In addition to serving as a reference text for tourism researchers
of many disciplines, the reviewer argues that it explicitly helps establish a new field of research that transcends
disciplinary boundaries in a way may be more effective than in the past. It does this first by thoroughly
presenting the current state of tourism research from both the perspective of various disciplines (i.e., "the
anthropology of tourism," "development studies and tourism") as well as through thematic, interdisciplinary
perspectives. Second, more importantly than simply indexing the current state of affairs, the reviewer argues,
it actually constructs this new "discipline" or field by bringing top and emerging scholars engaged in tourism
research into meaningful engagement with each other under the marked title of "tourism studies" ‒ a
conscious effort, it seems, to processually create a more cohesive, interactive community of tourism scholars
who may build on the contributions of their colleagues from across disciplinary divides.