Touristification. Empty concept or element of analysis in tourism geography?

Abstract

Since the end of the last century, geographers have been using the concept of touristification understood as a complex process in which various stakeholders interfere, transforming a territory through tourist activity. However, over recent years, this word has become popular in other areas with a distinct connotation, understanding touristification as a negative idea of tourism, like the massification of a destination or as a synonymous for gentrification or tourism-phobia. This situation discourages the use of the term and causes the necessity to question the usefulness of the concept, considered as too ambiguous or even empty. We argue for a correct use of the term touristification, focused on the territorial phenomenon and process it is meant to describe in a geographical approach without ideological preconceived notion, to construct knowledge from a territorial understanding of tourism in an ever-globalized world.

Keywords: Globalization; Multidisciplinary; Territoriality; Territory; Tourism geography; Touristification.