The aim of this paper is to investigate the research sphere of a sociology of
tourism. Tourism is a social phenomenon that has a variety of social-cultural impacts
in all sociological dimensions, and is now a sociological subject which cannot be
ignored by sociologists. However, most sociologists have little interest in tourism.
Taking these circumstances into consideration, first the raison d’etre of a sociology of
tourism will be clarified. The paper will then attempt to set out some significant
results obtained from sociological descriptions and explanations on tourism. Those
results are classified into four subjects ̶ i.e., 1) tourists typology, 3) hosts and
guests relations, 2) social-cultural impacts, and 4) the international tourism,
corresponding to four levels of a sociological space, respectively ̶ i.e., 1) actor, 2)
social interaction, 3) social system, and 4) the world system. Finally, future tasks for a
sociology of tourism will be proposed.