Critical takes on breaks

This textbook sets out to introduce the cultural geography of tourism to a readership as diverse as students of geography, sociology, management studies, tourism studies and leisure studies.
A clear, thematic structure is vital to any text taking an interdisciplinary approach and, while Tourism and Tourism Spaces is substantial, the arguments are clear.

The authors attempt to go beyond the usual aim of a textbook, setting out their own views on how understanding of and research in this area should develop. Specifically, they argue that research into tourism has been limited, primarily because it tends to neglect wider social relations and hence ends up taking issues such as the cultural impacts of tourism out of their “political economy” context. The authors seek to address this limitation. This critical attribute of the book, set out in the introduction, is also strengthened by a discursive approach throughout.

I recommend this book to anyone interested in the relationship between tourism as an industry and tourism as a human activity.

Jim Butcher is senior lecturer in geography and tourism, Canterbury Christ Church University College.