Scholarly Must-Reads: Part 3

Traveling can teach us a lot of things - about new places, about new people, and about ourselves. However, sometimes it is helpful to learn  about how the tourism industry itself works, how it has changed over the years, and how the hospitality industry functions.

    To give our readers a chance to learn from the insiders of tourism and hospitality industries, we are sharing the top three book recommendations from professors in the Recreation and Tourism Management Department at Concord University.

    Roy Ramthun. Professor of Recreation and Tourism Management.

    1. Joseph Sax. Mountains without Handrails. This is “a set of essays on the philosophy behind America’s national parks and how those philosophies shape how our national parks operate.”

    2. Alston Chase. Playing God in Yellowstone. “A cautionary history of what happens when managers don’t understand science.”

    3. Witold Rybczynski. Waiting for the Weekend. “A fascinating history of leisure time from the Roman Empire to today. It has both good history and good stories about the human experience.”

    Linwood Clayton. Associate Professor of Recreation and Tourism Management.

    1. Rachel Carson. Silent Spring

“It was written in the 60s or so, but it is a good indicator of what things would be like if we don’t manage our resources and our environment properly. It is fiction, it is a fictional account on the future without natural resources.”

    2. Edward Abbey. Short Stories. “He worked at Western National Park in sixties, seventies, and eighties and he has some insides into things. He is also interesting and humorous.”

    3. Patrick McManus. Short Stories. The author “doesn’t write about parks or system. He writes about his childhood and adulthood in the outdoors doing recreational activities. And he has a lot of good insides as well as some humorous stories.”

 Susan Williams. Associate Professor of Recreation and Tourism Management.

    1.  Danny Meyers. Setting The Table. The book is “a must for anyone studying hospitality or who aspires to be a successful entrepreneur.”

    2.  “All National Geographic Magazines!”

    3.  Alain de Botton. The Art of Travel.  “One on my to-read list. It’s been recommended to me as a great read to learn about what motivates us to travel.”