Commuter City

On the eve of the railway age, London was the worlds largest and most populous city and one of the most congested. Traffic-clogged roads and tightly packed buildings meant that travel across the city was tortuous, time-consuming and unpleasant. Then came the railways. They transformed the city and set it on a course of extraordinary development that created the metropolis of the present day. This is story that David Wragg explores in his fascinating new book. He considers the impact of the railways on London and the Home Counties and analyzes the decisions taken by the railway companies, Parliament and local government. He also describes the disruptive effect of the railways which could not be built without massive upheaval. His study of the railway phenomenon will be thought-provoking reading for anyone who is keen to understand the citys expansion and the layout of the capital today.

With the current rise of metropolitan regions as a present location and driver of the development of rural tourism, agritourism, food tourism and nature tourism, there is a need to analyse the major economic, social, political and managerial aspects of these types of tourism which occur within the rural-urban fringe. This book establishes a current inventory and appropriate future selection of commuter belt tourism products for metropolitan areas. It also explains how public and private resources can be combined to achieve synergistic effects in tourism promotion and provides a structural analysis for the proper management of tourist organisations in metropolitan areas. Additionally, there is insight into how the development of metropolitan areas affects rural tourism and agritourism within broader social, economic and environmental relations. The issue of the growth of metropolitan areas, which is a complex and multifaceted challenge, is elaborated on with diverse examples in Poland and further afield. This is valuable reading for students, researchers and academics of tourism, as well as rural and urban studies, business management, farm management, and leisure studies.