Geographic research on tourism, recreation and leisure: Origins, eras, and directions

All subjects need to understand from whence they came and leisure, recreation and tourism (LRT) are no exceptions. This paper reviews what is felt to be the past geographical literature in these areas in the English language from a personal perspective which covers involvement in the field over the past four decades. It adopts an era approach to identify themes and emphases in the published research and to relate current research thrusts to past efforts. It comments on the relative status of LRT studies in geography and of geographical research in the LRT fields, and concludes with some thoughts on likely future areas of research effort.