Growing scarcity of oil and increasing oil prices are highly relevant for tourism. This research provides a critical meta-analysis to assess current knowledge of 'tourism and oil'. The interdisciplinary analysis is complex as there are no clear boundaries of the phenomenon, the interpretation of 'facts' is context dependent, and activities relevant to tourism and oil are multi-dimensional. The review suggests that increasing oil prices will have far-reaching impacts on tourism, including changes to people's lifestyles and the role of tourism within these. Presented knowledge of tourism and oil is far from comprehensive and serves as a starting point for further enquiry. In particular, research on the interpretive components of the phenomenon remains poorly conceptualised and ill-understood. Keywords: oil, energy, critical realism, meta-analysis.