Tourism and Culture in Philosophical Perspective

This book offers a philosophical approach to tourism as a permanent factor in the lifestyle, economy, and culture of the contemporary global community. Travel to well-known destinations and pursuit of an ever-increasing range of leisure activities are an aspiration of most humans today. Those not themselves engaged in tourist activities are quite often involved in providing the goods and services which make tourism possible. Yet the ill effects of mass tourism and overtourism on sensitive ecosystems, resources, and community life have begun to outweigh economic gains, threatening to destroy destinations, cultural heritage, and livelihoods. The editors and contributors of this collection reflect on the nature and meaning of tourism, its history, elements, and forms, the roles of tourist and host, the limits of hospitality, tendencies to excess and the reasons why we engage in such forms of behaviour, and the place of tourism in human culture as a whole. By shedding light on these questions, more efficacious solutions to the urgent problems raised by the practice of tourism can be found. This work is a must-read for scholars, teachers, and students engaged in study and research on philosophy of culture, philosophical anthropology, tourist and destination management, human factors engineering, and sustainability.

Marie-Élise Zovko is a Senior Research Fellow with tenure at the Institute of Philosophy, Zagreb, Croatia, specialising in Platonism, Spinoza, Kant, German idealism and Romantic philosophy.

John M. Dillon is Professor Emeritus, a Classicist, Philosopher, and internationally renowned expert on Platonism. Professor Dillon taught at the University of California, Berkeley, USA (1969–1980), and served as Regius Professor of Classics, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland (1980–2006).