As one of the fastest growing sectors of the economy since the 1950's, tourism has proved to be a complicated phenomenon, unlike any other economic producer. Over the last few decades, tourism has exerted increasing pressure on the land and negative social, environmental and economic impacts have surfaced as major issues. Positive guidelines for better planning are in demand by developers and designers who need new understandings of the breadth of tourism's complexity for their own success. Tourism Planning has long been considered the seminal work on tourism development. It provides a comprehensive, integrated overview of all aspects of tourism and the planning functions that accompany it, emphasizing concepts and principles for better planning. The revised and updated fourth edition contains enhanced discussions of the role of communities immediately surrounding the sites using newer tourism cases as examples. Issues that have increased in importance in recent years are also discussed in depth including transportation glut, resource erosion and sprawl and sustainable development.

Table of Contents

Part I: The Basics 1. The purpose of tourism planning 2. Tourism as a system 3. Growth, sustainability, ecotourism 4. Policy Part II: Concepts and examples of tourism planning 5. Regional planning concepts 6. Regional planning cases 7. Destination planning concepts 8. Destination planning cases 9. Site planning concepts 10. Site planning cases Epilogue