Tourism Economic Development: European Experiences

Citation

Karamustafa, K. (2000), "Tourism Economic Development: European Experiences", International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 12 No. 2, pp. 143-144. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijchm.2000.12.2.143.1

As a third edition, this book provides country‐specific case studies with an overview of theoretical issues regarding the role of tourism in the process of economic development of the selected European countries. It consists of 16 chapters, two of which are entirely new. One is a case study on Ireland and the other is on Central and Eastern Europe. The first two chapters have been written by the editors. In the first chapter, the editors provide a general introduction to the book. They look at characteristics of global tourism and critically examine the role of international tourism in economic development in national, local and regional settings. In Chapter 2, the focus is on the various aspects of international tourism in Western Europe such as demand and supply characteristics of international tourism and its economic impacts in mature Western Europe.

For the purpose of this review, a summary of each chapter is not considered useful. Instead, details of the titles and authors are regarded as more beneficial for providing prospective readers with a flavour of the varied nature of the chapters and details of the authors concerned – all of them are specialists in the tourism industries of the selected countries. Chapter 3 is entitled “Spain from the phenomenon of mass tourism to the search for a more diversified model”, by Manuel Valenzuela; Chapter 4, “Italy: diversified tourism”, by Russell King and Amando Montanari; Chapter 5, “Greece: hesitant policy and uneven tourism development in the 1990s”, by Lila Leontidou; Chapter 6, “Portugal: market segmentation and economic development”, by Jim Lewis and Allan M. Williams; Chapter 7, “Switzerland: structural change within stability”, by Andrew Gilg; Chapter 8, “Austria: contrasting tourism seasons and contrasting regions”, by Freidrich M. Zimmermann; Chapter 9, “The United Kingdom: market trends and policy responses”, by Gareth Shaw, Paul Thornton and Allan M. Williams; Chapter 10, “Republic of Ireland: an expanding tourism sector”, by Desmond G. Gillmor; Chapter 11, “France: tourism comes of age”, by John Tuppen; Chapter 12, “Germany: still a growing international deficit?”, by Peter Schnell; Chapter 13, “Tourism in The Netherlands: resource development, regional impacts and issues”, by David Pinder; Chapter 14, “Scandinavia: challenging nature”, by Tommy Anderson and Morten Huse; and Chapter 15, “Central and Eastern Europe: tourism, development and transformation”, by Derek R. Hall.

The last chapter, Chapter 16, “Tourism policies in a changing economic environment”, has been written by the editors. In this final chapter, they provide a broad conclusion to the whole book by focusing on policy issues. While it is recognised that edited books by their very nature present a diversity of perspectives, in this instance the chapters have the advantage of sharing a coherent theme and common focus on each country. This has provided an opportunity for the editors to draw together common themes into a concluding chapter which considers the implications for policy makers and planners. Such a chapter may help to extend the audience for the book beyond the academics and students to the planners and policy makers in other countries. As a final word, this book may be regarded as comparatively expensive, but the focused nature of each case study, and first two chapters and final chapter may warrant a number of academics and students to consider purchasing it themselves.