IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/anture/v119y2026ics0160738326000812.html

Vacation untouchable – a deconstruction of the liberal ‘right to tourism’

Author

Listed:
  • Vogler, Ralf
  • Schweiggart, Nadja
  • Müller, Adrian

Abstract

This paper examines how the liberal ‘right to tourism’ acquired its contemporary normative meaning and how it conflicts with planetary boundaries. It investigates the historical, structural, and discursive conditions that have rendered tourism a taken-for-granted form of liberal freedom. Unlimited tourism is neither a human nor a legal right, but a historically constructed and socially defended freedom rooted in growth-oriented tourism systems and welfare-state labour arrangements. Drawing on liberal theories, historical analysis, and a socio-technical systems perspective, it shows how high‑carbon tourism is structurally reproduced and how tourism-related freedom claims conflict with rights and living conditions of host communities, as well as inter- and intragenerational justice. Finally, it outlines how tourism freedom may be reinterpreted within a liberal discussion scheme.

Suggested Citation

  • Vogler, Ralf & Schweiggart, Nadja & Müller, Adrian, 2026. "Vacation untouchable – a deconstruction of the liberal ‘right to tourism’," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:anture:v:119:y:2026:i:c:s0160738326000812
    DOI: 10.1016/j.annals.2026.104196
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160738326000812
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.annals.2026.104196?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:anture:v:119:y:2026:i:c:s0160738326000812. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/annals-of-tourism-research/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.