Roy and Jan have assembled a timely snapshot of our current understanding of ecotourism, both as a concept worthy of scientific inquiry and as an increasingly significant segment of global commerce and industry. A terrific piece of work! Sam Ham, University of Idaho, US In the 30 or so year since it became established in the tourism literature and in tourism practice, ecotourism has attracted as many proponents as opponents. This Handbook now brings together some of the leading scholars worldwide in this field, to explore the current position of this form of tourism. In doing so, it offers serious critiques, it explores meanings and paradoxes, it offers best practices and it looks to the future. It is the Handbook for one of tourisms fastest growing and controversial sectors. David Airey, University of Surrey, UK This is a most welcome and needed book. With a very strong editorial team and contributing authors, the Handbook covers all the key issues of ecotourism. It cuts through the confusion surrounding the much-misunderstood concept of ecotourism, clearly dealing with definitions, concepts and research issues. The Handbook is particularly welcome for its focus on the visitor experience, a strength of the editors, and for clearly linking the theory of ecotourism with practice in the field. Christopher Cooper, Oxford Brookes University, UK This Handbook brings together contributions from over forty international experts in the field of ecotourism. It provides a critical review and discussion of current issues and concepts it challenges readers to consider the boundaries of what ecotourism is, and could be. The Handbook provides practical information regarding the business of ecotourism; insights into ecotourist behaviour and visitor experiences; and reflections on the practice of ecotourism in a range of different contexts. The Handbook is designed to be a valuable reference book for tourism scholars and researchers.

This handbook presents a timely, broad-ranging, and provocative overview of the essential nature of ecotourism. The chapters will both advance the existing central themes of ecotourism and provide challenging and divergent observations that will thrust ecotourism into new areas of research, policy, and practice. The volume is arranged around four key themes: sustainability, ethics and identity, change, conflict, and consumption, and environment and learning, with a total of 28 chapters. The first section focuses on sustainability as a core ecotourism criterion, with a primary focus on some of the macro sustainability issues that have an impact on ecotourism. Foremost among these topics is the linkage to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, which have relevance to ecotourism as one of the greenest or most responsible forms of tourism. The chapters in the second section provide a range of different topics that pull ecotourism research into new directions, including a chapter on enriching indigenous ecotourism through culturally sensitive universalism. The third section includes chapters on topics ranging from persons with disabilities as a neglected body of research in ecotourism, to ecotourism as a form of luxury consumption. The final section emphasises the link between ecotourism and learning about the natural world, including a deeply theoretical chapter on rewilding Europe. With contributions from authors around the world, this handbook gives a global platform to local voices, in both developed and emerging country contexts. The multidisciplinary and international Routledge Handbook of Ecotourism will be of great interest to researchers, students, and practitioners working in tourism and sustainability.

The ‘outdoors’ is a physical and ideological space in which people engage with their environment, but it is also an important vehicle for learning and for leisure. The Routledge Handbook of Outdoor Studies is the first book to attempt to define and survey the multi-disciplinary set of approaches that constitute the broad field of outdoor studies, including outdoor recreation, outdoor education, adventure education, environmental studies, physical culture studies and leisure studies. It reflects upon the often haphazard development of outdoor studies as a discipline, critically assesses current knowledge in outdoor studies, and identifies further opportunities for future research in this area. With a broader sweep than any other book yet published on the topic, this handbook traces the philosophical and conceptual contours of the discipline, as well as exploring key contemporary topics and debates, and identifying important issues in education and professional practice. It examines the cultural, social and political contexts in which people experience the outdoors, including perspectives on outdoor studies from a wide range of countries, providing the perfect foundation for any student, researcher, educator or outdoors practitioner looking to deepen their professional knowledge of the outdoors and our engagement with the world around us.

The field of sustainability continues to evolve as a discipline. The world is facing multiple sustainability challenges such as climate change, water depletion, ecosystem loss, and environmental racism. The Handbook of Sustainability will provide a comprehensive reference for the field that examines in depth the major themes within what are known as the three E’s of sustainability: environment, equity, and economics. These three themes will serve as the main organizing body of the work. In addition, the work will include sections on history and sustainability, major figures in the development of sustainability as a discipline, and important organizations that contributed or that continue to contribute to sustainability as a field. The work is explicitly global in scope as it considers the very different issues associated with sustainability in the global north and south

This handbook explores and critically evaluates the debates and controversies inherent to tourism's relationship with nature, especially pertinent at a time of major re-evaluation of our relationship with the environment as a consequence of the environmental problems we now face.

Routledge Handbook of the Tourist Experience offers a comprehensive synthesis of contemporary research on the tourist experience. It draws together multidisciplinary perspectives from leading tourism scholars to explore emergent tourist behaviours and motivations. This handbook provides up-to-date, critical discussions of established and emergent themes and issues related to the tourist experience from a primarily socio-cultural perspective. It opens with a detailed introduction which lays down the framework used to examine the dynamic parameters of the tourist experience. Organised into five thematic sections, chapters seek to build and enhance knowledge and understanding of the significance and meaning of diverse elements of the tourist experience. Section 1 conceptualises and understands the tourist experience through an exploration of conventional themes such as tourism as authentic and spiritual experience, as well as emerging themes such as tourism as an embodied experience. Section 2 investigates the new, developing tourist demands and motivations, and a growing interest in the travel career. Section 3 considers the significance, motives, practices and experiences of different types of tourists and their roles such as the tourist as photographer. Section 4 discusses the relevance of ‘place’ to the tourist experience by exploring the relationship between tourism and place. The last section, Section 5, scrutinises the role of the tourist in creating their experiences through themes such as ‘transformations in the tourist role’ from passive receiver of experiences to co-creator of experiences, and ‘external mediators in creating tourist experiences'. This handbook is the first to fill a notable gap in the tourism literature and collate within a single volume critical insights into the diverse elements of the tourist experience today. It will be of key interest to academics and students across the fields of tourism, hospitality management, geography, marketing and consumer behaviour.