ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book examines the experience of undertaking ethnography within the subject field of tourism. It explores the issues in trying to achieve university ethical approval for research relating to suicide tourism, currently an illegal activity in the UK. The book examines the dilemmas faced in undertaking ethnographic work in the party tourism resorts of Ibiza, Spain, in which the author must engage with tourists who have been taking drugs and drinking alcohol. It also explores three important and connected, yet underanalysed, elements of autoethnography: unawareness, memory and power. The book discusses the advantages and disadvantages of doing ethnography in multidisciplinary teams composed of members with different understandings of tourism and tourism research. It discusses the value of using oral history for ethnographic research and the significance of the recorded voice in tourism anthropology.
