The future of deaf tourism studies: an interdisciplinary research agenda

In this conceptual paper we aim to provide a critical interdisciplinary theorisation of deafness from phenomenological and post-phenomenological perspectives. We argue that in studies of tourists’ embodied experiences, the sonorities of travel have been rarely explored. We suggest that a consideration of the role of sound, and by extension deafness, within tourism studies can lead to a more nuanced and critical approach to the multiplicity of sensory capabilities that are exercised in tourists’ experiences of travel. We conclude with a proposed research agenda for deaf tourism studies that reconsiders epistemological and technological approaches. Overall, we seek to contribute to current debates in tourism predicated on understanding “deafnesses” across time and space.