Description
Book SynopsisRethinking Tourism and Development provides a critical analysis of the tourism industry's impact on development and the environment. While tourism contributes significantly to the global economy, it also generates environmental costs that can no longer be ignored. This book challenges the conventional paradigm of sustainable tourism development and proposes a radical new approach to address the negative impacts of tourism.
Chapters cover the global environmental crisis, the overconsumption of tourism and the impact of a growth-based economy in relation to tourism and development. Through a detailed examination of the tourism industry's adherence to the pursuit of economic growth, Richard Sharpley and David J. Telfer argue that the expansion of tourism has resulted in exploitation and inequality. It explores the concept of degrowth and proposes that tourism should be rethought within this framework, offering a possible pathway to a post-growth world.
The book is ideal for undergraduate and postgraduate tourism students, particularly those focusing on sustainability and tourism economics. It will also be an interesting read for human geography, development studies and environment scholars and academics looking for new insights into the relationship between tourism and development, and how it could be reframed.
Trade Review‘Richard Sharpley and David Telfer have done it again! Building on their previous work, the theoretical potency and empirical strength of this book provides a deep foundation for rethinking development in all its forms. The excellent work herein is the most erudite and comprehensive treatise on tourism and development ever written.’ -- Dallen J. Timothy, Arizona State University, US
‘This excellent, thought-provoking book calls us to rethink the complex and often paradoxical relationships between tourism and development. Based on their extensive analysis, Sharpley and Telfer invite us to consider a path for tourism to a post-growth world. This is a timely and important book - essential reading for all those thinking about the future of tourism.’ -- Jarkko Saarinen, University of Oulu, Finland, and Uppsala University, Sweden
‘There has never been a more critical moment to rethink tourism and its relationship to development. Sharpley and Telfer’s book highlights key concerns, and most importantly, helps to steer us in the direction of a more equitable, inclusive, sustainable and just tourism system.’ -- Regina Scheyvens, Massey University, New Zealand
‘Rethinking Tourism and Development
provides a timely and thought-provoking contribution which contests current practices in large parts of the global tourism industry. By reviewing previous paradigms of development and today’s consumerism, as well as the global environmental crisis, they uncover a toxic mixture in which tourism plays an important part. Hence, they call for a radical rethinking of growth-oriented pathways in tourism development and suggest degrowth as a remedy. Though not all will embrace such a prescription, the book makes students and scholars of tourism aware that business-as-usual is not an option and indeed a rather perilous way to go. Thus, this is an imperative read for those interested in sustaining tourism and destinations.’ -- Dieter K. Müller, Umeå University, Sweden
Table of ContentsContents 1. Introduction: the need to rethink tourism and development 2. Transformations in tourism and development 3. Redefining development as the objective of tourism 4. Tourism and the global environmental crisis 5. Tourism supply in a growth-based economy 6. The (over)consumption of tourism 7. Rethinking tourism and development: towards equitable degrowth References Index
