In the last fifty years the tourism industry has expanded rapidly. Technological advances enable tourists to reach distant countries ever more easily and cheaply, and this tourist migration has been an influential factor in globalization, as the world-at-large becomes more accessible. Through these changes the importance of tourism to a nation's economy has increased, in some cases becoming it's primary income. This collection of articles examines what social scientists mean by the term tourism, and what it means to be a tourist. The volumes chart the sociological changes that have occurred in tourism, and the change from the upper-class grand tours of the late nineteenth-century to the mass tourism of the present day. The collection also assesses the economic impacts of tourism on local economies, environmental considerations and whether this growth is sustainable in a post-September 11th world. Tourism: Critical Concepts in the Social Sciences is an accessible and comprehensive resource which is invaluable for academics and scholars researching in tourism, globalization and human geography.