This paper defines the shape of current language and tourism research and reviews the (re)conceptualization of crucial notions in sociolinguistic research, like ‘language’ itself, ‘identity’, and 'community’, as especially relevant for the study of tourism's volatile encounters. It explores the unavoidable tensions between marketization and authenticity, and the relations between ‘self’- and ‘other’-performances, and the disputing of various identity positions concerning social actors’ multilingual resources.