Commercializing tourism research: the potential, perils and paradoxes for researchers

The commercialization of research outputs is now a core strategic aim of many universities. While the activity has received a vast amount of support from governments, there are very few examples of commercialized tourism research outputs that have originated from the university sector. This paper argues that this is largely due to tourism programs being located with disciplines such as the social sciences and business departments, whose engagement with the commercialization agenda has been low. Using the lived experiences of the researcher’s involvement in a tourism research product called Tourism Tracer, this paper delves into the reasons for this low engagement. It argues that funding research culture, philosophical issues, peer support and intellectual property issues form barriers within the social sciences sector that challenge tourism researchers’ engagement with commercialization. Ultimately it argues that a ‘one size fits all’ approach to commercialization overlooks disciplinary differences and that further support is needed if engagement with commercialization by tourism researchers is to be full supported.