Tourism affects millions of individuals, numerous societies and environments in multiple, nuanced and overlapping ways. While it can be viewed as a frivolous leisure pursuit or simply a large industry, with potentially destructive impacts, it might also be understood in terms of its effects on human fulfilment, the good life and greater well-being.

This book calls for positive tourism, principally grounded in theories from positive psychology (the study of what makes life worth living), and the development of a body of knowledge that explains what characterises optimal tourist experiences, what enables host communities to flourish and what encourages workers in tourism to thrive. Through original research studies reported in this international volume we aim to further develop this knowledge. The intersections between ongoing and traditionally inspired applications of psychology in tourism and this new thrust in psychological inquiry promise to refresh and challenge tourism research.

This book will appeal to researchers and academics in tourism, leisure, positive psychology, management and related fields as well as graduate students, professionals and policy makers.

"In conclusion, this well written edited book achieves to further knowledge on optimal tourist experiences but more importantly has started documenting research on worker well-being and host-community well-being through the lens of positive psychology... the value of this book, particularly for researchers, lies as much in what is presented making an original contribution to knowledge as in highlighting what is missing or where our attention in tourism research should be."

Heike Schänzel, School of Hospitality & Tourism, Auckland University of Technology

Sebastian Filep is Senior Lecturer at the Tourism Department, University of Otago, New Zealand. He specialises in tourism and well-being research. He has published internationally in peer-reviewed academic journals and books on the topic of human well-being. Jennifer Laing is Associate Professor in Management in the Department of Management and Marketing, La Trobe University, Australia. Her research interests include extraordinary tourist experiences, the role of events in society, travel narratives and wellness tourism. She has co-written five and edited two books on tourism and/or events. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Management and Founding Co-Director of the Quality of Life Research Centre, Claremont Graduate University, USA. He is noted for his work on happiness, but is best known as the architect of the notion of flow.