Abstract: Israeli sociologist Eric Cohen is one of the founders of the sociology of tourism. This scientist proposed both his own developments in the field of tourism, including the typology of tourists, the classification of ways to obtain tourist experience, and analyzed the general path of development of this branch of knowledge, resorting to understanding the theoretical and empirical works of other researchers, and also outlined trends and main topics of modern research in this field of knowledge. The theoretical research of this scientist has become an important reference point for researchers studying global processes taking place in the world, as well as complex interactions between tourists and locals. This article is devoted to the analysis of Eric Cohen's theoretical contribution to the sociology of tourism, his conceptual approach and the significance of his works for modern research. The author explores the theoretical research of Eric Cohen using general scientific methods of cognition, as well as genetic, comparative historical and other methods that reveal the specifics of the scientist's approach. The scientific novelty of this topic lies in the systematization of the main ideas of Eric Cohen and the study of his contribution to the study of the phenomenon of tourism and the development of the sociology of tourism as an independent discipline. The works of the Israeli sociologist Eric Cohen, his conceptual apparatus and analytical tools testify to the high importance of his works for modern sociological theory. His works maintain high citation rates and are regularly consulted by modern researchers. These publications cover a wide range of topics: from typologies of tourists, concepts of tourist experience, research on authenticity to the analysis of the state of sociology of tourism as an independent science, identifying trends and the main topics dominating here, which makes him one of the most influential scientists in this field.