Introduction: why take a multidisciplinary approach to tourism?

Tourism is the product of a confluence of multiple elements – material and imaginary, subjective and collective – as well as of multiple approaches: from euphoric economy-focused views to more critical ones from local and ecological standpoints. To situate tourist moments, experiences and activities and their evolution we need to go beyond partial understanding. Important issues remain that relate to the meanings, mobilities and implications that frame and define the tourist phenomenon. The objective of this issue is to attempt to place tourism within global processes and encourage a transdisciplinary, flexible understanding drawn from visions that overlap and are interdependent. Can we conceive of a transcultural repertoire that takes into account reciprocity – of both content and regulation – and potential political structures to rearticulate, reinterpret and recodify the manifold interconnections and their multidimensional realities? We propose pooling perspectives from different disciplines to formulate new questions and direct new reflections