Results by title
82 books match the query 'Tourism' and 4 start with b
Beaches, Ruins, Resorts
The Politics of Tourism in the Arab WorldWaleed Hazbun
University of Minnesota Press, 2008
How Arab states use tourism for their own ends
Despite being viewed as a dangerous region to visit, leisure travel across the Middle East has thrived even in the post–9/11 era. In Beaches, Ruins, Resorts, Waleed Hazbun investigates this overlooked industry to show how tourism is shaping the economic development and international relations of the region in dramatic ways.
Following Europeans seeking Mediterranean beaches, Israelis crossing into Jordan as leisure tourists, and visitors discovering Dubai, Hazbun offers an original perspective on the Middle East and North Africa and challenges common portrayals of Arab nations as disconnected from the rest of the world. Rather, Hazbun reveals how government elites are using tourism to take part in globalization while, at the same time, crafting it to serve state interests. Paradoxically, the expansion of travel in the region has allowed states to encourage integration into the global economy while simultaneously expanding control over their society. Beaches, Ruins, Resorts also explores tourism’s broader beneficial effects on the region, such as aiding the peace process between Israel and Jordan, fostering Tunisia’s economic connection with Europe, and transforming Arab cities into hubs of international travel.Hazbun tells the new and surprising story of how the draw of glittering beaches, luxury hotels and resorts, and sightseeing at ancient ruins impacts the Arab world—promoting both economic globalization and political authoritarianism. In doing so, Beaches, Ruins, Resorts provides a much-needed guide for those interested in the changing nature of this fraught region and its place in the world.
Being Elsewhere
Tourism, Consumer Culture, and Identity in Modern Europe and North AmericaShelley Baranowski and Ellen Furlough, Editors
University of Michigan Press, 2001
The essays focus on the ways in which tourism and vacations have been historically constitutive of class, social status, and collective identities. Explorations into the history of tourism and vacations reveal their importance for constructing modern cultural meanings of experience, desire, visuality, mobility, and the care of the self, as well as for representing the "good life" and the benefits of consumerism. A major contribution of this book is to demonstrate tourism's importance for nation-building, whether by mobilizing mass consent through state-sponsored leisure organizations, granting paid vacations as a right of citizenship, or creating new tourist sites meant to signify the "essence" of the nation.
Providing historical context and geographical specificity to a subject that has long engaged sociologists, anthropologists, geographers, and literary theorists, but rarely historians, Being Elsewhere is exactly the collection to interest historians, social scientists, and scholars of literary and cultural studies.
Shelley Baranowski is Professor of History, University of Akron. Ellen Furlough is Associate Professor of History, University of Kentucky.
Betting on Macau
Casino Capitalism and China's Consumer RevolutionTim Simpson
University of Minnesota Press, 2023
A comprehensive look into how Macau’s recent decades of gambling-related growth produced one of the wealthiest territories on the planet
Betting on Macau delves into the radical transformation of what was formerly the last remaining European territory in Asia, returned to the People’s Republic of China in 1999 after nearly half a millennium of Portuguese rule. Examining the unprecedented scale of its development and its key role in China’s economic revolution, Tim Simpson follows Macau’s emergence from historical obscurity to become the most profitable casino gaming locale in the world.
Identified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and renowned for its unique blend of Chinese and Portuguese colonial-era architecture, contemporary Macau has metamorphosed into a surreal, hypermodern urban landscape augmented by massive casino megaresorts, including two of the world’s largest buildings. Simpson situates Macau’s origins as a strategic trading port and its ensuing history alongside the emergence of the global capitalist system, charting the massive influx of foreign investment, construction, and tourism in the past two decades that helped generate the territory’s enormous wealth.
Presented through a cross section of postcolonial studies and social theory with extensive insight into the global gambling industry, Betting on Macau uncovers the various roots of the territory’s lucrative casino capitalism. In turn, its trenchant analysis provides a distinctive view into China’s broader project of urbanization, its post-Mao economic reforms, and the continued rise of its consumer culture.
Books for Idle Hours
Nineteenth-Century Publishing and the Rise of Summer ReadingDonna Harrington-Lueker
University of Massachusetts Press, 2019
Drawing on publishing records, book reviews, readers' diaries, and popular novels of the period, Donna Harrington-Lueker explores the beginning of summer reading and the backlash against it. Countering fears about the dangers of leisurely reading—especially for young women—publishers framed summer reading not as a disreputable habit but as a respectable pastime and welcome respite. Books for Idle Hours sheds new light on an ongoing seasonal publishing tradition.