The Economics of Tourism

This new edition of The Economics of Tourism reflects the tremendous changes that have occurred in the tourism sector in the last twelve years. It recognizes that the nature of tourism demand and supply is being transformed by innovations in information communication technologies, market liberalization and climate change. Paralleling this, there is much greater interest in the study of tourism by both students and researchers in mainstream economics.

The text is now in four parts covering: demand; supply; national, regional and international matters and environmental issues. The concluding chapter appraises the state of the economic research into tourism. The increased interest in tourism has engendered the development of new methods of analysis and the refinement of established ones. Accordingly, the book has been extensively restructured, revised and expanded with two new chapters: chapter six of the first edition is now broken down into two and a new chapter has been added on environmental issues to take account of new developments, critically review the associated literature and consider future trends in tourism economics research. The reader-friendliness of the book has also been enhanced in various ways, such as the extensive chapter cross-referencing to refresh the reader’s memory and the inclusion of a detailed list of abbreviations.

The Economics of Tourism will continue to make accessible for the non-specialist, the application and relevance of economics to tourism. Extensively revised and updated, including research and case studies the textbook will be an indispensable resource for both students and researchers.

Mike J. Stabler is Senior Research Fellow at the University of Reading; his principal research has been on the environmental impacts of economic activity focusing on the tourism sector, published in journals and books. He was joint author of the original edition of this book.

Andreas Papatheodorou is Assistant Professor at the University of the Aegean, Greece, and Honorary Research Fellow at the Nottingham University Business School, UK. His tourism research focuses on competition, pricing and corporate strategy in air transport, cruising and travel distribution and has been published in international academic journals.

Prior to her death in 2006, Professor M. Thea Sinclair was Director of the Tourism and Travel Research Institute (TTRI) in the Business School of the University of Nottingham.