Landscape, Tourism, and Meaning

摘要

The disciplines of Geography and Tourism, while often covering similar territories, seldom coalesce in academic literature; this book is one instance when they do, and mostly, successfully too. Although for me, the opening line of chapter 1 (p. 1) suggested some major misgivings and triggered an array of alarms. The claim reads 'The purpose of this book is to re-theorize tourism'. This grandiose and sweeping opening statement is not indicative of the various narratives that the authors relate and the book does mine the interdisciplinarity between tourism and geography. This mining produces some interesting ideas and theories, which while not necessarily new, are nonetheless thought-provoking and refreshing. As the preface states, Landscape, Tourism, and Meaning is the product of papers presented at the 2004 AAG and the authors all have some affiliation with Indiana University.