Tourism and Brexit

How do you square ‘Take back control’ with the freedom of holidays? Andrews answers this question and raises others in this innovative collection. The contributors explore an imaginative range of neglected and unexpected dimensions of Brexit: its spiritual dimensions, its connections with hospitality, the economies of British tourist destinations, as well as its effect on tourist images, and what exactly the role of the royal family is in all this.

* Jeremy MacClancy, Oxford Brookes University, UK *

Hazel Andrews has forged a path for post-Brexit tourism studies with this edited volume, including valuable lessons learned from the brink of liminality. These wide-ranging cases foreground freedoms and fragilities in the face of a future, unknown British heritage and identity landscape, all the while returning to key concepts of anthropology, borders, and travel.

* Pamila Gupta, WiSER, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa *

This book is a valuable contribution to the Brexit and tourism debate. Hazel Andrews has brought together an interesting and cosmopolitan group of academics to discuss the implications of tourism and Brexit for borders and identity. They come from a variety of disciplines and add greatly to British-specific views on what continues to be a hugely divisive rift within British society. The strength of the book rests in the varied perspectives offered by its contributors, who focus on much wider issues than is usual in discussions on Brexit. This is evident from the first chapter where Pimor discusses the spiritual dimension of Europe – rarely do such discussions consider Brexit from perspectives of those outside the UK. Where does tourism come into all of this? Does it contribute a new feature to European consciousness? Can it reflect a new British identity? Are 'traditional' royal events to be valued as tourist attractions, strengthening the UK's links with its new and former trading partners? Will UK tourists find their 'freedoms' restricted rather than realised? The answers are not clear (yet) but it is to Andrews' credit that the questions have been asked, and for the reader to consider how far they are relevant.

* David Harrison, Middlesex University, UK *

This book, the best published so far in the slowly growing anthropology of Brexit, is an excellent example of how you can marry academic and applied approaches in anthropology, in ways that will matter not only to scholars in other disciplines but to the many other people seeking to understand Brexit as a significant global event.

-- Thomas M. Wilson, Binghamton University, State University of New York, USA * Anthropology in Action, 28, no. 3 (Winter 2021) *

Tourism and Brexit is a timely contribution that provides a much-needed snapshot of the politically charged debate on Brexit [...] [it] is recommended for research students and academics in human, cultural, and political geography seeking a glimpse of the inextricable complexities of Brexit.

* Alberto Amore, Solent University, UK, Journal of Qualitative Research in Tourism, Vol. 3 No. 1 *

This book is as yet unique. It is not only a close-up consideration of one significant change of identity, role-changing, economy risking project, this collection assesses the re-setting of one country that will have effects widely across both Europe and countries across the world, in which tourism industries will have massive adjustments to make, both opportunities and risks [...] As such, tourism geographers will find the collection essential; as will those concerned with mobility studies; political and cultural geographies, and social policy studies to mention a few.

-- David Crouch, University of Derby, UK * Tourism Geographies, 20