관광 현상에 대한 이론 개발 고찰

A Study on Theory-building for Tourism Phenomenon

The ultimate goal of science is theory. Tourism research still lacks a conceptualization scheme, theoretical framework, and a cumulative knowledge. One of the reasons is that many tourism researchers have been preoccupied with the short-term goal of finding specific relations from accepting or rejecting a hypothesis to track and record a staggering expansion of the tourism industry. Thus, there is a need to guide an outline on the systematic process of theorybuilding in tourism studies. In this context, this paper provides the insight and conceptual framework for the building and understanding of tourism theory that will lead the tourism science into a discipline, not a field of study or a special form of leisure. In particular, the study discusses an emergent paradigm shift from tourism studies and researchers and identifies a virtue of good theory and scientific theory-building process. This conceptual paper could help researchers gain insights in terms of theory-building and its necessity with a sense of responsibility as a tourism researcher. The study makes a conceptual and theoretical contribution to expanding scientific domain of tourism knowledge.