Tourism and Foreign Direct Investment: Issues, Challenges and Prospects

This is the first volume to examine and shed significant light on the issues, challenges and prospects presented by foreign direct investment (FDI) in tourism – a topic of increasing relevance in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and economic consequences.

This book addresses the need to examine the TFDI phenomenon considering resilient tourism development approaches and includes discussion on impacts of a rapidly evolving global pandemic on tourism. Recognising that its impact on tourism has only just begun, the book includes early estimates of the damage to the tourism economy and TFDI over 2020 and beyond. It considers how the COVID-19 pandemic may change society, the economy, and tourism, and how some of the key research needs to understand these changes and contribute to a more sustainable post-pandemic tourism sector. Through a collection of chapters focusing on principles, practices and a diverse range of destination case studies, the book considers TFDI from the economic, social and environmental and regulatory perspectives. Thus, the book will advance understanding of the positive and negative impacts of TFDI as well as how emerging problems and wider implications for local economies and communities can be managed more sustainably, while also discussing the transformative opportunities offered by TFDI regarding key economic, social and environmental issues.

This will be essential reading for upper-level students and researchers in the field of tourism development.

H. Cristina Jönsson is a Lecturer at The University of the West Indies, Barbados. She holds a PhD in Tourism awarded by the Sheffield Business School at Sheffield Hallam University, UK. Before joining The University of the West Indies, Cristina was a municipal tourism manager in Sweden. She has extensive knowledge and experience from planning, development and management in the international tourism sector and has worked with both private and public sector organisations in various countries. Cristina’s wide cultural familiarity along with mastering seven languages has been a great asset in all projects, research and collaborations, as well as translation and interpretation work. Her current research interests include foreign direct investment (FDI) in tourism, small island tourism, sport tourism, post pandemic migration and tourism mobilities.