This book was motivated by several factors, including (a) a desire to acknowledge a debt to past teachers and friends, (b) to provide a text that showed the linkages between past and present research in the application of psychological theories to tourist behaviour and (c) to provide that text within one volume that could be accessible to students and those commencing research into the nature of visitor experiences.

So, from the perspective of the first author, the book is dedicated to Charles Perkins, the only teacher that really kindled in me a sense of curiosity when I was a schoolboy, to Emeritus Professor Eric Hall of Nottingham University who introduced me to humanistic psychology when I studied for my MEd (Psychology) and to my dear friend, the late Philip Pearce, who like me had a qualification in psychology. Phil so sadly passed away far too soon, and I have fond memories of him, whether teaching clapping songs to one of my doctoral students, or of an extremely pleasant afternoon we spent on a drive to Hobbiton in New Zealand, along with many other occasions. He was a delight and of course, a challenge as we compared our different perspectives. As I finish this book, yet another fond colleague has also passed away, and that was Keith Hollinshead. With Phil, I drank wine and with Keith, beer. Both left an indefinable but definite mark on my memory and work.

The book was also motivated by a comment made by a review of my teaching curriculum for a second-year undergraduate degree course, namely, why are so few of the papers being cited in journals like Tourism Management being drawn from earlier years?