The growth of neuroscience studies within tourism has been relatively slow, with limited well-executed studies and little interdisciplinarity. The aim of this review is to stimulate the use of neuroscience within tourism research. It first discusses the synergies to be gained by combining neuroscience with social science, exploring the usefulness and suitability of using neuroscience within tourism. An evaluation of review articles that have critiqued individual applications of neuroscience in tourism is presented, followed by a comprehensive overview of neuroscience methods. We discuss the theoretical relevance of neuroscience and its potential themes for a tourism neuroscience research agenda. This discussion is based on a selective review of wider neuroscience of relevance to tourism, including affective neuroscience, neuromarketing, neuroeconomics and neuromanagement.