Peter M Burns

• AcSS, PhD, MEd., MA
• Managing Director at University of Bedfordshire

Tourism is a reputation-dependent industry; on the demand side, potential travellers without previous experience of a destination face certain risks when determining their travel options. An accurate perception of the destination’s reputation helps minimise risk of unsatisfactory travel experiences. On the supply side, a favourable tourist destinat...

The premise for this paper is that tourism scholars researching in Israel and Palestine are, in effect, actors in the geopolitical landscape of the Holy Land. Political tourism (characterized through a shared definition with Micheletti’s ((2003). Political Virtue and Shopping. New York: Palgrave Macmillan) political consumerism) is a significant fa...

Marketing has predominantly seen tourism as a panacea, benefitting host communities. As such, the discipline largely overlooks the negative impacts of tourism development in the context of power imbalances, which bring about dependency and exploitation. This paper explores the genealogy of tourism development, situating the analysis within the soci...

Climate change for the Republic of Macedonia will represent a real challenge, especially since the most vulnerable tourism sectors are going to be winter and lake tourism, given the fact that about 50% of all overnight stays are registered in the mountain and lake resorts. Therefore the aim of this paper is to analyse the potential risk for the tou...

Shani and Arad (2014) claimed that tourism scholars tend to endorse the most pessimistic assessments regarding climate change, and that anthropogenic climate change was a “fashionable” and “highly controversial scientific topic”. This brief rejoinder provides the balance that is missing from such climate change denial and skepticism studies on clim...

This final response to the two climate change denial papers by Shani and Arad further highlights the inaccuracies, misinformation and errors in their commentaries. The obfuscation of scientific research and the consensus on anthropogenic climate change may have significant long-term negative consequences for better understanding the implications of...

Shani and Arad (2014) claimed that tourism scholars tend to endorse the most pessimistic assessments regarding climate change, and that anthropogenic climate change was a “fashionable” and “highly controversial scientific topic”. This brief rejoinder provides the balance that is missing from such climate change denial and skepticism studies on clim...

This section has been specifically introduced to include findings of special significance and problem areas of subtle nuances in tourism research. Insightful contributions presenting the state-of-the-art preferably from the developing societies will be appreciated. It will also encourage scholars and authors to think against the grain, probing the...

This article conceptualises the potential for a relationship between asset-based community development (ABCD) and community-based tourism (CBT), with a view to improving CBT's patchy record in delivering community development. ABCD has previously been used in international development and community work, but is new to tourism for development. Hence...

Whilst there are many arguments and counterarguments surrounding aviation's contribution to climate change, the sector is increasingly scrutinised, especially in regard to tourism mobility questions. This paper identifies, examines and analyses the discourses that airlines choose to communicate via their websites regarding their role, responsibilit...

This paper outlines a brief analysis of the Bangladesh tourism policies as a case. A proper set of policies is required to develop any sector systematically. Tourism as an important part of economy of any country cannot be an exception. Bangladesh as a potential ground of both domestic and international tourism also necessitates proper and effectiv...

The film Cannibal Tours powerfully portrays the impact of tourism in the Sepik region of Papua New Guinea through an array of host-guest encounters. Using text from the film as data, the present paper reveals new insights through a close analysis of the English subtitles given as translation for the Italian and German tourists. The subtitles are ex...

British national parks differ from those in other countries: commercial and business activities as well as residents are a general characteristic. When a 1,625-km2 swathe of south-east England (with a population of 108,000) was, after a 60-year delay, finally declared a national park attitudes within the area differed. Unusually, one village, Ditch...

Cyberethnographic accounts of behavior are just emerging as a legitimate and useful way of exploring new forms of communication including the digital co-presence found in cyber communities. The chapter represents the first known account of such a research approach applied to issues of climate change in online travel communities as manifested throug...

Taking tourism as a metaphor for the complex and unequal relationship between the Majority World and the more affluent tourist-generating countries, this paper reports research into ways in which educational tourism can facilitate mutually beneficial exchanges between 'hosts and guests'. The empirical work is based on data collected as part of an i...

Purpose Drawing on social anthropology this paper aims to focus on the role of culture in identity formation through an examination of the results of research into the culture of the chef – culture manifest in what has been referred to as the “culinary underbelly”. Design/methodology/approach In‐depth interviews were conducted with head chefs of M...

Small islands have been identified by a number of sources as being particularly vulnerable to climate change—an ironic outcome given that their contribution to historic and present global warming is negligible. Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs), which are intended to be at the centre of some actions on low carbon development pathway...

This paper investigates ways in which political obstacles inhibit the formulation and implementation of sustainable tourism development in small-island developing states through the example of North Cyprus. The methodology draws on in-depth interviews and participant observation of significant actors in the tourism sector. The research findings sug...

Tourism master planning for small island developing states (SIDS) has been framed and dominated by donor aid agencies and their executive institutions including the World Bank, various United Nations agencies, and regional development banks as well as the European Union. The paper argues that for the South Pacific, this framing has been a western c...

Starting with the assumption that socio-cultural aspects of tourism demand will need to change in response to global warming, this paper identifies business and consumer contradictions that highlight the complexities of dealing with climate change in an industry characterised by fragmented, global supply chains. The paper's approach is to problemat...

A collection of essays from specialist scholars evaluating tourism as a means of simulating economic growth and fighting economic inequalities in poor countries: As a tool for poverty reduction in economically underdeveloped regions, tourism has been at the forefront of the international development agenda. This book takes an in-depth look at the s...

In the current trend of increasing globalization, relationships are evolving between global and local realities, rich and poor regions of the world and 'old' and 'new' leisure and tourism patterns. The tourist has become an active agent in their travel experiences, moving between and among multiple localities, in an environment of transnational, in...

This paper provides an overview of some of the discourses to be found in the literature on tourism, politics and post-colonialism. It starts by setting a brief definitional context for development, then tourism, which is followed by visiting the vexed question of whether tourism is inevitably a cultural pollutant as well as a potential engine of gr...

This book aims to communicate a series of ideas grounded in present discussions on how 'mobility studies' can help enrich and enlighten the understanding of tourism in the context of the current trend of increasing globalization. Bringing together theoretical and practical issues, this edited volume analyses tourism's wider role as an agent for the...

The making and consuming of tourism takes place within a complex social milieu, with competing actors drawing into the 'product' peoples' history, culture and lifestyles. Culture and people thus become part of the tourism product. The implications are not fully understood, though the literature ranges the arguments along a continuum with culture be...

Ecotourism ‘suffers’ from multiple definitions and meanings which are all social constructs of one form or another, reflecting the views of individuals and organizations making them. This causes confusion at the policy level, which is reflected in the somewhat muddled state of ecotourism in the South Pacific region. This paper attempts to bring tog...

This paper explores tourism as a tool for rural regeneration and poverty reduction by examining the work of Non-Governmental and Community-Based Organisations (NGOs/ CBOs) in South Africa. A case study of Luphisi village on the edge of Kruger National Park provides a close insight into the operation and benefits of NGO/CBO sponsored charitable work...

This book (i) moves beyond the business/social phenomenon divide of tourism research; (ii) provides a discussion of theory but integrates this theory with specific tourism examples and case studies to assist student learning and application of approaches and techniques; (iii) outlines alternative research approaches and techniques that may be adopt...

Within the tourism industry there is a growing consensus on the need for research to investigate the economic, social and environmental impacts of tourism. However, existing research methods texts are based solely on either the business approach or the social science approach to tourism. They often fail to provide real world examples of how to plan...

As mechanical reproductions, postcards fall into the category of what Walter Benjamin thought of as life’s ephemera or detritus that play an important part in constructing and reconstructing our understanding of the past. Postcards from the colonial era can be analysed to provide a visual discourse on power and the interrelationship between history...

The 1991-2001 Solomon island Tourist Development Plan was prepared by the Tourism Council of the South Pacific (TCSP), an inter-governmental organization responsible for developing and promoting tourism in the South Pacific region and funded by the Economic Union. In many ways it is a model of the master planning approach used by governments, aid a...

The left/right divide in late 20th and early 21st century politics acts as a metaphor for the debates surrounding aid-funded tourism masterplanning where the traditional right, framed by the values of neoliberalism, sees market forces as providing the only alternative. On the other hand, modern world problems have emerged that go far beyond the ass...

The rapid and unplanned speed of development that took place on the Mediterranean Coast of Spain, after WWII led to some well documented negative impacts. In the closing decade of the 20th century, however, the Spanish Government took steps to rationalise development by adopting a more sustainable and planned approach. This includes the twin-track...

While the rhetorics of environment, sustainability and ethics are prominent in academic discussions on tourism planning, they remained somewhat remote in the case of Eritrea. The debate about how the poorest countries should proceed with tourism remains polarized and confused. To help analyze this, a continuum is proposed upon which various types o...

As Russia transforms itself from the largest partner in the command economy that was the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics to the largest member of the post Cold-War Commonwealth of Independent States, political, social and economic structures and institutions are undergoing rapid and fundamental change. Included in this is tourism, its role and...

This section has been specifically created to include findings of special significance and problem areas of subtle nuances in tourism research. Insightful contributions presenting the state-of-the-art preferably from the developing societies will be appreciated. Critical resume on tourism projects and field researches will be considered. For detail...

Romania is keen to develop its tourism industry (which has a solid history stretching back to before the second world war) as one part of its economic and social restructuring programme. However, there are major technical and cultural problems that block the path to progress. One of these problems is the shortage of adequately trained and educated...

Tourism in the Middle East is experiencing expansion due to the Middle East peace process and the economic advantages of tourism. However, in the region there are also significant political and cultural constraints to the development of tourism. Yemen has historically been divided into North and South Yemen until the reunification in 1990. Tourism...

Hospitality gains profitable value-added from the highly developed social skills of its so-called ‘unskilled’ labour force. Applying terms such as ‘skilled’ and ‘unskilled’ to a post-industrial workforce, especially in services, is not only anachronistic but, in the case of front-line hospitality workers, creates something of a myth that serves to...

The chapter, based on the author's field work in Sri Lanka, Fiji, the Cook Islands and Oman, comprises three sections: The problems of tourism's employment, which briefly examies general patterns and characteristics with a focus on socio-cultural implications of working within meta tourism (which shares several characteristics with colonialism and...

This paper is based on the assumption that there are many things that can be determined from the history of tourism as a general social and economic phenomenon. There is clearly something to be gained from understanding something of the history of outbound tourism from the world's most economically advanced country: Japan. This may be to do with a...

This paper addresses some of the problems that arise out of the special characteristics history and circumstances have given to employment in the tourism sector. Impetus for the paper was provided by field work conducted in Sri Lanka and the Cook Islands as part of a Tourism Master Planning Consultancy, and my own experiences as a working chef duri...