ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the contribution of international tourism and travel development to the contemporary social geography of Europe. It evaluates the nature, extent and impacts of international tourism and travel, also examines contemporary debates surrounding European tourism, and describes the key literature sources informing those debates. The chapter explains pan-European dimensions and trends. It focuses on the premise that tourism development is an integral component of social, economic and political restructuring across Europe. As an essential component of European production and consumption, the tourism and travel industry plays a significant role in employment, the economy and trade, and acts as an instrument of social and cultural change and contact, assisting the interaction and transfer of values and lifestyles. Changing market segmentation is also evident, with the so-called 'post-tourists' or 'new tourists' railing against the characterisics of mass consumption implicit in mass tourism.
