Introduction
The travel and tourism industry is set to break all-time records in 2025, contributing $11.7 trillion to the global economy and supporting 371 million jobs worldwide (WTTC, 2025). Working in tandem with globalization and the ongoing rise in leisure travel, the industry provides a strong career choice, especially for those with ample energy, flexible mindsets, and strong people skills. This book has been designed for readers interested in learning more about tourism and hospitality, its history, the way various sectors within these industries operate, and the variety of career paths available. It also introduces a couple of the newest and fastest-growing types of tourism.
To begin, this introduction will provide a working definition of hospitality, tourism, and the end-to-end tourism experience, also known as the travel journey. It will also define the role of production and consumption within tourism, with the destination ultimate serving as the end product. Each travel journey, in turn, consists of multiple and varied tourism experiences that are “consumed” by the tourist, who functions as a guest of service and experience providers. The Introduction closes with a summary of the key themes contained in each of the following nine chapters. Each chapter stands as an essay on its own, but read together, they provide a broad overview of hospitality and tourism, interlocking industries that provide myriad career paths for those willing to enter a dynamic, yet volatile field of work. When combined, tourism and hospitality comprise one of the world’s largest employers.
Although tourism and hospitality are considered separate entities, hospitality plays a foundational role in any successful tourism enterprise, as it involves service interactions with travelers, tourists, and local visitors. Hospitality entails making guests feel welcomed and valued, an essential service to draw both repeat and new customers. The hospitality industry provides services to guests and customers that stay in lodging; consume food and beverage away from home; attend events, meetings, and concerts; visit attractions or engage in other forms of entertainment; and travel between and within destinations by air, ground, or water using commercial transportation.
Businesses seeking to draw tourists should be attuned to the local community, ensuring that the services and products they provide do not impede the quality of life for residents. So too, development management organizations (DMOs) must work with local governments to ensure adequate infrastructure and resources to move tourists around a destination, to manage the waste they generate, and to keep water supplies clean and abundant for tourists and residents alike. When tourism is managed effectively, residents benefit economically, culturally, and socially. Residents who welcome tourists and engage eagerly with them add incalculable value to the tourism experience.
A tourist denotes an individual who undergoes “temporary voluntary mobility,” traveling away from home for a length of time, anywhere from 24 hours up to one year (Cooper & Hall, 2023, p. 31). To underscore, this movement must be undertaken voluntarily. Those who are forced to leave their home due to external circumstances—wars, violence, poverty—are refugees. Still others fall prey to human trafficking, a modern form of enslavement. Those who travel voluntarily and remain away from home for over a year are typically considered migrants. When a person makes a day trip, the journey is typically classified as an excursion undertaken by an excursionist or a day tripper.
A tourist can travel within the same region where they live, domestically within their home country, or internationally to other countries throughout the world. By definition, tourism involves mobility, as the tourist travels away from and returns home. A tourist can travel voluntarily for a variety of reasons, including to visit family, for business, or for leisure. The latter form of travel has undergone rapid growth in the 21st century, as increasingly larger numbers of people have the leisure time, the income, and the desire to travel for pleasure and entertainment.
Although the staggering expansion of the tourism industry might suggest that the majority of the world’s population travel, this is not the case; the majority of people in the world do not have the means to travel. Tourism is largely undertaken by those living in industrialized countries. As a result, tourism is a privilege, and traveling to destinations where locals do not have the means to travel should ideally require that tourists educate themselves about the destination to which they are traveling as well as the life of the locals. Ethical travel requires an openness toward and engagement with a destination’s local community, their social practices, their cultural heritage, and their economic reality. Ethical tourism development works to enhance a reciprocal exchange between tourists and locals, one in which both learn from one another.
By nature, tourism involves a dynamic, rapidly changing, and volatile set of elements. Globalization, for example, not only makes traveling between borders faster and easier, it also facilitates the dissemination of diseases, from Ebola to COVID-19, the latter of which created a drastic and, in some regions, catastrophic disruption to tourism. Although volatility results from a wide range of factors, including diseases, natural disasters, wars, and economic downturns, the international shockwaves of the pandemic closures prompted tourism leaders to assess and respond to the widespread disruption.
In sum, the volatility unleashed by the pandemic amplified the use of digital technologies and created a significant push for sustainable tourism development. A recent study of the impacts of COVID-19 on tourism explains:
The response to the pandemic identified parts of the tourism industry that were exposed to risk and presented an opportunity to reshape and rebuild the tourism industry. The digital transformation of the sector contributes to this direction, transforming the way tourist services are provided and consumed. Contactless payments, online check-ins and digital room keys are just a few examples of how travel businesses are adapting. Tourism providers work with environmental experts to improve their offerings and ensure that tourism development is sustainable and beneficial to local communities. (Efthimiou, 2025, p. 130)
Whereas COVID-19 drew attention to the volatility of tourism and led to widespread adoption of contactless technologies, it also enabled those charged with developing tourism destinations—including destination management organizations, local and national governments, and other industry stakeholders—to reflect on and draw valuable lessons from the damage wrought by the overtourism of small islands such as Bali and the Maldives and cities such as Barcelona and Venice. In response, key leaders have urged tourism developers to conceptualize destinations as living systems. They recognize that tourism impacts the quality of life, cultural values, and financial stability of destination residents as well as the quality of the destination’s ecosystems and biodiversity. Tourism, they argue, should aim to enhance these systems, improving a destination’s natural, cultural, and social well-being. At its best, global tourism leads to economic opportunities for entire nations as well as regions and their local communities. When tourism benefits the health of a destination, this dynamic facilitates cultural exchanges that break down ideological, social, and cultural barriers, creating more fluid and open societies. If developed strategically and with foresight and input from various stakeholders, tourism can enhance the quality of life for destination residents. Nations and regions can utilize tourism to create employment, nourish and promote their cultural heritage and traditions, and draw investment to improve infrastructure and to conserve and regenerate the natural features and biodiversity of the environment. Beyond local benefits, tourism can improve the international reputation and diplomatic relations of a country.
Heeding lessons from the rapid expansion of tourism, both positive and negative, many governments have begun working intently with destination management organizations, scholars, and tourism stakeholders to leverage the upsides of the industry while simultaneously creating planning strategies that proactively avoid the pitfalls of poorly designed, haphazard, and extractive tourism. For example, a recent collaboration between Indonesia and Ethiopia led to the publication of the anthology Tourism for Global Connectivity and Economic Development, which provides a blueprint for sustainable tourism development that draws on the natural beauty and cultural heritage of each country. One scholar summarizes the diplomatic benefits as follows:
Beyond its direct economic contributions, tourism plays a pivotal role in shaping diplomatic relations among nations. The exchange of tourists fosters cultural understanding, economic collaboration, and international cooperation. This influence positions tourism not merely as an economic driver but as a dynamic force shaping broader aspects of global interactions and diplomacy. In essence, the interplay between globalization, tourism, and economic development forms a complex web of connections that defines the contemporary landscape of international relations. (Risfandini, 2024, p. 56)
In sum, globalization, tourism, and diplomacy in the 21st century have become inextricably linked to one another.
Co-Creation of a Tourist Experience
The tourist is fundamentally a consumer of the tourism product. From the time a tourist decides to travel and begins researching and booking their trip to the time they return home, they participate in the tourism system. Understood as a series of stages, tourism engages the tourist in a five-part journey. Stage 1 involves the planning phase. Stage 2 unfolds as the tourist travels to their chosen destination. Stage 3 involves the activities and experiences of the tourist at their destination. Stage 4 entails the trip home. Stage 5 involves the memories of the trip and the stories, photos, and products the tourist brings home and shares with friends and family.
During each of these five stages, the tourist, or consumer of tourism, participates in the co-creation of the tourism event, which entails a series of experiences each of which contribute to the overall trip experience. Service providers play an essential role in creating the tourism experience. Services are provided by a variety of entities, among the most important of these being the destination management organizations (DMOs) who work with or for local government and with businesses to craft a region into an appealing and well-functioning tourist destination. In addition, tourism is enabled by all of the businesses that provide necessary tourism products and services, including accommodations, food and beverage, event planning, transportation, and entertainment.
Tourists, in turn, co-create the experience with tourism producers and service providers. Today, many tourists may design their itinerary and book lodging, flights, and transportation directly through the suppliers. In turn, tourists may engage directly with service providers to lodge complaints or to request services or products more to their liking than those initially offered. For example, if a guest who is a light sleeper arrives at a hotel and is given a room located next to a seating area where guests congregate late at night and early in the morning, the guest will likely have an unpleasant experience. On the other hand, if the guest returns to the front desk and requests a room change to a location as quiet as possible, and the front desk clerk politely and expediently provides them with quieter accommodations, the guest will likely have a far better hotel experience and be more likely to return and to recommend the hotel to others. In fact, studies have shown that guests who encounter problems that are resolved in a friendly, empathetic, effective, and efficient manner may actually have a better experience than if no problem occurred in the first place. This dynamic underscores the importance of hospitality to a quality tourist experience.
From the time a tourist leaves their home until they return, they will encounter a series of hosts. If any of these hosts treats the tourist poorly, the overall quality of the end-to-end trip, also known as a travel journey or tourism experience, will be lessened. Providing excellent customer service and ensuring that a guest feels welcomed and valued forms an essential part of hospitality. On another level, destination locals who interact with tourists serve as hosts as well. Hospitality not only entails making a guest feel welcomed and valued and ensures their physical and psychological comfort, it also provides them with security and a feeling of safety.
The importance of hospitality in the creation of a pleasant and memorable travel journey cannot be overstated. Hospitality denotes the friendly reception and treatment of guests. By its very nature hospitality involves social relations. As tourism and hospitality scholar Ramesh Raj Kunwar explains:
Hospitality has been one of the most pervasive metaphors within tourism studies, referring in one sense to the commercial project of the tourist industry such as hotels, catering, and tour operation, and in another sense, to the social interactions between local people and tourists, that is, hosts and guests. (2017, p. 56)
Hospitality, in large part, determines the quality of the guest experience. If a diner eats at an expensive restaurant with excellent food and stunning decor, for example, and has an unfriendly or rude server, they may never return and might write an online review that reflects the poor service they experienced.
Hospitality centers around the provision of accommodation, food and beverage, and entertainment and involves both tangible and intangible exchanges. Within tourism the exchange is likewise economic in that the guest pays the host, in part, to treat them well and to provide quality or well-priced products. It is also a cultural exchange, in which the host should ideally understand the guest’s cultural background enough not to cross any unacceptable behavioral boundaries. At its best, this relationship adds significant value to the tourist experience.
When situated within someone else’s establishment or aboard a form of passenger transport, a guest is under the protection of the host. This is especially apparent aboard commercial airlines, where staff have been trained to aid passengers during an emergency. But it also applies to hotels, eating and dining establishments, event hosts and venues, and attractions, where the owners and the managers are ultimately responsible if harm comes to a guest staying at or visiting their facility. Ideally, hospitality creates a relationship of trust between guest and host in which the guest feels that their needs are anticipated and tended to. The guest should feel physically and psychologically comfortable and secure.
Because tourism functions as a global economic driver and accounts for hundreds of millions of jobs worldwide, employment opportunities are ample and widely variable. Those who believe in providing quality customer service and experiences for guests are well-suited to work in tourism and hospitality. So, too, many career opportunities exist for those with strong organizational, management, and financial skills. In turn, research into tourism and tourism trends as well as the study of the educational components of tourism, such as cultural heritage, place-based traditions, and the history of a destination, can offer work for those who enjoy learning and critical reasoning.
The Future of Hospitality
During the first quarter of this century, travel has experienced a sea change, becoming an ever-increasingly global endeavor, dependent on technologies that often evolve at a dizzying pace. Within the mega-event space, the 2010 Vancouver Olympic and Paralympic Games marked a watershed moment, as the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) set their sights on and achieved sustainable goals, modeling legacy planning and practices, which showcased that mega-events can be held in a way that mitigates potential damages from landfill waste (76.8% of the waste generated was diverted from landfill) and greenhouse gases. As their summary report states, “for VANOC sustainability means managing the social, economic and environmental impacts and opportunities of our Games to produce lasting benefits, locally and globally” (2010, p. 2). The committee used the opportunity to partner with organizations to create a Sustainable Sport and Event Toolkit, to develop “a new Canadian standard for event management” (2010, p. 8), and to establish “a legacy portfolio of clean energy technology projects through the Games carbon offset program” (2010, p. 9).
VANOC likewise partnered with organizations to maximize the benefits of the event for locals. For example, they signed partnerships with four Indigenous nations who served as event hosts, welcoming and encouraging widespread participation from Indigenous communities throughout Canada. By using the international event to showcase ecofriendly, low-impact, inclusive, and equity-focused event planning, Vancouver modelled a future-focused form of hosting that centers ethics and sustainability. In doing so, they also established a responsible model for the future of the tourism industry, one that centers ethics, the needs of locals, clean energy, innovative technologies, and the well-being of the environment. Any successful tourism venture must aim to maximize the well-being of society and of the environment. In turn, tourists have begun to seek ways of traveling that don’t overburden destinations or alienate locals, and young tourists have become especially active in vetting ecologically sound travel options where locals enjoy engaging with visitors.
Since 2020, the pandemic coupled with robust tourism research has impacted the industry in remarkable ways, making it more future-focused and aware of the ecological and cultural damages wrought by poorly planned tourism development. As the 2010 Olympics demonstrated, tourism can be developed in an eco-conscious and community-oriented fashion. In turn, tourists have begun to seek deeper, more engaged experiences with destinations, facilitating the co-creation of the tourist experience. As a result:
destinations now deliver and engineer experiences using infrastructure, narrative content and a context, each of which is heightened by technology. Effectively, engineering these experiences demands that destinations and operators migrate to experience-oriented tourism strategies, where the common thread is authenticity, delivering experiences that are perceived to be real, unsullied and rooted in the destination. Here, the notion of ‘endemic [native to a region] resources,’ such as food and culture, deepen the experience and link to sustainability strategies at the destination by building on the core appeal and adding value at each stage of the experience. (Cooper & Hall, 2023, p. 46)
The success of these engineered experiences stems, in part, from the tourist as a co-creator, a dynamic that shifts the tourism market place to meet the needs and desires of “tourism consumption patterns as they move beyond material possessions and from services to experiences” (Cooper & Hall, 2023, p. 41). In turn, increased engagement with destination communities has the potential to enhance the well-being of the locals at a destination, to conserve its biodiversity, and to regenerate local ecosystems. The encouragement of reciprocity between tourists and destination residents, in turn, has the potential to break down socio-economic and political barriers to create more fluid and harmonious relationships.
Despite the promising developments and trends within the tourism economy, the generation of carbon emissions and waste as well as the consumption of nonrenewable resources has been drawing increasing alarm from key tourism leaders and ecologists. They argue that tourism must undergo a shift in mindset and self-conceptualization that embraces closed-loop economies whenever possible and aims to decelerate the pace of growth, emphasizing the quality of the tourism experience—for locals, the environment, and the tourists themselves—over quantity of tourists. Tourism will inevitably play a major role in the world’s future—economically, culturally, socially, and politically. It will also continue to impact the health and well-being of the Earth’s ecosystems, biodiversity, and climate. As participants in one of the world’s largest economic drivers, tourists and tourism professionals have the power to shift travel toward a more ecologically attuned and regenerative future.
Chapter Overview
The nine following chapters offer a variety of perspectives on the tourism and hospitality industry. These include the historical development of tourism, both internationally and within the United States in particular. These chapters also explore key operational sectors of the tourism industry, including destination marketing and management, which works to draw visitors and to ensure that their visit reflects well on the destination and pleases the tourist. Another chapter focuses specifically on the travel trade, which is made up of intermediaries between the suppliers of travel products, such as hotel rooms and airline tickets, and the consumers. Introduction to Hospitality also explores the transportation industry, which ensures safe passage of tourists to and from their chosen destination, and the lodging industry, which houses tourists and ensures that they have a safe and comfortable place to stay during their travels. It also introduces the realm of event management, exploring the four key stages involved, which include discovery and strategy, pre-planning, event design, and assessment. Two chapters provide broad overviews of particular niches within tourism—namely gastronomic tourism, which focuses on cooking and eating at a destination, and regenerative tourism, which proactively and intentionally enhances the well-being of a destination’s ecology and its residents.
Chapter 1 provides a brief history of early travel and the development of tourism. Not by coincidence, the origins of the word travel derive from the French word for toil or work, travail. In the beginning, as its linguistic inheritance indicates, travelling was difficult. Those who traveled often faced perilous situations. As a result, the reasons for travel were far less pleasure-oriented than they are today. People traveled in order to find food and necessary resources for survival, to explore distant lands, to seek health cures, and to undertake religious pilgrimages. The origins of modern tourism date back to the Grand Tour, which rose to prominence in the 17th century. Undertaken by wealthy young men and the rare woman as a rite of passage into adulthood, the Tour centered around architecture and art, dramatic landscapes, and cosmopolitan cities. It enabled young adults to learn history, geography, diplomacy, business, and politics and to develop their social skills, physical stamina, as well as political and cultural acumen. Chapter 1 also traces the development of tourism in the United States, beginning with the founding of National Parks to draw visitors, the construction of railroads and automobiles to transport tourists, and the proliferation of guides that aided travelers in navigating complex, rustic, and often downright uncomfortable and dangerous routes. The chapter closes by introducing the work of the African Americans and women who staffed the railroads and the railroad station restaurants that enabled U.S. tourism to develop and to thrive.
Chapter 2 focuses intently on one of the fast-growing sectors of the tourism industry—gastronomic tourism. This chapter introduces the rise of gastronomy following the French Revolution, which pushed chefs out of private kitchens and into the public realm, where they opened restaurants and crafted products that initiated food criticism in the West. As gastronomy transformed into a professional field, food writing began to proliferate, but it would take until the 21st century before food and beverage itself would become a flourishing and widespread driver of tourism. By its nature, gastronomy promotes and reverences the “taste of place,” or terroir, of a region, making it an excellent means of showcasing a destination’s cultural heritage and the environmental factors that enable it to grow and produce unique ingredients and products. The chapter dives into several case studies to demonstrate different ways that countries, cities, and regions have transformed themselves into popular food destinations through collaboration and marketing, developing food trails, food festivals, and food tours that showcase their culinary heritage and create place-based identities that nourish community spirit. The chapter ends by examining two specific movements within food tourism—Slow Food and Indigenous food sovereignty.
Chapter 3 takes a deep dive into “Destination Management and Marketing” introducing destination management organizations (DMOs) that oversee the development and management of tourism at a specific destination and collaborate with tourism-reliant businesses, also known as tourism stakeholders. Some DMOs may be run by the national government, such as the National Travel and Tourism Office (NTTO) in the United States. This subset of DMOs are also known as national tourism organizations (NTOs). Another subset consists of regional tourism organizations (RTOs), which may be run by a state, county, city, or designated region. Whether a DMO is supported by private or public funding or financed by a mix of these two determines its scope and mission. Regardless of their funding or scope, DMOs work collaboratively with tourism stakeholders to manage and promote tourism and to understand the destination and its tourism offerings in order to create the most effective marketing campaign.
Although hotels, restaurants, and tourist attractions can market themselves, DMOs provide a big-picture portrait of the most alluring characteristics of a destination aimed at drawing tourists. DMOs likewise conduct research in order to better understand the market and to strengthen weaknesses and promote strengths. The data they collect helps them manage tourism within their destination and fashion an effective marketing campaign. The data also enables DMOs to help stakeholders understand the marketplace and to pivot as necessary to meet tourist demand. DMOs conduct ongoing research as well as evaluate the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns. They may also focus on product development and on packaging tourism products to showcase their destination’s value. More recently, DMOs, like tourism more broadly, have begun to encourage community engagement in order to ensure that residents have input on the scope and impact of tourism and also understand how tourism benefits the destination. An engaged community will also be more likely to make tourists feel welcomed and valued.
Chapter 4 focuses on “Today’s Travel Trade,” which encompasses the businesses and organizations that organize, package, manage, and sell or resell products such as airline tickets, hotel rooms, cruises, tours, and car rentals. The travel product distribution chain involves the supplier who sells to the wholesaler, the retailer, and the consumer. Today, technology connects each link in the product distribution chain and, in some cases, has enabled consumers to buy directly from the supplier. Wholesalers package travel products for resale and consolidators buy bulk supplies at discounted rates to resell to travel agents and agencies, tour operators, and, increasingly, to consumers. Within the business world, the travel trade includes corporate travel agencies that specialize in arranging business travel, from booking hotels and cars to planning itineraries, whereas travel management companies perform many of the same functions but offer specialized services, helping companies create travel policies, evaluate risk, and perform data collection. Regardless of who sells to whom, the distribution chain remains interconnected and interdependent, as each segment must function well individually and with other parts of the supply chain. Tour operators, travel agents and agencies, and destination management companies each play a major role in the travel trade.
Chapter 5 covers lodging, introducing readers to the array of accommodations available in today’s market, which range from budget-friendly motels and small bed and breakfasts to convention hotels and large-scale luxury resorts. It also introduces the consumer-facing employee roles, known as front-of-the-house jobs, and those that typically do not entail interaction with guests, known as back-of-the-house jobs. The success of a hotel depends not only on the professionalism of its staff but also on a wide variety of other variables, including consumer demographics, marketing, and room pricing. Chapter 5 explores the complex nature of this dynamic as well as the key performance indicators hotels use to determine profitability. Technology plays an increasingly major role in the industry, enhancing the guest experience, helping reduce energy usage, enabling remote check-in, and even monitoring food waste. Chapter 5 also explains the importance of hospitality to the success of lodging, which, like hospitality more broadly, entails understanding and anticipating guest needs and responding to and resolving guest complaints and issues. Lodging businesses also work to retain customers using loyalty programs that offer repeat guest discounts and other special deals. Given the wide variety of lodging, the demographic breadth of customers, and the fast-paced, ever-changing nature of the business, hotels often provide ample training opportunities for junior-level staff, many of whom rise far in the ranks.
Chapter 6 explores the importance of “Transportation Services” to the hospitality and tourism industry. Generating $1.3 trillion and supporting 15 million jobs in the United States alone in 2024, the transportation industry provides an essential role in globalization, ferrying goods and people around the world. Because of its importance to the national economy and to the travel industry, U.S. transportation is overseen by several government organizations. Reliable and accessible transportation has the power to increase both leisure and business travel to a destination, which, in turn, generates income. Like hotel rooms, airlines and car rental companies operate on dynamic and segmented pricing models as well as offer loyalty programs to reward repeat customers. Hotels, airlines, and car rental companies also work collaboratively to provide discount all-inclusive packages, which are increasingly sold directly to consumers via online booking sites. Ground transportation not only includes rental cars, taxis, shuttle services, rideshares, and buses but also all forms of rail travel, ranging from the sleek, comfortable cross-country high-speed trains to intercity subways and monorails. In turn, water transport can be as quick as a ten-minute water taxi or as long as a several-month cruise around the world. Because most transportation, especially air travel, relies heavily on fossil fuels, the transportation industry is one of the largest greenhouse gas emitters in the world. As a result, advances in technology are playing a crucial role in reducing transportation’s carbon footprint with such advances as electric vehicles and renewable fuels.
Chapter 7 explores visitor attractions, defined as such because they appeal to and draw tourists and residents alike. Given the expansive nature of attractions, the chapter focuses specifically on four of the largest visitor draws, including museums, zoos and aquariums, amusement and theme parks, and industrial attractions. Classified as heritage attractions, museums house cultural and historical artifacts and educate and serve the public as nonprofits, which draw funding from earned revenue, government grants, private donations, and investment income. Zoos and aquariums contain living creatures and often work toward conservation of a species, for research purposes, and for public education and entertainment. Within the United States, those facilities that meet a designated set of animal welfare standards are accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. Unlike museums and high-quality zoos and aquariums that serve educational and preservation purposes, amusement and theme parks focus primarily on providing entertainment, appealing to a wide-ranging audience. Some theme parks have begun to employ gamification, which merges reality with video games to create immersive experiences. Museums and zoos have also begun to incorporate virtual experiences, often geared to both educate and entertain visitors. Manufacturing sites are the final type of attraction explored in Chapter 7. Known as industrial attractions, these sites include places where products are grown or made, such as farms, factories, wineries, and mines.
Chapter 8 dives into the vibrant realm of events management and details the four main stages that go into the creation of a successful event, ranging from a small wedding or a mid-sized corporate retreat to a mega-event, such as San Francisco’s Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival, which draws over 75,000 attendees daily. Regardless of the size and scope, event management entails discovery and strategy, pre-planning, event design, and assessment. Event planning requires creating a realistic budget and examining the needs of stakeholders, such as participants, vendors, entertainers, and staff. It also entails creating and managing workflows and communications to ensure the event goes smoothly from beginning to end. Next the various elements of an event must be designed. These elements include the program or agenda; the layout; audiovisual and lighting; food and beverage; decor; entertainment; and guest services, such as transportation and parking. Next in the planning stage come marketing, registration, and ticketing. Chapter 8 also defines risk management, an element that becomes especially important for large and mega-events and determines the protocols and responsibilities in case of an emergency, ranging from a natural disaster to a guest injury. Risk management can also entail contracts with vendors, caterers, servers, or entertainers, which stipulate financial penalties and back-up plans in the event any of the key parties cancels without adequate notice or fails to show. Finally the risk management plan must be written and distributed to all team members involved in the real-time operation and management of the event.
The final chapter explores the role of sustainability within the tourism industry, both its successes and its failures, and investigates the push toward ethical and regenerative tourism. Depending on how it is conceptualized and practiced, sustainability can prioritize economic growth while aiming to curtail and ultimately halt damage to the local environment and residents or it can focus on restoring the well-being of ecosystems and communities. Because the definition of sustainability has become so malleable, many tourism leaders have begun to adopt alternative terms, including responsible, ethical, and regenerative tourism. This chapter focuses in particular on the variable meanings of sustainability and explores the development of the regenerative tourism model, a type of tourism that works to counter the harms of extractive tourism, which commodifies natural resources and the cultural heritage of destination communities. Proponents of regenerative tourism argue that tourism itself must be understood as a living system with the capacity to restore and enhance the well-being of destination ecosystems and their communities. Regenerative tourism not only conceptualizes destinations as living ecosystems, but also promotes community input and involvement in developing tourism and creating solutions to existing problems. Regenerative tourism centers and protects local residents and their cultural heritage as well as the destination’s natural resources, ecosystems, and biodiversity.
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