The Shadows of Hospitality: The Figure of Tourist Gaze Reconsidered

In recent decades, the tourism and hospitality industries have been subject to countless (global risks) which include terrorist attacks, natural disasters, and political instability without mentioning the COVID-19 pandemic which grounded the global trade into an unparalleled halt. The devastating effects of COVID-19, far from disappearing, have been aggravated worldwide. Having said this, policy-makers have plausibly alerted that the industry will recover from the current crisis but it will take almost two or three years to reach the levels earlier than the pandemic. Geopolitical tensions [i.e., the Ukraine-Russia war], more travel bans, or migratory restrictions, which are associated with chauvinist expressions against foreign tourists, mark the lead to what some economists have dubbed a re-feudalization of the global world. The question of whether John Urry coined the term tourist gaze to denote the connection of passengers to a global cultural matrix should be at least reconsidered. Without any doubt, global tourism has invariably set the pace for proximity tourism which illustrates new patterns in travel behavior. With the benefits of hindsight, this book chapter inscribes the fields of tourism sociology and mobilities theory. Last but not least, to what extent these new forms of tourism consumption led to more sustainable alternatives for tourism is the last point this discussion brings to the foreground. In the years to come, tourism certainly moves in waves of uncertainty and violence where the figure of the “foreign tourist” has become an undesired guest! This happens simply because COVID-19 is inaugurating a new epoch where hospitality is in decline.