Dr. Yorghos Apostolopoulos is Research Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at Arizona State University, USA. Dr. Stella Leivadi is Assistant Professor of Statistics and Research Methodology at the University of Northumbria at Newcastle, UK. Dr. Andrew Yiannakis is Professor and Director of the Laboratory for Leisure, Tourism and Sport at the University of Connecticut, USA.

The rapid expansion of the tourism industry has provided economic benefits for many and has also affected every facet of contemporary societies, for example employment, governemnt revenue and cultural manifestations. However, tourism can also be considered a problematic phenonmenon, promoting dependency, underdevelopment and adverse sociocultural effects, especially for developing countires. This Pioneering work provides a comprehensive review of these complex tourism issues from a sociological perspecitve.