This book explores the relation between tourism and development and covers an array of diverse issues in a contemporary economic, socio-cultural and political context. The book offers a critical debate regarding the existing understanding of a global tourism system and warns against generalizations about the impact of tourism on the global economy. It provides overall insights into the trends affecting tourism development including where we are headed, what are the new tourism markets, and what new tourist types are appearing. Also discussed are new ventures in tourism development and how climatology and climate change relate to tourism, how web based geographic information services (Web GIS) are changing tourism and what kind of new growth opportunities space tourism will bring. This book is intended to give the reader some insights into new paradigms, new issues, and old problems that are affecting our understanding of the global tourism system, the quality of life for host communities and the experiential nature of tourism.