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This paper questions the present state of the world's tourism industry and advocates the need for an approach where quality assumes greater importance than quantity.

This paper provides an analysis of the tourism industry's recent evolution while trying to identify reasons for its decline which amongst others, include security issues and economic crisis.

In developing a sustainable tourism industry especially in these economically challenging times, we must learn to appreciate what is precious in our own lives and in our respective communities. This in turn will help us maintain and further explore the uniqueness of our tourist destinations. The greatest threat to leisure and tourism (and to a lesser extent to business travel) is the fact that travel has lost a good deal of its romance and enchantment due to a global approach to its development. In the rush for efficiency and quantitative analysis the travel and tourism industry may have forgotten that each traveller has unique expectations.

Sustainable tourism is not only about how a tourist location adapts but also about what a city or destination accomplishes when re-discovering its inner essence and then promoting it.

The paper aims to use the Caribbean as a backdrop in understanding the importance of tourism safety, security and surety.

The paper examines several Caribbean nations and these forms of tourism security enhance the visitor experience.

Good tourism security not only enhances the value of the product but also can be a major motivator to increase tourism.

This paper provides an overview on the importance and major security challenges in tourism oriented economies.

This paper aims to look at the question of inclusivity and argue that the term reflects a majority culture “including” a minority culture – whether it desires to be included or not.

This paper provides a discussion on tourism as a multi-cultural industry.

This paper offers a new sociological framework.

This paper is of value in a time when minorities are questioning their role in society and provides insights into those who believe that they may be serving society when in fact the opposite might be the case.

This paper creates a new sociological framework

This introductory chapter synthesises an extensive and hot debate revolving around the role of precautionary doctrine in tourism fields. Although the industry faces serious risks and dangers, terrorism – just after 9/11 – situates as the most dangerous hazard and as a challenge for policymakers and practitioners. We have reviewed the pros and cons of the most important academic schools that focused on tourism security and risk perception theory. The urgency is given in creating a bridge between theory and practice in order to articulate the policies to the nature of each risk. Today risk perception theory lacks a robust methodological background that invariably led to a gridlock. Whether the demographic school advances in the multivariable correlation between class, ideology, income or education with risk perception, the sociological school lays the foundations towards a much deeper understanding of the impacts of risks in society. Rather, the radical turn – coming from a Marxist tradition – focuses on the limitations of risk perception theory. Finally, authors who form the psychological tradition, as stated in this chapter, highlight on the complexity of emotions and the inner world. All chapters in this book aim to provide fresh practical cases that reflect the socio-cultural background of the four continents.

This paper aims to discuss the complexity of predicting the future and of making tourism futuristic predictions. It argues that tourism cannot be separated from the world context in which it operates and explores the various impacts of tourism on people and planet both in a near and more distant future.

This paper revises several reports and research by world economic and tourism authorities as they provide arguments for the study of trends and the complexity of the evolution of the travel and tourism industry.

There is no certain way to know what the future will bring to the tourism industry or how it will interact with society and the physical environment. What the author does know is that from the beginning of time, events do not occur in isolation and that travel and tourism will impact everything that it touches. It is impossible to make exact predictions as to what tourism will be like in the near and distant future, what the author does know is that humans will want to travel, to explore and to learn, and this desire will interact not only with tourism but with the course of history.

By exploring the evolution of tourism in the context of science, the author cannot even be certain where tourism will occur, if only on the same planet, within the other planets of the solar system or in the vastness of space. Science fiction predicts the latter, but only the unfolding of history will teach of the accuracy of future predictions and how the future of travel will be.

The recent COVID-19 virus outbreak, as well as many other global risks, has put the tourism industry on the brink of collapse. Even if interesting advances have been seen the light of publicity based on risk perception, no less true seems to be that the current theory is not enough to understand and describe the impacts of new global risks that may destroy the industry in question of weeks. This introductory chapter gives a snapshot on the fragile conditions we are moving today and interrogates further the future of tourism.

Since it was adopted from psychology just after the turn of twentieth century, risk perception theory has multiplied and successfully evolved in the fields of tourism research. A dearth of studies has focused on risk perception over the recent decades. We have certainly identified three clear-cut traditions: demographical school, psychological school and critical perspective. With benefits and problems each theory has shed light trying to measure the impact of global risks in the tourism and hospitality industries.

This book keeps the originality to update what has been published in the earlier decades. We are incorporating new topics to the discussion as well as new epistemologies and methodologies. Gathering different high-quality products authored by well-renowned authors coming from different countries, it lays the foundations to a new understanding of risk perception and tourism safety-security debating the next steps and the real challenges posed on the industry in a not so long near future.