The aims of this book are two-fold: (1) to evaluate the current progress of theoretical approaches to tourism marketing and (2) to show the ways to further develop the concept of tourism marketing for application within tourist destinations and individual businesses and evaluate its potential impact on performance improvement.

The structure is based upon the inclusion of an introduction and four main parts, namely, IT marketing, destination competitiveness, image measurement, and consumer behavior. There is a brief introduction for each part prior to the discussion of specific chapters just to make the readers familiar with their content. The editors believe that there is a need for information on how to better apply both traditional and contemporary marketing tools in order to be more competitive within the international arena.

The present book “Tourism Policy and Planning” explains the complex tourism phenomena in their various manifestations. The book gives the reader a global perspective of the travel and tourism industry. The approach has been to provide a simple and comprehensive outline of as many concepts as possible. The book contains some additional features which will be of great help to the reader.