Critical Issues in Tourism

by Shaw, Gareth; Williams, Allan M.

• ISBN13: 9780631181316
• ISBN10: 0631181318
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1994-01-01
• Publisher: Blackwell Pub

Summary

Few industries have expanded faster over the last fifty years than tourism. Tourism has brought employment to millions, frequently in the poor and more remote parts of the world, and given pleasure, variety, rest and recreation to countless numbers of travelers and holiday-makers. It has at the same time destroyed and polluted pristine environments, threatened local cultures, and in doing so, frequently devalued just those characteristics of a place that had made it a desirable tourist objective. The issues that tourism raises are of critical and vital importance throughout the world: this book provides a much-needed geographical perspective upon them. The authors focus on both the production and consumption of tourism, and show that it is this interrelationship which holds the key to understanding the ways in which tourism shapes, and reshapes, human and physical environments. They analyze the key features of the tourism and leisure industries, and place them in the context of changing social, political and economic structures and behavior. The argument is accompanied throughout by illustrative case studies, drawn from a wide range of countries, including both the developed and developing economies.

Table of Contents

List of Tables

List of Boxes

List of Figures

Preface to the Second Edition

An Approach to Tourism

Introduction

The International Dimension

Access to Tourism Consumption

Social Access to Tourism and Leisure

Tourist Motivation and Behaviour

The Production of Tourism Services

The Tourism and Leisure Industries

Tourism and Entrepreneurship

Tourism, Employment and Labour Markets

Tourism Environments

Tourism and Leisure Environments

Mass Tourism

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