The effect of tourism activity in developing countries has been a hotly debated topic for a number of decades. Opinions have fluctuated between the extremes of tourism as the catalyst for socio-economic development and tourism as the basis for neo-colonial exploitation and environmental and cultural decline. The contributions to this timely volume provide a balanced overview of these various perspectives. Key papers that are theoretical, conceptual and empirical, drawn from the literature in the fields of tourism, economics and development studies are contained in this authoritative volume. While the central focus is the economic aspect of the relationship between tourism and development, contributions on spatial, socio-cultural and environmental issues reflect the multidisciplinary nature of the selections. This book will appeal to policymakers, researchers and tourism practitioners in both developed and developing countries.

Environmental management, either voluntary or imposed, can add to the costs of nature-based tourism businesses. Such costs can make tourism destinations less competitive, but the same activities can also enhance competitiveness by increasing demand. The aim of this book is to provide an assessment of the relative importance of these two opposing effects in the context of a case study of nature-based tourism in Tropical North Queensland, Australia.The authors estimate the demand side effects using discrete choice modelling to determine the impact of changing environmental conditions on the market share of a variety of tourist destinations. The costs of environmental management are also considered by analysing firm level data. The effects are then integrated using a model of the tourism market that is formulated around nature-based tourism regions. The results show that the competitiveness of a region is enhanced through its environmental management and highlight the importance of self-regulation in the industry when the environment is a common property resource. The authors also draw some insightful conclusions regarding business strategies that would aid the profitability of firms and regions supplying nature-based tourism products. The conceptual foundations developed in the book are not restricted by national boundaries and the empirical analyses can be extended to other nature-based tourism destinations and to other relevant policy issues. As such, this book will have a broad appeal amongst environmentalists, scholars of tourism economics and management, and policymakers concerned with the regulation of the tourism industry and its effect on the environment.