ABSTRACT
This final chapter highlights some of the significant issues raised in this book on the relationship between tourism and international business as fields of study and the international business of tourism. As has become clear throughout the book, a fusion of international business and tourism has much to contribute to our understanding of contemporary economies, societies, cultures, environments and polities. Given the
undoubted importance of this relationship, it is unfortunate that international business and tourism studies have remained ‘distant cousins’ for so long, and we would contend that further significant potentials exist in their reconciliation beyond those presented in this book. Here we identify several ways in which studies of international business and tourism may progress in terms of specific issues and thematic priorities that may – or indeed should – be addressed, as well as how future potential may be substantially affected by the disciplinary lenses that are used to analyse tourism. The chapter is broadly divided into two sections: the first covers the issue of the relationship between tourism and international business research and scholarship; while the second considers issues that are emerging as major concerns in the business environment of international tourism in the short-and mid-term future.
