An Introduction to Tourism

From the text: Why is it important to study tourism? The immediate and obvious answer to this question is that it is a global activity of major proportions and of huge economic significance. Tourism is worth studying for reasons other than its size and economic significance. The temporary displacement of millions of people worldwide has social, cultural, and political consequences that should not be ignored. This will involve consideration of humanistic or interpretive understanding of tourism, as well as positivist, statistical and empirical approaches to the subject. The study of tourism, especially in its international form, also directs our attention to major processes such as globalization and transnationalism. We can also assert with some confidence that, through an examination of tourism, we can learn a good deal about ourselves and the times in which we live.
The scholarly literature on tourism has increased enormously during the past five decades, as tourism itself has become a global phenomenon of staggering proportions. The vast majority of books and journal articles on the subject are aimed at fellow academics, university graduate students, policymakers, or persons engaged in tourism management. Much of this work could be labeled tourism without tourists, for in it we seldom encounter a real live tourist, and the concepts and theories presented are often quite abstract and divorced from our own travel experiences. This, together with the use of a rarified language and unfamiliar terminology (or familiar terminology that turns out to mean something different than we imagined) can make for some difficult reading. Finding a navigable route through the extensive body of tourism research studies, commentaries, interpretations, and theoretical contributions can be a daunting task for beginning students and others confronting the subject for the first time. This book is written with these readers uppermost in mind. It does not attempt to break new theoretical ground, but has the more modest aim of offering a basic and necessarily selective guide to academic studies of tourism and the main problems and issues these deal with. It does not pretend to offer a comprehensive review of the field, for such a task would obviously require several lengthy volumes.
Each chapter ends with a list of Review Questions that are meant as an aid to understanding the main points and arguments. Also included is a list of Discussion Topics suitable for small group or seminar sessions. There are also questions designed to help the reader to connect personally with the chapter contents, which can be helpful in deepening the reader's understanding of the subject.