This is not an academic text. Its author was once US Under-Secretary of Commerce for tourism, and his insider experience might well have made good reading. But he is now director of a proposed tourism research center at a regional southern US university (East Carolina University) so it is not unfair to assume this is intended as a university text. If so, it is disappointing. Its author is also a consultant, and this book reads as an attempt to promote his past clients, his current employer, and his future business. It does not provide an adequate basis to teach undergraduate university students about sustainable tourism.