Tourism And Travel

Tourism represents the greatest mass migration in human history, and it is one of the most significant social, economic, and cultural phenomena of our times. Wars, military coups, political unrest, terrorist attacks, natural disasters, disease epidemics, and recessions all prove to be temporary set-backs as tourism continues to grow and extend its outreach to all parts of the globe and beyond, as civilian space travel enters its pioneering phase. And tourists keep on traveling, shrugging off criticisms leveled at them by serious travel writers and other anti-tourists, disregarding Hollywood’s ridicule and the postmodernist claim that tourism has become “ordinary” and offers little in the way of novel experiences. Despite its importance and resilience, tourism is still considered to be a somewhat suspect, not-quite-proper subject for academic research in many universities. Those who pursue research interests in this area often find traditional university departments to be uncongenial settings, and they drift off to form special tourism units, or join schools of hospital-ity and travel, or departments of recreation and outdoor leisure. Their numbers are increasing, as are the number