Tourism as a Part of Social Reality
Tourism is a phenomenon that appears self-evident in everyday life. We know what a hotel, a package tour, an airline ticket or a tourist attraction is. From the perspective of the philosophy of science, however, the issue becomes considerably more complex.
The new publication, “Ontology and Epistemology of Tourism: A Realist Approach”, authored by Prof. Leszek Butowski from the Institute of Urban Geography, Tourism Studies and Geoinformation at the Faculty of Geographical Sciences, University of Lodz, presents tourism as a domain of social reality, that is, a reality created and sustained by people through their collective actions, beliefs and rules. Its aim is to demonstrate how the various “elements” of the tourism world come into being and what kinds of relationships exist between them.
One of the publication’s key themes is social ontology. This branch of philosophy explores the question of what kinds of entities exist in the social world and how they come into existence.
A useful distinction can be made here between physical objects and entities whose existence depends on human activity. A hotel is a building, but its operation as a hotel is linked to specific rules, agreements, social expectations and the recognition of its particular role by society. Similarly, a ticket is not merely a piece of paper or an electronic record; it possesses a specific status because society assigns a particular function to it.
To explain these issues, the book draws on the concepts of philosopher John Searle, particularly the notions of collective intentionality, status functions and constitutive rules. Collective intentionality refers to people’s shared beliefs and intentions; a status function relates to the function assigned to a particular object or activity by society; and constitutive rules define how specific actions or objects become what they are within the social world.
More Than Travel: What Constitutes Tourism Reality?
This approach makes it possible to view tourism more broadly than simply as the movement of people. Tourism is shaped not only by tourists and the places they visit, but also by institutions, organisations, regulations, social norms, practices and shared meanings.
It is the interconnections between these elements that create tourism reality. This perspective allows researchers to analyse, among other things, why certain places become tourist attractions, how specific tourism practices emerge, and how society assigns meaning to particular sites and objects.
The second pillar of the publication is epistemology, that is, the philosophical study of knowledge, its sources, methods of justification and limitations. In the context of tourism, the question is therefore not only “What exists?”, but also “How do we know that it exists, and how can we justify our claims about tourism?”
Such an approach is particularly important for academic research because tourism is studied by numerous disciplines, ranging from geography and sociology to economics, anthropology and management studies.
The publication combines both perspectives, first examining the structure of tourism reality and then addressing how knowledge about it can be acquired and justified. The concepts discussed are illustrated through examples drawn from tourism practice. As a result, complex ontological and epistemological ideas can be related to real-life situations and processes taking place within tourism.
The book is intended primarily for academics, doctoral students and researchers working in the field of tourism, particularly those engaged in theoretical, conceptual or interdisciplinary research. It may also be of interest to scholars in social geography, sociology, economics, anthropology and the philosophy of science.
Source: Butowski, L. (2026). Ontology and Epistemology of Tourism: A Realist Approach. Routledge, p. 134.
