An Introduction to the Geography of Tourism

Reviews / Votes

Velvet Nelson's text fills a critical need for those of us who teach tourism and want to impart the nature and power of a geographic perspective to undergraduate students. It will have a valued place in my library and classroom. For an introduction, it covers an amazingly broad tourist landscape geographically and topically-including important discussions of climate change mitigation, female travelers, pro-poor tourism, place representation, landscape aesthetics, and food and wine as cultural resources. Nelson writes with great clarity and organization, effectively balancing the treatment of concepts and terminology with a discussion of empirical case studies and tourist experiences. Her book will play an important role in educating the next generation of tourists and tourism geographers. -- Derek H. Alderman, University of Tennessee, USA We've been overdue for a fresh new geographer's perspective on the rapidly changing tourism industry. Velvet Nelson provides an excellent introduction for geographers interested in applying the breadth of their discipline to the exciting study of tourism. Her book will also help other tourism researchers understand the contributions of geography to this cross-disciplinary study. Nelson strikes a balance between lively and academically sound, with a scope of case-study examples that range across the United States and around the world. Drawing from geography's rich and varied traditions, her book explores economic, social, environmental, and other factors that are affected by, and in turn shape, tourism developments. -- Mark M. Miller, University of Southern Mississippi [T]his book is not an attempt to be an exhaustive guide to tourism geographies, but rather a guide on using geographic concepts and methods to interrogate a fascinating subject. . . .Those of us who prefer to think of tourism geographies as a way to teach geography by using tourism as a subject matter will most likely find Velvet Nelson's text a natural fit. * Geographical Bulletin *