This text draws together current thinking and practice in the tourism industry and allows readers to examine critical issues and problems. The problems are complex and interwoven and they suggest crises such as overcrowding of tourist attractions, resident-host conflicts, overuse and destruction of natural resources, loss of cultural heritage, increased crime and prostitution, inflation and escalating land costs, and other political, sociocultural and economic problems that may be brought about or exacerbated by tourism development. The three main features of the book are the presentation and analysis of the philosophical and directional difficulties which face the tourism industry, the essential issues of raison d'etre and the importance of social issues and ills on current and and future tourism practice, and the basic forces that are shaping society and generating questions about the purpose of tourism. Planners, marketers and managers at all levels should find this text useful.