Book excerpt: This text is a revision and update of the sixth edition of Introduction to Commercial and Entrepreneurial Recreation and Tourism, and it continues the themes of that edition. As in all the previous editions, the entrepreneurism theme is a very key orientation of this text. We view this industry as having three major components: the Travel Industry, the Hospitality Industry, and the Local Commercial Recreation Industry, and we will continue to use the term Commercial Recreation and Tourism to refer to the entire industry. The purpose of this edition remains the same as the first four editions; to provide an introduction to the scope, characteristics, management aspects, and trends of the commercial recreation and tourism industry. It is intended that the book offer a blend of conceptual and practical material to achieve a basic understanding of this huge and diverse industry. While some of the content is oriented toward large and established businesses, the text also has an entrepreneurial orientation that is particularly applicable to smaller businesses and organizations. Hopefully, many future commercial recreation and tourism entrepreneurs will gain some useful ideas in these pages. As with earlier editions, this text will avoid coverage of content that is usually included in other texts, such as recreation philosophy, leisure behavior theory, activity leadership, generic recreation programming, management theory, staff supervision, facility planning/design, legal liability, accounting principles, etc. However, we will cover several topics that have received little attention in other commercial recreation and tourism texts. These topics include entrepreneurial strategies, applied economic concepts, business start-ups, steps of the feasibility study, operations management, and several specific types of programs in commercial recreation and tourism. Finally, the content is presented in a way that parallels a logical course sequence. That is, from general to specific as explained below. The first three chapters provide an introduction to the overall commercial recreation and tourism industry including history, definitions, economic impacts, profile of the entrepreneur, entrepreneurial strategies, economic concepts, challenges and general strategies to overcome barriers. Chapters 4 through 8 present content about the initiation and management of the commercial recreation and tourism enterprise. The information is intended to have general application to the overall industry, even though there are specific differences between the diverse sub-industries. Content includes business start-up strategies, feasibility studies, financing sources, financial management, marketing, operations management, and some specific types of programming. Chapters 9 through 11 narrow the focus to the three major categories of the industry: travel, hospitality, and local commercial recreation. Each chapter examines the status, operations, trends, and opportunities in numerous specific types of industries. Another reason to hold this content until the end is to buy time to allow students to investigate these industries on their own as part of a major class project. An industry report is a good idea for a project or term paper, particularly if the student relates the text content to examples found in the students desired area of career employment. We decided to delete the 12th chapter that concluded previous texts. The reasons that we decided to do this are that we decided to include industry trends within each of the three prior chapters. We also decided that the section of the previous text that focused on academic preparation for students, was better left to the faculty members who teach the course. The authors updated much of the content, particularly the content that related to specific industry data. On the other hand, conceptual content that remains relevant, was changed little. Many new references were used for the new material. This text was developed for a variety of uses. The primary purpose is, of course, as a textbook for an introductory course in commercial recreation and tourism. The text could also function as an introduction to the overall industry for majors in travel/tourism or hotel management. Whatever the academic use, a course instructor should try to supplement the text concepts with local examples. Hopefully, the text may also be of value to investors and practitioners in specific industries who seek an overview of the entire commercial recreation and tourism industry. Although there are many separate sub-industries, it is very common for success in one industry to be related to events in another industry. For example, hotels, restaurants, and shops in a ski destination probably wont fill up if the ski mountain operation is not updated with modern high-speed lifts or snowmaking equipment to guarantee a good base for the Christmas season. Similarly, all these businesses may be very dependent on a single airline company to fly tourists in for their ski vacation. It should also be pointed out that the choice of gender nouns he or she throughout the text was made by random selections. As the commercial recreation and tourism industry matures, males and females seem to be less relegated to stereotypical roles either as staff, managers, or owners. With great enthusiasm, three new co-authors have joined our team to write this seventh edition. They are Dr. Scott Rood, Dr. Kate-Price Howard, and Dr. Andrew Holdnak. All three bring exceptional and practical knowledge about the commercial recreation and tourism industry. Finally, Dr. Lynn Jamieson has decided to retire from her many years as one of the two founding authors of this text. We will miss her great attitude, professionalism, and knowledge.