Tourism geographies, as a conduit linking the scholarly examination of tourism to a foundational discipline such as geography is a necessary endeavour. Questions over the bona fides of tourism as a discipline (or not) have percolated for some time and it is this linkage to geography that endows it with the essential theoretical heft. In this Distinguished Lecture, held in celebration of the IGU Tourism Commission's 2017 IGU Commissions Excellence Award, I reflect on the last two decades of tourism geographies development through the lens of the journal Tourism Geographies. I hone in on how relevant tourism geographies discourses are transforming, and the trajectories that are emerging as the journal’s intentions to engage with and straddle cross, inter and multi disciplinary engagements, presses ahead.