Tourism in the 21st Century: Lessons from Experience.

B. Faulkner, G. Moscardo, and E. Laws (Editors) (2000) Continuum, London RRP $US41.95 ISBN 0826448283

Tourism in the 21st Century is comprised of 18 chapters in three parts. Part one, "Forms of Tourist Activity", covers several types of tourism that have begun to receive considerable

academic and industry attention in recent years and which will no doubt receive more attention as the 21st century continues to unfold. Key themes here include cultural and heritage tourism, tourism as a tool for effecting world peace, nature-based and ecotourism, wine tourism, and short-break tourism. Part two focuses on issues and trends in tourism management, including the linkages between transportation and tourism, the management of tourist attractions, issues surrounding festival management, the role of information technology in today's tourism industry, managing and marketing destinations, and issues in public sector involvement. The third section, "The Researcher's Gaze towards the New Millennium", covers important issues related to the booming academic side of tourism, namely qualitative research, tourist behavior research, the destination life cycle, the sustainability debate, issues of globalisation and economics, and the future of tourism research.

In addition to the chapters, each section is headed by a short 2-3 page preface, which does a nice job of setting the tone for the chapters that follow and links their primary themes together in a cohesive manner. Each of the three sections was prepared by a different editor, which appears to be an efficient and insightful way of dividing editorial tasks. The range of topics and approaches in the book demonstrates the current nature of tourism as a highly fragmented activity. It provides excellent coverage of tourism issues ranging from the historical development of destinations and travel to the modern-day issues of conservation and information technology.

Given that this book is large in chapter numbers and includes such a wide range of issues and topics, the editors and contributors should be commended for their work. The volume reads well. It is well edited, and overall it covers many of the most critical tourism issues that have become obvious in the late twentieth century. While the editors themselves acknowledge that their coverage of "hot topics" is limited in breadth, the depth of the subjects covered is laudable. Likewise, the concluding chapter is nicely written in a futuristic manner and reasonably links the book's themes together.

While not necessarily a strength or a weakness, it should be noted that some of the chapters are largely conceptual with little empirical support, while others are more empirical, utilising case studies, without a great deal of conceptual foundation. In a sense this creates a feeling of imbalance, although this is not a major concern. Nonetheless, many of the chapters lend considerable clarity to concepts that have been mulled around for years. For example, the chapter by Lawton and Weaver does a nice job of clarifying the differences between ecotourism and nature-based tourism.

Although the book has many strengths, there are a few minor weaknesses that ought to be considered. First, several issues that are critically important for the new century and millennium were missing or received only scant attention. Some of these could have quite easily been slotted in existing chapters or merited chapters of their own. One example is the notion of supranationalism. The chapter on globalisation, which is really more about economic impacts and multipliers than it is about globalisation, could have quite easily included a discussion about the implications of supranational alliances (e.g., EU, NAFTA, ASEAN, etc) on tourism. The absence of these in the chapter section "Tourism and International Trade" creates a notable void. Another theme that is of paramount importance in the 21st century, which began its ascent in the 1990s is cooperation /collaboration. Fortunately, chapter 11 discusses cooperation in destination marketing, but the now well-established paradigm of collaboration could have fit nicely in nearly all of the discussions throughout the book.

A few minor referencing quirks were also noted, such as inconsistencies in citation style, and interestingly in one of the chapters the author references the very chapter she was writing for this book! This reviewer has never seen this done before.

These minor criticisms notwithstanding, this book is an interesting and useful contribution to the growing tourism literature. While the entire book might not meet the needs of each reader, readers can go through the book and glean from relevant chapters information that is well consolidated and clearly written. Overall, this is a high quality text with only minimal errors and omissions. No doubt the experience of the authors and editors contributes to this. The work is reflective of, and consistent with, other quality standards of Faulkner, Moscardo, and Laws. Bill Faulkner's work in the past has made a considerable impact on tourism scholarship, and with his passing his expertise will be missed.

As stated by the editors, the aim of the book is to "provide a series of reflections on aspects of tourism development in the twentieth century in order to produce a foundation for considering key issues and challenges in the 21st century" (p. xvi). Given the range of topical coverage and depth of understanding provided in most chapters, this goal has clearly been met. This book should be required reading for graduate courses and upper-level undergraduate courses on topics of general tourism interest.

Dallen J. Timothy
Department of Recreation Management and Tourism
Arizona State University, USA