Tourism, mobility, and the geopolitics of sanctions

Tourism is not simply a cultural or economic activity but a geopolitical practice shaped by shifting relations of power, borders, and mobility. This chapter situates tourism within the wider context of sanctions, examining how restrictions on movement, finance, and representation operate as deliberate instruments of statecraft. It highlights how scholarship has increasingly recognized tourism’s role in producing geopolitical imaginaries, with borders and mobility functioning both as material infrastructures and as strategic tools of authority. Empirical evidence shows how political conflict becomes visible in the disruption of airspace agreements, the tightening of visa regimes, and the stigmatization of destinations, demonstrating that the effects of global politics are felt in everyday travel and leisure. The chapter argues that sanctions represent a distinct form of geopolitical crisis: they are deliberate, prolonged interventions that weaponize mobility and destabilize tourism systems. By conceptualizing sanctions in this way, the discussion shows how tourism is deeply entangled with international politics and calls for closer integration of tourism studies into debates on power, legitimacy, and coercion in global governance.