Historical development of tourism journals - a milestone in 75 years: a perspective article

Purpose - The historical background of journals in today's current form dates back to seventeenth century. However, the birth of tourism journals is dated to 1940s. This coincides with the emergence of tourism as an academic part of tourism studies and education. Thus, the paper aims to indicate the progress of tourism journals since their first induction in early 1940s. Design/methodology/approach - The study is based on an overview of secondary sources through desk research and personal communication with several scholars in the field of tourism. Findings - Tourism Review is the first academic journal in tourism dating back its origin to 1943. Since then, the journey of tourism journals has completed three full quarters. Looking at the progress recorded and reality observed in this milestone, the journey is taken into consideration under three periods: involvement, development and internalization. This paper briefly examines the characteristics of these three periods. Research limitations/implications - Based on the outputs of this study, tourism research has accomplished a milestone making itself as a recognised field at the international level of research and education. There has been also a significant increase in the number of cross-citations exported to non-tourism journals. Such developments have allowed tourism to stand on its own two feet, and it seems that tourism is likely to have gained its independence as a field of academic studies and education. Originality/value - The originality of this study comes from the fact that there are limited attempts to look at how tourism journals have progressed since their induction in 1940s.