Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 36, No. 1, pp. 157–158, 2009Printed in Great Britain

Publications in Review/Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 153–160 157

Tourism Policy and Planning:Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

By David Edgell, Maria DelMastro Allen, Ginger Smith, and JasonSwanson. Elsevier <http://www.elsevier.com> 2008, xvii + 422 pp(photographs, tables, figures, bibliography, index). € 42.95 Pbk. ISBNNo: 978-0-7506-8557-3

Tanja MihalicUniversity of Ljubljana, Slovenia

The senior author of this book, David Edgell, has experienced tourism frommany positions, having once been the US Under-Secretary of Commerce for Tour-ism, a contributor to the development of the UNWTO, a professor at East CarolinaUniversity, and president of Global Tourism Solutions, Inc. Most of the text isbased on previous work by Edgell who was also a mentor to the other authors,as noted in the book’s dedication. Further, the book’s content is based on co-oper-ation with several groups, associations, and other researchers.

Such a variety of experience and participation promises good reading on tour-ism policy, whereas the academic status of the authors and contributors raises theexpectation that the book will be useful for teaching tourism policy classes. As sta-ted in the Preface, there is ‘‘beside useful edited volumes . . . no major textbook toprovide us with the basics of tourism policy and planning’’ (p. xvi). The question iswhether this book fills the gap.

The authors write for several purposes. One is as a text for courses in tourismpolicy and planning, public policy and administration, business administration,and international affairs. At the same time, the authors hope the book will be help-ful to tourism officials and the general public. However, a challenge the authorsface is that there is no agreement on the body of knowledge that should be coveredin courses related to tourism policy, planning, development, economics, manage-ment, or marketing. Further, there is no agreement even on the definition of tour-ism policy or of appropriate policy tools.

The authors are familiar with the ‘‘standard’’ approach to tourism policy thatconnects tourism activities with long-term development through regulations, rules,guidelines, directives, strategies, and objectives. However, while they see this ap-proach as ‘‘highly useful in most circumstances’’ (p. 7), they broaden the defini-tion of tourism policy for the purposes of the book ‘‘to include marketing,planning, and sustainability’’ (p. 7). Unfortunately, this expanded perspectivelacks the potential to offer a straightforward framework for a coherent book struc-ture for academic purposes. It might be well received by those who would like topromote marketing or sustainability as an important part of their policy initiatives,or are more interested in planning or business issues, but the authors’ approachdoes not lend itself to a systematic, clear discussion of policy. Nonetheless, theirapproach is dynamic and flexible enough to cover different fields of tourism

knowledge and justifies the inclusion of a chapter on sustainability as well as themarketing content in the book.

The book is divided into ten chapters, each containing a case study. These casesillustrate how tourism policy analysts approach policy problems and the resultsthey have achieved. Chapters 1 through 3 provide an introduction and overview,a look at past policy issues in the USA, and a look to the future. Chapters 4 and5 provide insights into some issues of tourism economics such as tourism supplyand demand, employment, foreign exchange, and multiplier effects. Also coveredare non-economic functions of tourism such as its contributions to promotingpeace. The fifth chapter also looks at intergovernmental organisations and regio-nal industry associations.

Chapter 6 concerns managing sustainable tourism and is based on Edgell’s ear-lier book, Managing Sustainable Tourism: A Legacy for the Future (Edgell 2007). Chap-ter 7 focuses on education and training in tourism, while Chapter 8 looks atinfluences on tourism policy. Chapter 9 examines strategic tourism planningand offers a case study of Canadian tourism policy. The concluding chapter ad-dresses future policy issues and draws together numerous tourism-related discus-sions on diverse issues such as safety and security, the impact of the worldeconomy on tourism, e-commerce in tourism, trends relevant to tourism, and cli-mate change.

The book’s title raises expectations that the book will provide a new, complex,and comprehensive perspective on tourism policy and planning. Certainly thebook covers many tourism issues relevant to policy and planning, but it is strongerin providing empirical information than academic models or conceptualizations.Further, as noted, the content is largely based on previous work by the seniorauthors and on articles from business magazines, and governmental and industryreports rather than academic sources. The book does make for interesting readingand provides substantial information, although its potential as an academic text isreduced by its style and language. The structure and content of the book will ap-peal more to policy professionals and tourism leaders who are often more inter-ested in broader and more descriptive writing than in rigorous and criticalacademic reflections. The book also contains substantial repetition, with somelonger paragraphs appearing in different chapters. And, unfortunately, the casestudies have not been carefully edited.

In general, this book might not become a stand-alone resource for a compre-hensive course on tourism policy, but it could bring relevant illustrations basedon actual tourism issues to classrooms as well as provide instructors new casesand information on past tourism experiences and projects.

Tanja Mihalic: Faculty of Economics, Unversity of Ljubljana, Slovenia. E-mail<tanja.mihalic@ef.uni-lj.si>

REFERENCE

Edgell, D.2007 Managing Sustainable Tourism: A Legacy for the Future. Philadelphia, PA: The

Haworth Hospitality Press

Assigned 29 February 2008. Submitted 23 June 2008. Accepted 30 June 2008

doi:10.1016/j.annals.2008.06.011

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