The author examines her own transition in career, from media and communication studies to tourism studies, and reflects on the discrepancies between the two studies and personal cognitive dissonance these discrepancies created. At the level of theory, the author critically analyses currently predominant understandings of tourism as an industry and highlights a different view: one where tourism is understood as a social force incorporating normative values of cultural understanding, improvement of wellbeing and natural and cultural heritage preservation. In the second step, the author compares the development of critical thought in media and in tourism studies and identifies a gap between the so-called “cultural turn” and political economy approaches to tourism studies. Finally, the author analyses how new media are empirically researched in tourism studies and critically reflects on the “blind spot” in tourism studies where social media such as TripAdvisor are considered only as a communication tool. What current tourism studies overlook is the political economy of media such as TripAdvisor: their entanglement in a specific political and economic context and their operations according to the interests of media organisation.
