Reframing tourism labour: Alterity and the global south

Extant literature recognises that knowledge and conceptualisations of tourism labour vis-a-vis the Global South are deficient and inappropriately theoretically framed by hegemonic and incommensurate Western ontologies and epistemes. This article aims to generate a decolonial, authentic and indigenous theoretical basis to liberate tourism labour knowledge of the Global South from this epistemic subordination through a contemporary review and reflection. We thus appropriate, problematise and extend Levinas' theory of alterity to reframe the colonial and neoliberal literature on the Global South's tourism workforce by championing ‘ We ’ as the convergence and co-existence of the ‘Self’ and the ‘Other’ through thematic, epistemic, methodological, and representational alterities. • Critically reviews 144 studies on Global South tourism labour • Global South tourism labour research adheres to Western ontology and episteme. • Extends Levinas' theory of alterity with the convergence of the Self and Other • Implores thematic, epistemic, methodological, and representational inclusion