89Book review section – Hungarian Geographical Bulletin 70 (2021) (1) 81–91. In 2020, the rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic made painfully evident the highs and lows of global interconnectedness for each inhabitant of the planet. New words such as lockdowns, home confinement, and social distancing were introduced to our tourism vocabulary in this annus horribilis for the industry. The collection of studies edited by Dallen J. Timothy on globalisation and tourism is antecedent to the pandemic and reveals to be an essential reading on the myriad of relations and impacts intertwined in and around tourism and on the sources of possible future challenges. This edited volume is the fourth title belonging to the Elgar series on ‘Handbooks on Globalisation.’ Prior topics in the series include agriculture, devel- opment, and migration. The aim of the handbook series is to “provide an international and compre- hensive overview of the debates and research posi- tions in each key area of interest” (p. i). This volume on tourism, in fact, provides an extensive review of the meanings, implications and roles of tourism from a global perspective. The focus of the volume is to “examine the ways in which tourism functions as a stimulator of, and conduit for, globalisation” (p. iii) by crediting tourism for being one of the most pow- erful engines to drive globalisation. Such power, as claimed in the volume, should be accompanied by re- sponsibility, ethics, planning and good management. The handbook is divided into six sections, which are equally balanced since they contain three to five chapters each. The illustration of the volume is not particularly rich, the volume lists only 14 figures, and five out of the nine tables are included in Chapter 14 on Global population dynamics. Infographics and maps would have been explicative to make global pro- cesses and implications for tourism visible. Subjects of particular interest to the readers of Hungarian Geographical Bulletin discussed in the volume are human mobility and the concept of home, geopolitics and security, cultural globalisation and transnational cultural routes, and the fluid meaning of place and placelessness. The volume argues that the meanings of borderlines, transition zones, cores and peripheries, virtual and cyber spaces evolve and change according to the role those cover in tourism. A general overview of globalisation and tourism is offered in the intro- duction written by the editor and built on a succinct historic perspective on human mobility. Section 1 focusses on globalisation, its meanings and processes, and features four essays. In Chapter 2, Larry Dwyer and Nevenka Čavlek explore the role of multinational corporations (MNCs) and underline the change in the geographical perspective of MNS’ capital investments shifting from North America and Europe to China and India. The authors discuss the impacts that MNCs generate in host countries. In more, the role of stakeholders such as tourism operators and tourists themselves is addressed in the context of MNS invest- ments. In host countries, although profit-led interests of MNCs generate income and employment, corporations can induce negative social and environmental impacts and impoverish local communities. Tourism operators must acknowledge that the global marketplace allows MNCs to create vertically integrated businesses and handle mass tourism movements, while small and me- dium enterprises can only compete in niche markets. Chapter 3 by Stephen Wearing, Matthew McDonald, Greig Taylor and Tzach Ronen discusses the economic ideology of neoliberalism which has driven the global tourism industry for the past decades. The wide range of negative impacts of neoliberalism (free open market policies generating environmental, social and health damages) is addressed. The authors identify a solu- tion in putting local communities in charge, delegating them the task to handle the enormous damage done in destinations. To reflect on neoliberalism, it must be DOI: 10.15201/hungeobull.70.1.8 Hungarian Geographical Bulletin 70 2021 (1) Timothy, D.J. (ed.): Handbook of Globalisation and Tourism. Cheltenham–Northampton, Edward Elgar, 2019. 341 p. 90 Book review section – Hungarian Geographical Bulletin 70 (2021) (1) 81–91. noted here, that the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted these neoliberal market mechanisms. As Ioannides, D. and Gyimóthy, S. (2020) argue, “the crisis has brought us to a fork in the road – giving us the perfect oppor- tunity to select a new direction and move forward by adopting a more sustainable path” (p. 624). Local economic development and planning are the topics discussed in Chapter 4 by Christian M. Rogerson from the University of Johannesburg, South Africa. Cities in the Global North often lever- age on the visitor economy and tourism to reposition themselves via place-based economic development. This trend has a parallel in the Global South, where new leisure spaces, ‘the infrastructure of play’ (p. 49), are built despite the different capabilities and capaci- ties to implement sound planning strategies. Section 2 gathers three essays on human mobil- ity. The first one from Hall, Amore and Arvanitis critically analyses the globalising force of human mo- bilities by introducing the concept of metagovernance and raises concern about the macro issues of contem- porary tourism. The authors call for a new form of tourism mobility governance to enhance sustainabil- ity, though the approach and steps needed to imple- ment it are left for future research. Allan M. Williams claims in Chapter 6 on migration, tourism and globali- sation that the importance of distance and proximity has been accentuated by globalisation and has driven visiting friends and relatives (VFR) tourism. Section 3 entitled ‘Geopolitics, security and con- flict’ includes six essays. Hazel Tucker from the University of Otago reflects on the tourism legacies of colonialism starting from colonial core-periphery relationships and concluding with counter-narratives offered by tourism. In Chapter 9, Dallen J. Timothy examines the role of tourism in the creation and development of multinational alliances. Chapter 10 entitled ‘Biological invasion, biosecurity, tourism and globalisation’ by Michael C. Hall is particularly timely and of outmost significance. Hall’s analysis reveals how nature-based tourism is both directly and indirectly connected to the spread of pathogens in remote areas. But most of all, this chapter raises concerns about individual, national and transnational responsibilities related to the long-term cost of biolog- ical invasions in new/old environments. In Chapter 11 by Bruce Prideaux, the impact of terrorism on global tourism is approached by three perspectives: terrorism as a risk, its impact on tourism, and possible responses. Prideaux claims that tourism destinations that elaborate crisis management strategies must take into account the importance of managing fake news and its widespread consequences. Wantanee Suntikul provides an overview on war heritage tour- ism and memorial in Chapter 12 on tourism and war. She discusses the popularity of visiting battlefields of real-time war sites and guided tours like the ‘Assad tour’ in Syria. The phenomenon is not new, in 1854 in the Crimean War tourists followed closely the siege of Sevastopol (Irimiás, A. 2014). Recently, mass and social media have played a pivotal role to amplify the spectacle of real-time war tourism. In Chapter 13 enti- tled ‘Tourism, peace and global stability,’ the cultural geographer Alon Gelbman explains how sport and heritage tourism have a symbolic role in developing peaceful relations between countries in conflict. Section 4 deals with the topic of population and environmental challenges and draws on four essays. Richard Sharpley investigates the implications of pop- ulation dynamics on global tourism focussing on the management of resources from a neo-Malthusian per- spective and addressing new trends like the so-called silver-haired tourism. Chapter 15 by Will Stovall, James Higham, and Janet Stephenson on the anthropo- genic climate change and tourism, highlights the nega- tive impacts of the global aviation industry by address- ing the shortfalls of outdated governance measures and mitigation strategies. The authors believe that the only way to meet the sustainability goals is a collective commitment to reduce gas emissions. Brent W. Ritchie and Yawei Jiang in Chapter 16 entitled ‘Tourism, glo- balisation, and natural disasters’ focus on the devel- oping countries and regions, where ecosystems are particularly vulnerable. The authors urge for taking a global perspective in research on tourism disaster management rather than employing case studies. The implementation of transnational disaster governance and global collaboration is identified as essential to tourism disaster management. The COVID-19 pan- demic made crystal clear that no countries can be safe and prosperous without a transnational common un- derstanding of sustainability. Chapter 17 written by colleagues from the University of Botswana and from the Okavango Research Institute analyses the impacts of global tourism on ecosystem management. In par- ticular, the authors express serious concerns about the exploitation and degradation of resources and ecosys- tems. Current corporate responsibility strategies fail to provide a sustainable approach to mitigate ecosystem damage and to improve local residents’ living stand- ards, let alone wellbeing. Section 5 ‘Innovation and technology’ includes five essays. In Chapter 18, Mike Peters and François Vellas investigate the interdependencies between globalisation and innovation, keeping in mind the geographical differences and the peculiarities of com- munity versus corporate-oriented destinations. The authors call for further research on the growth strate- gies of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). In Central Eastern European countries, the topic of internationalisation and the role of innovation in tourism SMEs is less studied although it is of key rel- evance in sustainable tourism management. Chapter 19, written by David T. Duval and John Macilree, a former advisor of the New Zealand Treasury and Ministry of Transport, is an exquisite contribution on 91Book review section – Hungarian Geographical Bulletin 70 (2021) (1) 81–91. the assessment of transport innovation by addressing the issues of technology, commerce and policy. The authors claim that technological innovation should go hand in hand with new regulatory and policy ap- proaches to support regional development. Claudia tom Dieck and Dai-In Han reflect on the links be- tween tourism and augmented reality from the co- creation and value creation perspective in Chapter 20. In Chapter 21, Marianna Sigala investigates the radical influence of social media on the tourism ex- perience and tourist behaviour. The chapter provides a balanced perspective on the positive and negative impacts of social media networks on tourism. Sigala also questions whether tourists honestly rely on user generated content when consumers are well aware of the illusory travel visuals and fake nature of self- ies. Chapter 22 by Kevin Hannam concludes Section 5. Hannam calls for an interdisciplinary analysis of mobility and the development of smart cities. Section 6 is entitled ‘Cultural issues and contempo- rary mobility trends’ and includes five essays dealing with topics such as religious tourism, pop culture tour- ism, volunteer, medical and last chance tourism. Each chapter is delivered by an international expert of the topic. Daniel H. Olsen critically addresses in Chapter 23 the managerial issues linked to spirituality and pilgrim- age in our globalised world. In Chapter 24, Sue Beeton provides an overview of the issues, trends and implica- tions of pop culture (movies, music, fashion, TV-series etc.) on tourism, with a focus on tourists. Jacob Henry, a cultural geographer and a former volunteer tourist, along with Mary Mostafanezhad from the University of Hawaii deliver Chapter 25 entitled ‘The geopolitics of volunteer tourism.’ The authors claim that critical geopolitics (feminist/everyday, environmental, and im- perial) offer the approach to understand the transna- tional and humanitarian interactions in popular forms of volunteer tourism such as teaching, conservation, and infrastructure. I think that in Central and Eastern European countries we could benefit by employing the feminist approach. In Hungary, some neglected and underdeveloped regions see the intervention of elite volunteer domestic tourists, and the feminist approach would provide insights to the ‘spatialized imaginary of aspiration.’ Chapter 26 by John Connell discusses medical mobility and tourism with a focus on ‘reverse globalisation’ that countries of the Global South turn to be medical tourism destinations. The rapid rise of medical tourism, for its fragile and fluid nature, chal- lenges its management in Asian countries. To conclude the global excursus of tourism, Chapter 27 by Harvey Lemelin and Paul Whipp fills a caveat about the conse- quences of inefficient, ill-managed and short-sighted planning and business strategies. It is imperative that the Great Barrier Reef in Australia or the glaciers of New Zealand should not turn to be ‘last chance tour- ism destinations.’ Chapter 28 is the concluding one by Dallen J. Timothy on the historic roots and future paths of globalisation and tourism. The editor claims for new approaches in considering the implications of techno- logical innovation, changing mobility paradigms and cultural globalisation. He advises that not only hyper- connected destinations but ‘placeless spaces’ also need to be drawn on the map of global tourism. To conclude this review, I think the strong and me- ticulous editorship makes the book a solid composition and a goldmine for references. Each chapter adopts a global perspective and issues are considered for their widespread economic, social, environmental and hu- man implications. The volume is not only another advocate for sustainable tourism. Rather it provides a critical and clear statement on the positive and negative impacts of global tourism and on the absolute need of collaboration, social and individual responsibility. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown how fragile the tourism industry is. In the Mediterranean regions, criminal organisations are already active to purchase tourism resorts, hotels and small and medium-sized enterprises. As the volume claims, transnational gov- ernance and policy should be more rapid and efficient to tackle problems and issues, as any issue has global consequences. Every chapter concludes with some practical and managerial implications, although these were rarely based on cutting-edge research, rather in- cluded some general recommendations on sustainable tourism. This is not the weakness of the volume, but the weakness of academia. More research involving stake- holders like local residents, policy-makers, industry representatives, SMEs etc. is paramount to explore new paths in globalisation and tourism. This edited volume is a highly recommended source for policy-makers, academics, undergraduate and postgraduate students, volunteer, pop culture and Instagram tourists. Acknowledgement: Project no TKP2020-NKA-02 has been implemented with the support provided from the National Research, Development and Innovation Fund of Hungary, financed under the Research Excellence Program funding scheme. Anna Irimiás1 R E F E R E N C E S Ioannides, D. and Gyimóthy, S. 2020. The COVID-19 crisis as an opportunity for escaping the unsustain- able global tourism path. Tourism Geographies 22. (3): 624−632. Irimiás, A. 2014. Review on ‘Tourism and War’ by Butler, R. & Suntikul, W. (Eds.). Routledge (Taylor & Francis Group) London and New York, 2013. Tourism Management 42. 260–261. 1 Corvinus University of Budapest, Budapest, Hungary. E-mail: anna.irimias@uni-corvinus.hu