Understanding Tourism: A Critical Introduction

At last! A refreshingly lucid text for students that substantially enriches the analysis of tourism and tourists. Hannam and Knox explore the recent theoretical insights that have helped tourist studies to escape from a self-imposed academic ghetto and have multiplied approaches to making sense of tourism. Clear, concise and stimulating
Tim Edensor
Manchester Metropolitan University

With this book Hannam and Knox have gone a long way towards elevating the study of tourism from the obscure margins of social science into a bona fide research area. They encourage us to think critically about the subject and successfully interweave dominant contemporary concepts to present tourism as a social, cultural, economic, and spatial phenomenon. Students will be sure to enjoy this innovative contribution which takes a 'user-friendly' approach and provides a useful pedagogic tool for those at all levels of study
Dimitri Ioannides
Professor of Human Geography; Mid-Sweden University and ETOUR

Understanding Tourism provides an in-depth and critical analysis of tourism studies that is conceptually rich, empirically strong and extremely accessible to scholars and students of tourism. It is a refreshing analysis of an extremely complex and multidimensional global phenomenon, and raises our understanding of tourism to new heights
Dallen Timothy
Professor of Tourism Development and Management, Arizona State University

A very interesting mobilities view of tourism with useful student-friendly text and exercises
John Urry
Distinguished Professor, Lancaster University

This is a useful and accessible introduction to critical approaches to tourism that will be a value for lecturers and students alike. The provision of many thought-provoking exercises will be of benefit for both teaching and learning
Greg Richards
Annals of Tourism Research