Business of Leisure

The Business of Leisure critically surveys a wide selection of travel practices, places, and time periods in considering the development of the hospitality industry in Latin America and the Caribbean. Considering tourism from early sojourners to contemporary dark tourism thrill seekers, contributors to The Business of Leisure examine key economic, political, social, and environmental issues. A number of eminent scholars in the field draw on original research focusing on Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, and Peru. In addition to describing key aspects of industry development in a variety of settings, contributors also consider diverse ways in which histories of travel relate to larger political and cultural questions.  

“The Business of Leisure offers an important new look into the way national and international tourism have grown in tandem with an international travel industry and massive promotional programs on the part of host nations. . . . The essays remind us that tourism invariably comes with a price, be it low wages, environmental degradation, or social stereotyping geared toward performance. The Business of Leisure will be an essential item for scholars of Latin America and the Caribbean and for anyone who wishes to understand the ripples their airline ticket sends outward to a larger world.”—Terry Rugeley, author of The River People in Flood Time: The Civil Wars in Tabasco, Spoiler of Empires, “Through its geographic and chronological scope, this volume makes an essential contribution to a broader understanding of how tourism has shaped Latin America in different contexts, highlighting the opportunities and pitfalls of tourism as a development strategy. The case studies take Latin American tourism studies in exciting new directions and reveal the dynamic potential of the field.”—Lisa Pinley Covert, author of San Miguel de Allende: Mexicans, Foreigners, and the Making of a World Heritage Site

Andrew Grant Wood is the Stanley Rutland Professor of American History at the University of Tulsa. He is the author of Revolution in the Street: Women, Workers, and Urban Protest in Veracruz, 1870–1927 and Agustín Lara: A Cultural Biography. Contributors include: Fernando Armas Asín, Rodrigo Booth, Félix Manuel Burgos, Meri L. Clark, Rocio Gomez, Kenneth R. Kincaid, Elizabeth Manley, Mark Rice, Anadelia Romo, Blake C. Scott, Evan Ward, Andrew Grant Wood.