Editorial Team
España
Pablo A. Muñoz-Gallego, University of Salamanca, España
Francisco Riquel-Ligero, University of Huelva, España
Josep Francesc Valls-Giménez, ESADE, España
Editor in Chief
Alfonso Vargas-Sánchez, University of Huelva, Spain
Associate Editor
T.C. Huan, National Chiayi University, Taiwan
Books Review Editor
Steve Watson, York St. John University, United Kingdom
Secretariat
Cinta Borrero-Domínguez, University of Huelva, Spain
Mirko Perano, University of Salerno, Italy
Style reviewer and text editor
Beatriz Rodríguez-Arrizabalaga, University of Huelva, Spain
Editorial Board
José Manuel Alcaraz, Barna Business School, República
Dominicana
Mario Castellanos-Verdugo, University of Seville, España
José Antonio Fraiz-Brea, University of Vigo, España
José Manuel Hernández-Mogollón, University of
Extremadura, España
Shaul Krakover, Ben Gurion University, Israel
Jean Pierre Levy-Mangin, University of Quebec, Canadá
Tomás López-Guzmán, University of Córdoba, España
Alfonso Morvillo, National Research Council (CNR), Italia
Yasuo Ohe, Chiba University, Japón
María de los Ángeles Plaza-Mejía, University of Huelva,
España
Nuria Porras-Bueno, University of Huelva, España
João Albino Silva, Algarve University, Portugal
Advisory Board (Spanish Members)
César Camisón-Zornoza, Jaume I University, Spain
Enrique Claver-Cortés, University of Alicante, Spain
María Teresa Fernández-Alles, University of Cádiz, Spain
José Luis Galán-González, University of Seville, Spain
Félix Grande-Torraleja, University of Jaén, España
Inmaculada Martín-Rojo, University of Málaga, Spain
Antonio Manuel Martínez-López, University of Huelva,
España
Francisco José Martínez-López, University of Huelva,
Rector, España
María Jesús Moreno-Domínguez, University of Huelva,
Advisory Board (Other European
Members)
Paulo Aguas, Algarve University, Portugal
Gustavo Barresi, University of Messina, Italy
Carlos Costa, Aveiro University, Portugal
Salvatore Esposito de Falco, University of Rome “La
Sapienza", Italy
Sheila Flanagan, Dublín Institute of Technology, Ireland
Tania Gorcheva, Tsenov Academy of Economics, Bulgaria
Tadeja Jere-Lazanski, University of Primorska, Slovenia
Metin Kozak, Mugla University, Turkey
Álvaro Matias, Lusiada University, Portugal
Claudio Nigro, University of Foggia, Italy
Angelo Presenza, University "G. D'Annunzio" of ChietiPescara, Italy
Renee Reid, Glasgow Caledonian University, United
Kingdom
Advisory Board (Members from the rest
of the world)
John Allee, American University of Sharjah, United Arab
Emirates
Nestor Pedro Braidot, National University of La Plata,
Argentina
Roberto Elias Canese, Columbia University, Rector,
Paraguay
Luca Casali, Queensland University of Technology, Australia
Nimit Chowdhary, Indian Institute of Tourism and Travel
Management, India
Steven Chung-chi Wu, National Pingtung University of
Science and Technology, Taiwán
Dianne Dredge, Southern Cross University, Australia
Daniel Fesenmaier, Temple University, United States
Babu George, University of Southern Mississippi, United
States
Dogan Gursoy, Washington State University, United States
Kanes Rajah, Tshwane University of Technology, South
Africa
Albert Yeh Shangpao, I-SHOU University, Taiwán
Pauline Sheldon, University of Hawaii, United States
Germán A. Sierra-Anaya, University of Cartagena de Indias,
Rector, Colombia
Xiaohua Yang, University of San Francisco, United States
S. Watson
BOOK REVIEW:
Handbook of Tourism Economics, edited by Clement Tisdell,
World Scientific, May 2013
ISBN: 978-981-4327-07-7 (hardcover)
Available as e-book: ISBN: 978-981-4513-80-7.
Steve Watson
York St. John University (UK)
s.watson@yorksj.ac.uk
Recently published and long in preparation, this expansive and yet detailed
volume is one of the most useful of its kind in recent years. The title, however, is
slightly misleading as it provides a lot more than it suggests. This is not just book that
concerns itself with the micro- and macro-economics of the tourism industry,
although there are plenty of equations to entertain and inform those with an interest
in hardcore economics. On the contrary, this is a very wide ranging collection of
papers with contributions from some of the world’s leading authors and researchers
in the field. As such it grapples with issues that go far beyond the economic basics
and engages successfully with issues in marketing, strategic management and some
of the key challenges facing the sector. Of course this is exactly what is required at a
time of instability and considerable change in the global economy and the insights
provided by the book’s contributors are entirely consonant with a need to accept and
respond to the concerns and uncertainties that are affecting the industry.
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The book begins, appropriately, with Clement Tisdell’s excellent overview of the
collection as a whole, and his entirely justifiable claim that it covers a lot of ground.
The context for this preliminary discussion is the growing global significance of
tourism as an industry and its undoubted role as a driver for economic development
and growth. This of course, is thrown into sharp relief by the world economic crisis,
but there are other issues, not least that tourism continues to grow in terms of supply
and demand and that it is also the subject of shifts and movements in flows of global
capital. For example, the new tourism generating regions in Asia and particularly
China are of great interest, as is the fact that as well as generating new global
tourists these areas are also attracting them in significant numbers.
Another significant context for this collection is the operational reality of tourism as
a composite commodity involving a range of different sectors from transport to
hospitality and attractions, and a corresponding concern with investment on the one
hand and services management and marketing on the other. These complexities are
not lost on the editor who organises the content with consummate logic and fluidity,
and with due concern for the overlaps and resonances that inevitably emerge in
such collections. This is a considerable editorial achievement given the size and
scope of this book.
The overview is followed by two sections that cover, respectively, tourism demand
and supply. The section on demand begins with two chapters by Sarath Divisekera
that very effectively set the scene in terms of theoretical orientation, methods, models
and empirical orientations. These are followed by Sara Dolnicar’s excellent and very
helpful step-by-step guide to market segmentation and after that, detailed case
studies of Singapore and India exploring in turn, the neighbourhood effects of tourism
and the effects of the risk of violence on demand and costs. This balance between
theory and case studies is extremely well executed by the editor.
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The following section on supply issues deals effectively with internationalisation
and sectoral and structural issues including the hotel industry in China, air transport
and the changing dynamics of intermediaries. The third section deals with specific
market segments including an excellent opening chapter by Stephen Wanhill on the
development of tourist attractions and another on amusement parks. This section
also contains chapters on educational tourism, the ever-important cruise industry and
ever-popular beach, sun and surf tourism.
Section 5 provides the public economics context for tourism with chapters on costbenefit analysis, the economic context of policy development and a particularly
insightful chapter on beaches as societal assets. Section 6 will be of interest to
practitioners and policy-makers as well as academics with its focus on the industrial
context of tourism, its impacts and economic effects. Chapters on tourism satellite
accounts and the direct and indirect economic impacts of tourism will be of particular
to those of us who are concerned to demonstrate the primacy of tourism in
contributing to local, regional and national GDP, especially where policy makers
might not fully apprised of its significance as a sector.
The following two sections pursue issues around economic growth and the
contribution of tourism to it, although I was a little surprised that the content of what is
Section 7 with its detailed case studies of economic development issues around the
world does not immediately follow section 5. Such editorial judgments are always
difficult, however, and Section 6 looking at the international dynamics of tourism
development does it least provide a useful basis for the case studies presented in
Section 7.
I was very pleased to see the significance accorded to environmental and
conservation matters in the book. This is entirely justified when the effects of tourism
can potentially be so damaging and indeed have been in many instances. This very
substantial section provides both balance and a worthwhile call to action when set
against the more industry focussed sections that precede it. At a time when ethical
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considerations are affecting many industries it is good to ask of tourism ‘what good
does it do?’ and how its worst effects might be mitigated in the greater balance of
costs and benefits that it represents as a whole. Sustainability, eco-tourism and
community management are all given due consideration in this excellent section.
This is a large book at nearly a thousand pages and it is impossible to do it justice
in a short review, but it is an essential and compelling contribution to the field and a
must for university libraries, central and local government departments, NGOs and
others involved in tourism. Its international approach, with contributions from leading
experts around the globe, is also a major source of its value, as is its broad
perspective and therefore, its equally broad appeal. Despite its size it is accessible,
not least because of the skills of its editor in organising the content and creating such
coherence from so varied a collection, but also because of its use of abstracts, key
words and further reading. In a word: recommended.
P.S.: If you would like to review a new or recent book, or you have a suggestion
for a book to be reviewed in the journal, please contact Steve Watson, Book
Reviews Editor, at s.watson@yorksj.ac.uk
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