"The authors begin by offering a concise account of the changing nature of tourism and its impacts, and then proceed to explain aspects of planning and marketing that are designed to get the best out of tourism without destroying the destination. Key elements of the book include: organization and development objectives; aspects of supply and demand; marketing; customer care; and monitoring and evaluation." "Individual planners, marketers and decision-makers in both the public and private sectors will find the book straight-forward, addressing key issues in tourism destination development. It is also a valuable text for students of tourism planning and marketing."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Tourism, one of the world’s leading industries, has propelled countries into recovery from economic recession. As a multi-disciplinary, multi-sectoral, holistic, and systemic industry, tourism also uniquely placed to address the concerns of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). While the relationships between tourism, sustainability, and sustainable development are the subjects of deep study, the direct positive effects of tourism on SDGs remain underdiscussed. The Handbook of Research on the Role of Tourism in Achieving Sustainable Development Goals is a collection of innovative research that explores sustainable practices within the tourism industry. While highlighting a broad range of topics including economic growth, education, and production patterns, this book is ideally designed for engineers, entrepreneurs, policymakers, executives, advocates, researchers, academicians, and students.

Offering how-to tools and step-by-step guidance, this practical Handbook combines academic insight with extensive professional experience to outline best practice in undertaking environmental, socio-cultural and economic assessments that establish the feasibility of new tourism ventures and ascertains their impact over time.

This book provides a comprehensive and readable overview of the critical debates and controversies around tourism in Africa, and the major factors that are affecting tourism development now and in the future. Drawing upon research emerging from collaborations between a growing number of African academics and practitioners based in the continent and in the African diaspora as well as international colleagues, the Handbook offers key critical insights into the issues, challenges and trends that Africa and African tourism is facing. Part I covers continent-wide issues such as climate change, ICT, heritage and development. The remaining parts are organised along geographic lines, with each chapter covering the development of tourism, current trends and discussion of critical issues such as community participation, gender, backpacking, urban tourism, wildlife tourism and conservation. Combining an overview of key theories, concepts, contemporary issues and debates, this book will be a valuable resource for students, academics and practitioners investigating the role of tourism in Africa.

This thought-provoking Handbook considers the impact and challenges that social tourism has on people’s lives, integrating case studies from around the world. Showcasing the latest research on the topic and its role in tackling the challenges of tourism development, chapters explore the opportunities presented by social tourism and illustrate the social imperative of tourism as a force for good.

For tourism professionals and urban and regional planners, this highly readable text introduces tourism development as a process with its own organizational structures and its own responses to the economic cycle of supply and demand. Here, the author keeps pace with the changing trends in tourism, its link with economic theory, and academic research as well as accessibility to travelers with across-the-board economic backgrounds.

The tourism industry is an industry of people and is directly dependent on the performance of activities, skills, professionalism, quality, and competitiveness. Approaching the perspective of people management stresses the need to humanize companies, making empowerment and commitment easier. These are key to setting “talents” and, more importantly, to encouraging these individuals to put their creative capacities to the service of the companies for which they work. Only by being collaborative internally does business gain competitive capacity in the global marketplace. This aspect is crucial in tourism in the face of strong and growing competition in the sector. Human Capital and People Management in the Tourism Industry is a crucial reference source that reveals groundbreaking human resource policies for tourism destinations, revolutionary human capital managerial business approaches in tourism, innovative tourism training perspectives, and new tourism qualification prospects. Featuring research on topics such as intellectual capital, human resource management, and financial performance, this book is ideally designed for business managers, entrepreneurs, human resource officers, industry professionals, academicians, students, and researchers.

The Routledge Handbook of Tourism Research is a compendium of some of the most relevant issues affecting tourism development today. The topics addressed in this book provide some new thinking for those involved in tourism research. This book takes the reader from the beginnings of tourism research to a discussion of emerging forms of tourism and selected examples of tourism development. The underlying theoretical dimensions are reviewed, analysed and discussed from a number of perspectives. This book brings together leading researchers, many of whom are members of the International Academy for the Study of Tourism, to discuss tourism today and its future. The works included in this volume are diverse, in terms of geographical context, research methodology, root discipline, and perspective. This book represents studies based in Europe, North America, Oceania, and Asia. Research methodologies include both quantitative and qualitative. Both macro and micro issues are discussed from the economic, psychological, sociological, political science, marketing, and other perspectives, which reflect the interdisciplinary nature of tourism studies. This book is divided into 6 sections. Section 1 considers the foundations for tourism research. Section 2 discusses the implications for destination management and section 3 discusses planning for tourism development. Section 4 covers human capital for tourism development. And finally, section 5 evaluates emerging forms of tourism and then section 6 offers insights into tourism evolution. It offers the reader a comprehensive synthesis of this field, conveying the latest thinking and research. The text will provide an invaluable resource for all those with an interest in tourism research. This is essential reading for students, researchers & academics of Tourism as well as those of related studies in particular Leisure, Hospitality & Development Studies.

Explaining how to develop a patient-centered medical tourism program, the Handbook of Medical Tourism Development is the ideal guide for any hospital, clinic, hotel, spa, or ancillary facility wishing to become a medical tourism provider. From high-cost surgery, transplants, diagnostics, and preventive wellness checkups, to medical and wellness spa retreats, patient follow up, and outcomes measurement, this book covers the gamut of related issues. Details the elements necessary for a successful system Addresses contracting issues likely to arise Includes access to additional resources on the book’s website Maria K. Todd prepares readers to build the medical tourism service line, integrate physicians and other service providers, develop a safe and effective quality and patient-centered infrastructure, document processes and workflows, determine pricing, evaluate reimbursement contracts, and measure outcomes. She offers useful nuts-and-bolts guidance on confidentiality, documentation, quality and safety, hospital accreditation schemes, revenue implications, and contracting. Sharing time-tested insights, the book will help readers avoid common pitfalls when working with U.S. and international health insurance companies, case managers, professional facilitators, and multinational employers. Read a recent a href="http://www.prlog.org/11757451-medical-tourism-expert-breaks-down-step-by-step-medical-tourism-program-development-for-providers.html " press release about the Handbook of Medical Tourism Program Development: http://www.prlog.org/11757451-medical-tourism-expert-breaks-down-step-by-step-medical-tourism-program-development-for-providers.html

The Routledge Handbook of Cultural Tourism explores and critically evaluates the debates and controversies in this field of Tourism. It brings together leading specialists from a range of disciplinary backgrounds and geographical regions, to provide state-of-the-art theoretical reflection and empirical research on this significant stream of tourism and its future direction. The book is divided into 7 inter-related sections. Section 1 looks at the historical, philosophical and theoretical framework for cultural tourism. This section debates tourist autonomy role play, authenticity, imaginaries, cross-cultural issues and inter-disciplinarity Section 2 analyses the role that politics takes in cultural tourism. This section also looks at ways in which cultural tourism is used as a policy instrument for economic development. Section 3 focuses on social patterns and trends, such as the mobilities paradigm, performativity, reflexivity and traditional hospitality, as well as considering sensitive social issues such as dark tourism. Section 4 analyses community and development, exploring adaptive forms of cultural tourism, as well as more sustainble models for indigenous tourism development. Section 5 discusses Landscapes and Destinations, including the transformation of space into place, issues of authenticity in landscape, the transformation of urban and rural landscapes into tourism products and conservation versus development dilemmas. Section 6 refers to Regeneration and Planning, especially the creative turn in cultural tourism, which can be used to avoid problems of serial reproduction, standardisation and homogenisation. Section 7 deals with The Tourist and Visitor Experience, emphasising the desire of tourists to be more actively and interactively engaged in cultural tourism. 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 Cultural Tourism. This is essential reading for students, researchers and academics of Tourism as well as those of related studies in particular Cultural Studies, Leisure, Geography, Sociology, Politics and Economics.