The Tourism and Leisure Experience

A comprehensive exploration of the tourist experience, this book breaks new ground in conceptualising the topic. It proposes new and thoughtful research agendas and, through insightful case studies, reveals responses to the challenges of managing the tourist experience in a variety of contexts. An inspiring and essential read for those seeking a contemporary perspective on the subject.

* Richard Sharpley, Professor of Tourism & Development, University of Central Lancashire, UK *

This book both represents an advance on Ryan's 'The Tourist Experience' and a response to Pine Jr and Gilmore's 'The Experience Economy' by offering both conceptual and empirical arguments about the central role of visitor experiences in tourism. This is done within a framework of differing research paradigms and managerial implications, but also it raises questions about our understandings of what will constitute tourism in the 21st century. To my mind tourism increasingly needs to be understood within new measures of mobility, migrant workers (professional and non-professional) and urban planning that brings together IT, recreation, leisure and new work patterns as well as conventional interpretations of tourism together in a new hybridity. This collection of papers helps us toward better understanding a new habitus of tourism.

* Chris Ryan, University of Waikato, New Zealand *

This book is arguably by far the most comprehensive compilation of qualitative methods in tourism research.It is a thoroughly enjoyable book and is highly recommended.

-- Catheryn Khoo-Lattimore, School of Hospitality, Tourism, and Culinary Arts, Taylor University, Malaysia in Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 38, No. 3, pp. 1206–1208, 2011

The Tourism and Leisure Experience: Consumer and Managerial Perspectives makes an original contribution in the use of research philosophies which link existing literature with management and practical opportunities. The book will be useful for undergraduate students with an interest in research methodologies, postgraduate students and researchers in the range of methods and perspectives given consideration. The work extends understanding of research into experience encounters and provides a concise overview of developments in the field using a range of leisure and tourism examples.

-- Kay Dimmock, Southern Cross University, Australia in Annals of Leisure Research, 15:1 (2012), 110