In this book Harold L. Vogel comprehensively and holistically examines the business economics and investment aspects of major components of the travel industry, including airlines, hotels, casinos, amusement and theme parks, cruise lines, and tourism. The book is designed as an economics-grounded text that uniquely integrates reviews of each sector's history with economics, accounting, and financial aspects and analysis. As such, it provides a concise, up-to-date reference guide for financial analysts, economists, industry executives, legislators and regulators, advertisers, and journalists interested in the economics, financing, and marketing of travel and tourism-related goods and services. The fourth edition of this well-established text updates, refreshes, and significantly broadens the coverage of tourism economics. It includes new sections on travel law and applications of big data and artificial intelligence technologies as well as additional material on demographic spending patterns, the online travel agency business, the pandemic's effects and affects on industry finances, expanded coverage of the cruise line industry, and information on the damage to tourist destinations caused by excessive pollution and traffic.

Harold (Hal) L. Vogel was the senior entertainment industry analyst at Merrill Lynch and was inducted into the Institutional Investor magazine's All-America Research Team Hall of Fame. He is a chartered financial analyst (C.F.A.) and served on the New York State Governor's Motion Picture and Television Advisory Board, as an adjunct professor at Columbia University's Business School, and taught at the Cass Business School in London. He earned his Ph.D. in financial economics from the University of London and currently runs an independent investment and consulting firm in New York City while often writing and speaking on investment topics related to travel and tourism, entertainment and media, and extreme market events. His books include Entertainment Industry Economics 10th edition (2020), published by Cambridge University Press, Financial Market Bubbles and Crashes: Features, Causes, and Effects, second edition (2018) published by Palgrave Macmillan, and Travel Industry Economics 4th edition (2021) published by Springer.