International tourism and global capitalism is currently in the throes of a series of profound and recurrent crises.  While much of the recent attention has been on the recovery of tourism from the shock triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, and more recently, the intensifying climate crisis, the current conjuncture is marked by a “polycrisis” (Tooze, 2022). It is one moreover, that is compounded by an intensification of political divisions and a legitimation crisis of democracy. This talk will draw on different strands of critical and Marxian theories of international political economy to think through and examine the structural dynamics of tourism capital accumulation and the configurations of state power through which the origins of the current crises can be traced.   It concludes by way of reflection on current institutional discourses and strategies of tourism ‘recovery’ and the challenges for advancing a just transition towards a socially and ecologically just tourism political economy.