This paper provides an overview of the concept extraordinary tourist experience and highlights its complexity. It also elaborates on the five facilitators (1) experiencescape, (2) properties of the experience, (3) social dynamics: (4) transformative and (5) positive surprise.

Research that conceptualizes tourist extraordinary experiences both from the structural and anti-structural perspective is limited in the tourism literature. The purpose of this research is to develop a new theoretical perspective that re-conceptualizes our understanding of tourists’ extraordinary experience by taking into consideration both the structural and anti-structural elements of an experience. It draws on phenomenological interviews with 26 food tourists. The study finds that extraordinary experience consists of elements such as profaneness, collaborative interactions and conflict-easing, which represent both the structural and anti-structural elements. The findings of this study allow us to question whether extraordinary experience is purely structural or anti-structural as suggested by previous research. Rather, based on the findings, we argue that extraordinary experience is the positive co-existence of both the ordinary and the non-ordinary. As a result, we use the term “synstructure” to conceptualize the tourist extraordinary experience.

Within the field of tourism and hospitality, qualitative research as a method gained recognition only in the early 1990s. Qualitative research in tourism and hospitality research has primarily taken inspiration from the anthropology, sociology, and geography disciplines. Prior to the 1990, the field was largely dominated by research based on positivistic philosophies. Since then, researchers have started to question the fundamental nature of quantitative research, as it couldn't address the questions of meanings and understandings. Qualitative research was, therefore, considered as an alternative method offering richer interpretations and understanding of lived realities. While there has been a surge in qualitative methods over the years, quantification is still a dominant paradigm in much of the tourism and hospitality scholarship. Qualitative research is still portrayed as less methodologically robust, lacking rigor and credibility. Hence various attempts have been made to overcome the weaknesses. To understand how qualitative studies can be further developed to generate robust theoretical advancement, it is important to first understand the historical development of qualitative research within the field. We also provide insight on some of the most common types of qualitative inquiries used in tourism and hospitality research as well as their inherent challenges.

Despite ongoing problems with gender inequalities in tourism, little is known about gender differences in first and solo authorships, collaboration, and choice of research approaches. This study analyzes these academic practices using 4973 articles (11,033 authors) in three major tourism journals from 1990 to 2017. The results show evidence of gender homophilic collaboration behaviors. Gender heterogeneous co-authorships are becoming pervasive and seem to be driven by female first authors. Solo female researchers strongly associate with qualitative research. While male-only teams have the lowest likelihood of using qualitative research, the situation is more complex for gender heterogeneous teams. Practical suggestions derived from the findings for the gender equality agenda in tourism are discussed to promote more gender-diverse collaborations and femaleled research

Despite ongoing problems with gender inequalities in tourism, little is known about gender differences in first and solo authorships, collaboration, and choice of research approaches. This study analyzes these academic practices using 4973 articles (11,033 authors) in three major tourism journals from 1990 to 2017. The results show evidence of gender homophilic collaboration behaviors. Gender heterogeneous co-authorships are becoming pervasive and seem to be driven by female first authors. Solo female researchers strongly associate with qualitative research. While male-only teams have the lowest likelihood of using qualitative research, the situation is more complex for gender heterogeneous teams. Practical suggestions derived from the findings for the gender equality agenda in tourism are discussed to promote more gender-diverse collaborations and female led research.