Relevance of Critical Theory in the Tourism Research: A New Formulation

Tourism as a study object has been complicated because it has become a dependent discipline. There is mostly a traditional and conventional tendency in tourism research. Tourism is a social phenomenon that should integrate into a transdisciplinary research co-involving a critical perspective.

The critical turn has been a new approaching for tourism research driving the researchers to a new borders of tourism thinking and reflexivity. Critical realism in tourism research is a pointer to get into a new formulation of critical theory. There have been a few tourism researchers who participates in this filing.

The tourism researchers must think over the importance of knowledge tourism research and its alienation to traditional standards. Rethink under a reflexive critical perspective the importance of the new formulations form Critical Theory is one new challenge in tourism studies.

The Critical Theory is a possibility to think reflective the tourism research. Maybe it is not the only way but it´s do one that involve and articulate the total social changes in the present. The future of Critical Theory should be written in the present. The Critical Theory implications should be updated in the discipline’s performance.

The present research aims to develop a critical framework for tourism research getting challenges to approximate through a critical reflection of method and theory as categories involved in the construction of tourism as study object. In this context the emerging question is: ¿ Could be the critical theory the future research program in tourism research?

First, the tourism as a transdisciplinary study object. Secondly, the critical theory in present of tourism research. Some reflective thinking about tourism and critical theory through tourism as study object.

Key words: Critical realism. Critical Theory. Method. Tourism.