Tourism and tourism studies: 25 years of 'thinking-alike', from Calgary to Tokyo

This paper aims at celebrating Professor Kazuo Murakami’s retirement by reflecting on some of the key research themes that during his career he has shared with the author. Writing in a deliberately biographical mode, the article recalls some of the key passages of their collaboration and put them in relation to the development of their respective research interest. From the early conversations in Calgary about Banff, to the most recent encounters in the Netherlands, this brief essay discusses how the engagement with tourism as a source of social transformation and as an analytical framework to interpret broader cultural change may be identified as the red thread accompanying 25 years of fruitful and exciting collaboration.