Tourism and commons: Conceptualizing the tourism commons

In this age of global 'public crisis,' social science is actively employing the concept of 'commons,' which refers to “everyone's property, not anyone's,” in research to solve social problems. However, few studies in tourism academics have examined the tourism phenomenon through the lens of the commons theory. Given this reality, this study attempted to review how to incorporate the theory of the commons into tourism research. To that end, research on commons in international academic circles and related research achievements in domestic academia are reviewed from Hardin to Ostrom. Second, previous research on tourism commons was reviewed and synthesized. As a result, it was determined that there was confusion from the conceptual definition, which serves as the foundation of academic research, and thus subtractability and excludability based on physical attributes, and monopoly legitimacy and rivarly based on social attributes, were applied. Tourism commons are defined as “natural, social, cultural, and artificial tourism resources that cannot be difficult to physically exclude users and that are not justified to monopolize from a social standpoint,” and tourism CPRs are defined as “tourism commons that decrease as they are physically used and are socially rivalry.” Based on conceptualization, this study proposes a future research direction for tourism commons, with the goal of resolving social dilemmas such as the “tourism paradox.”