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 re-

search 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 For-
syth manage to succeed in their objective of providing a com-
prehensive 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 ex-
perts 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 travel-
ers from primary to secondary airports, have for instance caused
large infrastructural changes for the tourism sector at these loca-
tions. 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 fill-
ing 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 chap-

ter 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 stud-
ies. 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 destina-
tions, the mounting competition in the long-haul tourist market,
and ‘local’ environmental considerations in terms of the devel-
opment of airport infrastructure.
I would recommend ‘Aviation and Tourism’ to everyone inter-
ested in the aviation and tourism sector. In my view, the edi-
tors have done a nice and convincing job, and it should also be
stressed that they have managed to strike a good balance be-
tween 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 knowl-
edge 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 ob-
tain 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 miss-
ing. 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
e-zine edition 44
in this book will become outdated rather quickly, any student or
researcher looking for a comprehensive overview of the multi-
faceted character of the research on the leisure air travel market
will find something useful in this interesting book.
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 Tour-
ism 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.
About the Reviewer
Lomme Devriendt is Aspirant of the Flemish Fund for Scientific Re-
search. He is a member of the editorial review board of Aerlines Maga-
zine.
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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