through tourism and tourism in developing regions. He was a vanguard in tourism research in Africa and a staunch defender of tourism education and research. Following his stellar career at Arizona State University for many years, Victor retired just a few years ago to spend more time with his family. He was an exemplary father, outstanding educator, tremendous scholar and very dear friend to many. Professor Victor B. Teye will be sorely missed in every corner on the globe but no more so than here at home.
                                                 
Sincerely yours, Dallen Timothy                                                                                    (photos of Victor in Australia
                                                                                                                                                                   provided by Dallen Timothy)
Dr Dallen J. Timothy, Professor
School of Community Resources and Development
Arizona State University
Phoenix, AZ 95004, USA

Robert Preston-Whyte (1939 - 2015) was a founding Editorial Board Member for Tourism Geographies and an active member of the Commission on the Geography of Tourism, Leisure and Global Change of the International Geographical Union (IGU). He was instrumental in organizing the IGU meeting in Durban in 2002, after which Rob led several of us on a great field trip of KwaZulu-Natal. He was an early contributor to Tourism Geographies (1999 and 2002) and will be well remembered by those who knew him for his enthusiasm for life.

Below is an more complete obituary of Rob's academic career, which is reposted here with permission of his colleagues at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

OBITUARY: PROFESSOR ROB PRESTON-WHYTE 

It is with deep sadness that we inform the University and the broader geography community of the death, after a short illness, of Emeritus Professor of the previous School of Environmental Sciences, Professor Robert Preston-Whyte. Born in the Midlands of KwaZulu-Natal, it is fitting that Rob lived out his life, after his retirement from the University of KwaZuluNatal, on his small holding in Nottingham Road. Here he and his wife, Merle Holden were able to explore their many interests and find peace and happiness.  

Rob was a true product of the former University of Natal, completing all his formal studies on the Pietermaritzburg campus and spending most of his working life in the Geography and Environmental Science Department on the Howard College campus, except for a brief stint at the CSIR in Pretoria.  

Rob was a true scholar and intellectual. He was widely read, being equally comfortable discussing English literature as he was meteorological theory. His greatest scientific contribution was to our understanding of the local circulations of KwaZulu-Natal. He gathered his data the hard way – many days and nights spent tracking pilot balloons with a theodolite – but was ultimately able to establish the characteristics and mechanisms of the land and sea breezes and topographically-induced winds in KZN. This knowledge has contributed to our understanding of local pollution transport, occurrence of coastal rainfall, the initiation and passage of thunderstorms across KZN, amongst other meteorological patterns.  

Geographers of the time will remember his vision, prescience and astute academic management when, as Professor, and Head of Department in the 1970’s and eighties, he successfully shifted the ethos of his department. It moved from one of dry, antiquated academia to that of a teaching and research institution that not only created the intellectual challenges of theory and debate, but engaged in strong teaching and research into elements of Physical and Human Geography that had immediate impact on the daily life of communities. 

During the eighties and nineties he became convinced that the discipline of geography, through its inclusiveness and its strong natural and social science foundations, should become a scientific and academic leader in the wave of environmental of concern sweeping the world. He soon recognised that accurate maps and global scale environmental monitoring would be essential to successful environmental management,  and brought in the skills necessary for developing a strong teaching and research programme in burgeoning Geographic Information Systems and Remote Sensing industry.  
These monumental shifts in approach increased the stature and reputation of Geography in a spectacular way, and built student demand for the subject hugely, especially at the post-graduate level.  The department was now producing not only academics, but also young professionals who would find their place in career positions in commerce and industry in South Africa and beyond.    

In the latter years of his academic career, Rob shifted his interests to tourism geography, writing creatively about liminal spaces on the Durban coastline. This reflected his exceptional ability to work on internationally recognised research both within the physical and social sciences. As such, he was a true geographer. However, it was his early work in climatology that made its mark and that led to a landmark text book that was prescribed reading for climatology students across South Africa. 

In the broader University community Rob will be remembered for his 10 years spent as Dean of Social Sciences. During his period of office he brought the faculty to a position of leadership within the university – at one point its publication to staff ratio was the best in the whole institution, this notwithstanding his constant battles with higher administration for a fairer division of resources and his intense dislike of the political machinations at that stage current in University politics in general. 
It is typical of the man that after his retirement in 2004 he was able to re-invent himself. He returned to his roots in the Natal Midlands. His almost endless, inspirational energy was expended not on academic battles any longer, but in developing his small holding in an environmentally consistent manner. His horses, golf, and clay pigeon shooting intertwined with creative writing and before his death he had already published four novels.            

Rob was in his element on geography field trips, when he was able to enthusiastically impart his wide general knowledge about the fauna and flora, stratigraphy, local climate and local community, to students. Generations of students will recall trying to keep up with him as he strode up mountains at a pace that few could match. Always young and fit for his age, his untimely and sudden death from melanoma cancer is a shock to all of us. Rob was a visionary, an exceptional leader, an inspiring intellectual and a true friend. What a privilege it was to know, work with and be taught by such a passionate, inspirational and committed individual. 


Professor Roseanne Diab, Executive Officer, Acadmy of Science of South Africa and Emeritus Professor, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa 
Professor Gerry Garland, Past-Chairman, Department of Geography and Urban Planning, University of United Arab Emirates, Al Ain, Abu Dhabi, UAE
Dr. Catherine Sutherland, Lecturer, School of Built Environment and Development Studies, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa