Using some of the concepts of tourism study itself – gaze, emotional labor and critical perspectives – this chapter considers the roles, realities and relationships which underpin supervision at the doctoral level in tourism. The analysis is buttressed by key studies from the now broad array of material written about the supervision process. It is argued that the tourism PhD is a distinct entity with a specific array of challenges in its production and management. These challenges include considering the value and the ethics of the work, meeting the suspicious gaze of sometimes hostile outsiders, and managing the task itself, frequently on a limited budget. The skills of the supervisor and the kind of work they do are represented as high-level emotional, aesthetic and performative labor requiring flexibility and sensitivity to deal with the varied kinds of students who seek to earn a doctorate in tourism. Additionally, the analysis of a sample of micro-cases from the direct experience of the author suggest that supervisors in tourism need to be confident about the whole PhD process and enthusiastic about publishing, as well as possessing a substantial but evolving knowledge base and a solid set of technical skills. Increasingly, supervisors need to be aware of how to manage external and institutional pressures, and be organized but flexible in their approach to different student needs. There is a cliché that the student –supervisor relationship is one of the most enduring in a student’s life; you can get married, divorced, even change your gender, but you have your PhD supervisor as a constant shaping your career. Charged with this unique role, supervisors in tourism now have the opportunity to learn from one another as they create supportive and informed environments for quality work at the postgraduate level. The rewards for all parties are arguably the greatest in any teaching and learning context.

The desire to travel, to be in new places and meet other kinds of people, buttressed by a desire to refresh and reconnect with close family represents a spectrum of motives, personal ambitions and life goals. This chapter reviews ideas from the world of literature to help frame tourism studies and then develops the concept of identity as a link to tourism work. A thorough explanation of the travel career pattern model is a feature of the chapter and the advantages of a comprehensive system for assessing and contemplating motivation are illustrated in studies of Chinese tourists and the experience going home to a familiar place from one’s past. Continuing interest in motives and desires does not rely on a deficit approach and instead stresses forward-looking goals – the teleological push – studied in means–ends analysis and positive psychology. This chapter reviews the highlights of this journey as well as assessing contemporary models and tactics to explore people’s dreams and longing to be on holiday.

This chapter begins by recognising that photo taking occurs along the gradient of casual to serious leisure. First, the degree of effort and intensity with which tourists pursue image capturing activity is explored. A second way to examine tourist photography is through a detailed analysis of the actual behaviours that can be seen when tourists set themselves up and pose for and take photos. This work is built on the human ethology tradition. Here the interest is in the sequence of movements that result in common poses which are identified and portrayed. A brief commentary on the tradition of the selfie is offered. As a third theme, the rich symbolic meanings that taking and posing for photographs may embody are reviewed. The view taken is that tourist photographers and photography should not be denigrated by researchers but seen as offering insights into roles and identities. As a part of this third theme, some attempt is made to consider the different cultural meanings of those who capture images and present themselves for the lens.

What tourists do may be destructive, unsafe, intrusive and unsustainable. Such behaviours typically induce negative outcomes for tourists themselves, and for those with whom they interact. By balancing the presentation of these behaviours with a rich understanding of how to interpret and manage such acts, the chapter offers not only a catalogue of troublesome behaviours but directions for ways to further study and manage the consequences of bad behaviour. The conceptual and theoretical underpinnings of the approach lie in considering such topics as habits, attribution and cultural contexts. Standard and existing techniques of providing advisory information and advice have modest power and appear to work only at those times and for those people whose behaviour is rational and not time dependent. It is proposed that future work should be oriented towards improved setting design and sustainable default systems as well as attacking the justifications which dismiss irresponsible acts.

The many ways tourists can travel both to get destinations and within destinations are systematically reviewed Some of the topics considered include air travel, driving, walking, taking cruises, and using public transport. A central theme of the chapter is that the travel mode can govern and shape the entire experience or be the holiday experience itself. Case studies of self-drive tourists are used to illustrate the theme of the importance of how tourists travel.

The chapter reinterprets the question of the first chapter and turns attention to not just why tourists are interesting but what is important for tourists, for researchers and the communities in which they are enmeshed and visit. The authors argue that individuals search for meaning through the world of information as well as well through experiences. Further, the future of tourism is seen as inevitably and powerfully linked to the multiple arms of existing and emerging technologies; such processes shape expectations of service environments and social interactions. For the study of the future of tourism again a powerful role for research about technology is envisaged and the flexibility of working with different research styles rather than restricted paradigms is noted. To explore the significant content opportunities for tourist behaviour research the possibilities for work are linked to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals to provide a structure for work of significance to communities and for tourist researchers’ roles in building better lives.