Resumo: In the article that is offered, it is critically discussed the challenges and difficulties presented by tourism research for its scientific maturity, pointing out its epistemological, thematic and methodological limitations, with the intention of installing a discussion and a platform of thought that allows epistemologists Latin American countries to make their contribution in the sphere of a tourist epistemology that recognizes itself in crisis. For this, through an analytical-reflexive exercise, the division of its field of knowledge in tourism as business and tourist studies is questioned and the need to counteract the fragmentation of its study is emphasized. Finally, we discuss the discussions of the past decades regarding what tourism is, as well as aspects that the academy itself has not been able to correct
