"Seductions of Place explores questions at the crossroads of contemporary issues in travel and tourism, human geography, and the complex cultural, political, and economic activities at stake in touristed landscapes as a result of globalization. The seductiveness of touristed landscapes is simultaneously local and global, as travelled places are formed and reworked by the activities of diverse, mobile people in their desires to experience situated, sensuous qualities of difference.
The initial chapters link the existing literature on mobility and travel with current theoretical perspectives in human geography. They include a theorization of the concepts of place and landscape and the importance of tourism in the world economy to move research on tourism to a central position in geographic research. Chapter contributions include an analysis of the representational character of landscape and the built environment, historic constructions of place seduction, the importance of class, racial, and gender dimensions of place, how mobility and the seduction of place orient identity formation, the role of tourism in the world economy, local tourism economies in relation to the global economy, and the environmental impacts of tourism economies. Throughout the book, examples are given from urban and environmental touristed landscapes, from major world cities to tropical islands.
