Border Tourism in a Global Context

"Crossing borders is fundamental for tourism activity. Borders are where tourism reveals its deepest contradictions: mobility and exclusion, hospitality and control, encounter and inequality. This edited book advances our understanding of border tourism as a lens on geopolitics, identity, and power, while showing how tourism can transform contested spaces into meaningful sites of exchange, memory, and reflection."

Dimitrios Buhalis, Bournemouth University, UK

"In a borderless world scarred by conflicts, geopolitical tensions, resurgent nationalism and deepening distrust of the “Other”, this book probes what draws tourists to the borderlands of violence, liminality and memory. Drawing on Zygmunt Bauman's haunting metaphor of "tourists and vagabonds, "Border Tourism” dismantles the haunting metaphor, uncomfortable truths and the underlying paradoxes of the unwanted guests. This collection explores how border tourism commodities conflicts, stages racial hierarchies and on the flipside promotes peace and stability. Contributors examine critical issues that redefine the paradigms of territoriality, tourism and humanity. In an atomized world of uncertainty, borders are not just lines in a map but they are mirrors."

Shem W. Maingi, Kenyatta University, Kenya.

"This edited collection undertakes a renewed examination of how tourism reshapes our understanding of borders. The volume synthesises diverse scholarly perspectives from fields such as tourism studies, human geography, cultural studies, and history. It features numerous empirical investigations of national and regional borders worldwide. This volume provides nuanced perspectives on border tourism, treating it as both a practical activity and a broader phenomenon. It integrates a rich array of empirical case studies with diverse theoretical lenses and adaptable analytical frameworks suitable for both the study and strategic development of tourism in border zones. Key themes explored include identity formation and intercultural engagement, alongside the opportunities and challenges inherent to tourism development in these sensitive areas. Furthermore, the volume addresses critical issues in border regions, including digital transformation, the imperative of sustainability, and prevailing geopolitical currents. The intended audience encompasses a broad spectrum of professionals and scholars. This includes academics and researchers specialising in tourism and international development, international development practitioners, postgraduate students, geographers focused on borderlands, specialists in cultural studies, policy and development experts, and industry managers and professionals operating within global border regions."

Farhang Morady, University of Westminster , UK

"A modern paradox is that in an increasingly borderless world, borders are becoming ever more important. This edited volume brings together a cohesive set of chapters covering various aspects of role of borders in tourism. Maximiliano Korstanje, Anukrati Sharma and Shruti Arora have done a fine job of bringing together authors from across the globe to debate this vital and fascinating topic."

Brian Garrod, Swansea University UK.

"This timely and challenging text affords critical insight into the dynamics of border tourism and the multifaceted debates that shape policy and practice. With a rich mix of diverse border destination examples, the text explores the placemaking, social imagery, political complexity and behavioral dynamics of border destinations and the contribution of these unique destinations to the future sustainability of tourism."

- Alan Fyall, Visit Orlando Endowed Chair of Tourism Marketing, University of Central Florida