This volume, which brings together papers from a seminar held in Beijing in 1996, contains contributions written by Chinese participants as well as by visiting experts from the West. The different experience of the several authors is represented in the unique balance of the book: all the Chinese contributions point out the importance of the environment in economic development, expressing a determination to measure effects as a means to the successful management of natural resources. They concentrate on rather specific issues within the constraints of the prevailing economic situation, where identification and asset pricing tend to be specified by administrative norms. Several of these papers contain interesting and useful statistical information. The papers by the visiting experts also stress the importance of taking account of environmental aspects in deriving indicators relating to economic development. All the papers reveal that work in this area is still evolving very quickly, sometimes in unexpected directions. This particular juxtaposition of approaches is a valuable record of the situation at a particular point in time when concern about the environment in China is developing rapidly.

Tourism and Sustainable Economic Development highlights the opportunities and risks of nature-based tourism for economic development and explores selected strategies for sustainability. The prospect of tourism growth is a potential source of major challenges and considerable threats on a number of levels. The concept of sustainable tourism development has thus become the focus of the debate on this subject. This invaluable book aims to provide useful analytical and empirical tools in support of the idea that sustainability is not just about regulating and controlling the negative impacts of tourism. It is also about policies and actions that aim to reinforce the benefits and reduce the costs of tourism, in order to make it more profitable now and in the future. The chapters focused on economic modelling offer a valuable overview of the main issues currently debated at the academic level. The book also illustrates a number of empirical instruments that will provide a useful reference for academics and policymakers interested in how to put theory into practice. This study will be of great value to economists, geographers and to those who have a direct or indirect interest in tourism economics.

Tourism is both a growth industry and the world's number one export earner. It is therefore no surprise that the role of tourism is increasingly gaining prominence in the debate over how we can move towards more sustainable patterns of development. An enormous literature has emerged on the three pillars of sustainable development - environment, culture and economics - and on how tourism impacts and interacts with them. This timely and original book is firmly grounded in the theory and application of economics, in contrast to much of the previous research which has tended to adopt an environmental or sociological perspective. Although economics has increasingly become a technical subject, this accessible book aims to present important economics results and relate them explicitly to the policy debate. Using a coherent analytical framework, this unique approach offers prescriptions for moving tourism, and economic development more generally, closer to a sustainable ideal. The authors begin by studying the macroeconomic effect of tourism in terms of growth performance and sources of growth. They also examine how the tourism-growth link is affected by the role of imports in the economy, and how tourism impacts upon land use. Further chapters investigate the important issue of forecasting visitor numbers and explore the need for a comprehensive accounting framework to take account of ecologically sustainable tourism. The authors also examine the microeconomic aspects of sustainable tourism and analyse the increasing popularity of environmentally friendly holidays. Sustainable tourism is a fast-growing subject and this book provides an insightful introduction to the critical economic issues involved. It will interest and inform a broad and varied readership including researchers, students and policymakers interested in tourism economics and tourism management, as well as environmentalists, geographers and development scholars.

Following the presentation ofChina's Agenda XXIin 1994, the Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei began a fruitful collaboration with the SSTC (State Science and Technology Commission) on Natural Resource Accounting of the People's Republic of China. Among other initiatives, the Fondazione organised a seminar held in Beijing in March 1996, entitled "Resources Accounting in China." This volume brings together 11 papers as the result ofthat seminar. Our main attempt was to compare approaches and knowledge of specific issues in this area. As far as the approach is concerned there appear to be some interesting comparisons to be drawn considering the authors' different fields of expenence. Seven papers are written by Chinese participants and four by visiting experts from the West. All the Chinese contributions point out the importance of the environment in economic development and a determination to measure the effects as a means to successful management of natural resources. They concentrate on rather specific issues within the constraints of the prevailing economic conditions where identification and pricing of assets tend to be specified by administrative norms. Although the general framework of the Chinese approach tends to be scientific and administrative, all papers contain interesting and useful statistical information. The papers by visiting experts also stress the importance of taking into account environmental aspects in deriving indicators relating to economic development. In contrast to the Chinese contributions, however, they tend to be more abstract and more clearly based on economic theory.