44 Book Review Aviation-and-tourism Devriendt

BOOK REVIEW

Aviation and Tourism Implications for Leisure Travel Edited by Anne Graham, Andreas Papatheodorou and Peter Forsyth As the characteristics and needs of leisure travelers differ so much from those of business travelers, a separate consideration of the relationships between the aviation and tourism market is required if a detailed understanding of the leisure-driven air travel market is to be gained. No less than 26 distinguished experts in the domain of aviation and tourism were invited by Anne Graham, Andreas Papatheodorou, and Peter Forsyth to contribute to this intriguing theme in the book ‘Aviation and Tourism’. A book review by Lomme Devriendt ‘Aviation and Tourism’ brings together an interesting mix of research papers dealing with the close but complex relationships between the air travel and the tourism sector. In contrast to most books dealing with this topic, Graham, Papatheodorou and Forsyth manage to succeed in their objective of providing a comprehensive overview of this topic in that the book’s core theme is discussed in an integrated manner. Where aviation specialists tend to concentrate on the air travel part of the story, research experts on tourism mostly consider aviation as a mere constituent element of the tourism industry. However, recent trends in the globalized aviation market such as the ‘open skies’ agreement between the EU and the US and the ‘Single European Aviation Sky’ have brought about major transitions in the way in which leisure-driven air travel is organized. The rise of the low-cost airline market, which have partially transferred leisure travelers from primary to secondary airports, have for instance caused large infrastructural changes for the tourism sector at these locations. On the other hand, new tourism regulations and changes in travel services such as accommodations, food, tour operators, or travel infrastructure have direct effects on the organizational schemes of leisure travel. Airline companies must understand their demand and recognize changing trends in order to fulfill their customers’ needs. Aviation and tourism are therefore not to be separately discussed, and the editors nicely succeed in filling this ‘knowledge’ gap in the literature by bringing together a range of in-depth studies considering the two-way relationship between aviation and tourism in a single framework. This edited volume is well structured. It starts with a brief chapter introducing the book’s main theme and providing an overall view of the different contributions and how these relate to one

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another. The remaining chapters are organized in seven parts that together cover the main research topics in this research domain, i.e. the nature of demand, regulation and government policies, airline-related issues, implications for airports, economic and environmental impacts, and a number of interesting case studies. The book concludes with a round-up of its main conclusions, some feedback regarding the discussed themes, and a review of a number of potentially interesting avenues for future research such as the future impacts of climate change on tourist destinations, the mounting competition in the long-haul tourist market, and ‘local’ environmental considerations in terms of the development of airport infrastructure.

in this book will become outdated rather quickly, any student or researcher looking for a comprehensive overview of the multifaceted character of the research on the leisure air travel market will find something useful in this interesting book.

I would recommend ‘Aviation and Tourism’ to everyone interested in the aviation and tourism sector. In my view, the editors have done a nice and convincing job, and it should also be stressed that they have managed to strike a good balance between industry-based and academic papers. It provides valuable insights in the multiple ways in which aviation affects tourism as well as the other way round. In this way, the editors manage to achieve their goal to develop and further expand our knowledge and understanding of the important and multifaceted links between both industries. However, ‘Aviation and Tourism’ will have to be read alongside other contributions if one wishes to obtain a complete picture of the air travel market for tourism. For instance, papers dealing with the complex relationships between different travel classes when it comes to leisure travel are missing. Some suggestions for further reading would have been a welcome addition. So, although the airline industry is constantly changing and it can be expected that some of the claims made

About the Reviewer

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About the authors Dr Anne Graham is Senior Lecturer in Air Transport and Tourism at the University of Westminster, London, UK. Dr Andreas Papatheodorou is Assistant Professor in Industrial Economics with an emphasis on Tourism at the University of the Aegean, Greece. Peter Forsyth is Professor of Economics at Monash University, Victoria, Australia, and has written extensively on air transport and tourism.

Lomme Devriendt is Aspirant of the Flemish Fund for Scientific Research. He is a member of the editorial review board of Aerlines Magazine.

Book Information Aviation and Tourism - Implications for Leisure Travel Edited by Anne Graham, Andreas Papatheodorou and Peter Forsyth Publisher: Ashgate Publishing Limited Publishing date: 2008 ISBN: 9780754671879 http://www.asgate.com

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