Introduction to A Modern Guide to Tourism Economics

Since the appearance of the first tourism economics books some twenty-five years ago, tourism economics has slowly evolved into a specific discipline in the area of applied economics. The tourism product and the destination seem to distinguish tourism economics from other sister disciplines in applied economics, providing a rich kaleidoscope of research topics uniquely anchored in the distinctive tourism landscape. The chapter reviews the usefulness of mainstream economics to the tourism problem and identifies six fundamental ways to deviate from conventional economic theories. These fundamental deviations from the economic paradigm generate specific economic conundrums that require new economic perspectives, and trends in economic analysis can address these anomalies. These perspectives run the gamut from trade theory, choice theory, behavioral economics, cost disease, market failure, information economics, growth theory, public choice, institutional economics, environmental economics, development economics, happiness economics, regional economics, cultural economics, digital economics, and political economics to financial economics. The analysis buttresses tourism economics into an evolving discipline, illuminating old and new approaches, their coexistence, blending, refining, replacing, or tweaking.