In recent years tourism has expanded rapidly into a global phenomenon. It is now a major service industry of great economic importance having a significant impact on a wide range of issues such as the environment, leisure and transportation. The Encyclopedia of Tourism is a definitive reference source, comprising over a thousand entries, written by a truly international team of more than three hundred contributors. It provides a comprehensive guide to the wide range of basic definitions, concepts, perspectives and institutions embraced by tourism and consolidates research carried out in the field to date. The entries reflect the multidisciplinary nature of academic exploration within tourism; including articles from the areas of anthropology, economics, education, geography, history, management, marketing, political science, psychology among others. Coverage includes:

• General issues and concepts specific to tourism: accommodation, consumerism, gambling, globalization, policy, seasonality
• Definition of key terms and acronyms: ecoresort, professional native, room nights
• Significant institutions, associations and journals: Caribbean Tourism Organization, Centre des Hautes Etudes Touristiques, WTO, Journal of Leisure Research, Journal of Tourism Studies
• Country specific tourism profiles: Greece, Hungary, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Peru, Singapore, South Africa
• Trends and patterns of tourism development and growth: community development, demography, ecologically sustainable tourism, forecasting, zoning
• Tourism as an industry with many businesses: adventure tourism, business travel, convention bureaux, hospitality, marketing, public relations. Extensive cross-referencing helps readers to make links between diverse aspects of tourism studies. The suggestions for further reading, which follow most articles, are also invaluable in guiding the user to sources for additional research.