Landscapes of Tourism in the Era of a New Cultural Economy of Space: A Reformulated Analytical Framework

Building on previous publications on the “new cultural economy of space,” this article aims to expand, update, and develop this scheme further, while advancing relevant discourse toward a theoretical and analytical reexamination of unfolding sociospatial transformation, in the era of the fourth technological revolution, with an application in the scientific area of tourism. Specifically, this work represents an effort to organize and make sense of the spatial dynamics of global contemporary change, as set forth by tourism, with a bearing on the landscape. It aims at a deeper understanding of how these ongoing macrogeographical transformational forces are affecting and shaping landscapes of tourism. The article takes an integrative and synthetic approach, while highlighting the centrality of culture. This ongoing global new cultural economy of space, as a product and expression of its times, signals a postmodern neo-liberal cultural renegotiation of social space manifested in multiple human relationships with space, through processes termed trans-worldment, en-worldment, me-worldment, un-worldment, de-worldment, and re-worldment. It is characterized, among other things, by rapidly growing interconnectivity, mobility, consumption, commodification, digitalization, and individualization, all highly prominent and key to tourism growth and development.