Giants of Tourism


Book Description

This book presents individuals who have made an important contribution to tourism. Most are entrepreneurs in the classic sense, but others are individuals who have had unintentional subsequent effects on tourism through their actions. The book is arranged in four parts: (i) giants of hospitality (chapters 1-5); (ii) giants of travel (chapters 6-10); (iii) giants of activities (chapters 11-14); and (iv) giants of development (chapters 15-19).




The Routledge Handbook of Health Tourism


Book Description

The Routledge Handbook of Health Tourism provides a comprehensive and cutting-edge overview of the philosophical, conceptual and managerial issues in the field of health tourism with contributions from more than 30 expert academics and practitioners from around the world. Terms that are used frequently when defining health tourism, such as wellbeing, wellness, holistic, medical and spiritual, are analysed and explored, as is the role that health and health tourism play in quality-of-life enhancement, wellbeing, life satisfaction and happiness. An overview is provided of health tourism facilities such as thermal waters, spas, retreats and wellness hotels and the various challenges inherent in managing these profitably and sustainably. Typologies are given not only of subsectors of health tourism and related activities but also of destinations, such as natural landscapes, historic townscapes or individual resources or attractions around which whole infrastructures have been developed. Attention is paid to some of the lifestyle changes that are taking place in societies which influence consumer behaviour, motivations and demand for health tourism, including government policies, regulations and ethical considerations. This significant volume offers the reader a comprehensive synthesis of this field, conveying the latest thinking and research. The text is international in focus, encouraging dialogue across disciplinary boundaries and areas of study and will be an invaluable resource for all those with an interest in health tourism.




Visitor Attractions and Events


Book Description

Both visitor attractions and events play pivotal roles in the appeal of tourism destination regions to visitors by virtue of being the main motivator of tourist trips and determining consumers’ choices. However, more recently visitor attractions have become more multifaceted, have proliferated and fragmented in terms of form, location, scale and style, and their role is undergoing major changes in a post-modern world as a result of consumer demands and competitive innovations. Visitor Attractions and Events for the first time theoretically and empirically explores the relations between events and attractions to offer new thinking of the role of space and place in shaping development, management practices and strategies in the sector as well as future implications. The book reveals how location is pivotal in the development, planning, and management of visitor attractions and events. Whereas the location of natural attractions is relatively fixed in space and their locations cannot be predetermined or relocated, human-made or contrived attractions are more influenced by the planning process in the context of the locational decision-making process. Competition and cooperation between visitor attractions and the aspects which shape these relations, including complementarities, compatibility, knowledge spill overs and diffusion of innovations, product similarities and spatial proximity remain largely ignored in the visitor attraction sector and thus are major elements in the focus of this book. Comparative examples ranging from small to major attractions in a wide variety of locations are included. This significant volume will appeal widely to all those interested in the visitor sector, such as tourism, events, leisure studies, destination management and sociology.




Tourism in Development


Book Description

Over the last fifty years, tourism has become firmly established as a development option around the world. Commensurate with this, the study of tourism's developmental role has also expanded significantly. There now exists a broad understanding of the policies and processes, opportunities and challenges that apply to tourism's potential contributions to development. As the tourism environment now faces numerous challenges and transformations, it is timely to reflect on contemporary understandings of the relationship between tourism and development and to consider future directions. This thought-provoking volume challenges the orthodoxy of tourism and development, highlights past and current events and considers longer term repercussions and developments. It will be a relevant and enduring resource for academics and undergraduate and postgraduate students in tourism.




Handbook Of Tourism Economics: Analysis, New Applications And Case Studies


Book Description

Handbook of Tourism Economics: Analysis, New Applications and Case Studies provides an up-to-date, concise and readable coverage of the most important topics in tourism economics. It pays attention to relevant traditional topics in tourism economics as well as exciting emerging topics in this field — topics which are expected to be of continuing importance. In doing this, it takes account of advances in economic thought, analysis and applied methods.Contributions provide applications of economic analysis to tourism policy and constructive assessment of contemporary thought about tourism economics. The handbook includes several in-depth case studies such as the contribution of tourism to economic development in selected countries including China, India, Japan and Australia, Portugal and Fiji. Coming from diverse countries (both industrialised and developing) and established in the field of tourism economics, travel and management, many of the contributors have been consultants to governments, private organisations, and international bodies, including the UN World Tourism Organisation, the OECD and UNEP. Experts contributing to this volume include the President of the International Association of Tourism Economics, as well as its Secretary-General, the Secretary-General of the Tourism Research Centre (Association of Tourism Research Institutes), the Founder-Fellow of the International Academy for the Study of Tourism and the former Director of the UK's Centre for Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment (CSERGE).




Roadside Giants


Book Description

From Lucy, the colossal elephant-shaped building on the Jersey Shore, to the grand donut atop Randy's in Los Angeles, this full-color guide profiles the commercial giants that loom over America's highways. Created to sell products and promote tourism in a big way, they can be found all over the United States. The authors have traveled far and wide to bring readers the world's largest duck in Long Island, an enormous Amish couple in Pennsylvania Dutch Country, and towering Paul Bunyans all over the Midwest. There are buildings shaped like hot dogs, ice cream cones, and baskets, as well as the roadside phenomena known as "Muffler Men," giants who originally advertised mufflers but now have been converted to cowboys, Indians, spacemen, and pirates. Big fun!




Destination Unknown


Book Description

Tourism: the good, the bad and the ugly. As one of the biggest industries in the world, tourism contributed ten percent of the world’s GDP before the pandemic brought it to an historic standstill. Hailed as a smokeless industry, it was seen as a tool for development by serving as an income and job creator. The industry was expanding in oftentimes uncontrolled forms, reaching over one billion international travelers before the virus halted all travel. This edited volume highlights the issues the industry faces, including impacts on the environment, culture, and residents. As the industry rebounds post-pandemic, this book gives space to imagine a more equitable and ethical industry. Bringing together expert authors from around the world, contributions highlight possible ways the industry can be developed more beneficially for people and planet. From nature-based tourism in Africa which protects natural resources by involving local communities and offering cultural interpretation; to vernacular design of tourism buildings and ecolodges that honors and celebrates the local; to considering ways in which cruise ship tourism can offer meaningful encounters instead of contributing to overtourism; to taking a hard look at volunteer tourism and the ways in which it inadvertently prioritizes profit and traveler needs over the needs of local communities, and how it can be developed more ethically; to examining tourism as a tool to increase interculturalism and intercultural understanding; and to the sensitive issue of ethnic tourism to discover one’s roots and identify and aid in community development. This book celebrates the ways in which tourism brings us together and can add to our personal and planetary well-being by consciously choosing the ways we travel and how we develop travel opportunities.




Tracking Giants


Book Description

"I learned, I laughed, I sighed, I swooned. What an absolutely delightful romp through the forest."—Kate Harris, author of Lands of Lost Borders "Intimate, open-hearted. . . A personal introduction to one of the most profoundly alive places on earth."—John Vaillant, author of The Golden Spruce A funny, deeply relatable book about one woman's quest to track some of the world's biggest trees. Amanda Lewis was an overachieving, burned-out book editor most familiar with trees as dead blocks of paper. A dedicated "indoorswoman," she could barely tell a birch from a beech. But that didn't stop her from pledging to visit all of the biggest trees in British Columbia, a Canadian province known for its rugged terrain and gigantic trees. The "Champion" trees on Lewis's ambitious list ranged from mighty Western red cedars to towering arbutus. They lived on remote islands and at the center of dense forests. The only problem? Well, there were many. . . Climate change and a pandemic aside, Lewis's lack of wilderness experience, the upsetting reality of old-growth logging, the ever-changing nature of trees, and the pressures of her one-year timeframe complicated her quest. Burned out again—and realizing that her "checklist" approach to life might be the problem—she reframed her search for trees to something humbler and more meaningful: getting to know forests in an interconnected way. Weaving in insights from writers and artists, Lewis uncovers what we’re really after when we pursue the big things—revealing that sometimes it's the smaller joys, the mindsets we have, and the companions we're with that make us feel more connected to the natural world.




The Giant Otter


Book Description

“The charisma of these huge, Amazonian ‘river people’ burns through even the most factual descriptions, emphasized by an abundance of photographs.” —BBC Wildlife The aptly named giant otter is exceptionally well adapted to life in rivers, lakes and wetlands in tropical South America. Known in Spanish as lobo del rio or ‘river wolf,’ it can be as long as a human is tall and is the most social of the world’s thirteen otter species. Each individual is identifiable from birth by its pale throat pattern, as unique as your fingerprint. Giant otters are top carnivores of the Amazon rainforest and have little to fear . . . except man. There are many reasons why scientists and tourists alike are fascinated by this charismatic species. Spend a day in the life of a close-knit giant otter family and you’ll realize why. Learn about their diet and hunting techniques, marking and denning behavior, and breeding and cub-rearing strategies, including shared care of the youngest members. Become familiar with the complex life histories of individual otters over their 15-year lifespans. And accompany a young disperser during the trials and tribulations of a year spent looking for a mate and a home of its own. “The descriptions of the otters, their habits and their homes along with tons of jaw dropping photographs, made me feel (almost) like I was there myself. Treat yourself to a book that will transport you to a place like nowhere else on earth, where you explore the wilds of the Amazon from your own garden.” —Cayocosta 72 “An intimate, educational and a dedicated love letter to the Giant Otter.” —Queen of Geekdom




Current Issues in Hospitality and Tourism


Book Description

Globally the hospitality and tourism industry is evolving and undergoing radical changes. The past practices are now advancing through the rapid development of knowledge and skills acquired to adapt and create innovations in various ways. Hence, it is imperative that we have an understanding of the present issues so that we are able to remedy problems on the horizon. Current Issues in Hospitality and Tourism: Research and Innovations is a complilation of research in the broad realm of hospitality and tourism. This book is divided into eight sections covering the following broad themes: – Training and education (hospitality students learning); – Organization and management (practical issues and current trends in the hotel, catering and tourism industry); – Product and food innovation; – Marketing; – Islamic hospitality and tourism issues; – Gastronomy; – Current trends; – Tourism The contributions, from different parts of the globe, present a new outlook for future research, including theoretical revelations and innovations, environmental and cultural exploration aspects, tourist destinations and other recreation and ecotourism aspects of the hospitality and tourism industry. Current Issues in Hospitality and Tourism: Research and Innovations will be useful as a reference for academics, industry practitioners and policy makers, and for those with research interests in the fields of hotels, tourism, catering and gastronomy.