Tourism in the Antarctic: opportunities, constraints and future prospects.

Bauer, T.G. (2001) New York: Haworth Hopitality Press. 275 pages, ISBN 0-7890-1104-2.

In Tourism in the Antarctic, Thomas G. Bauer addresses the issues of current and future commercial and environmental sustainability of tourism in the Antarctic. This aim is reflected in the eight chapters

of the book, which commence by introducing the conflicts and opportunities of tourism in the Antarctic (chapter 1). Following the introduction, the book moves on to other topics such as a review of fragile tourism environments and lessons learnt for sustainability (chapter 2); the history of human contact, geography, flora and fauna of Antarctica (chapter 3); visitor profiles, attractions, activities, amenities and tourism products available (chapter 4); an analysis of whether tourism in the Antarctic is at present sustainable, based on a review of current secondary sources (chapter 5); profiles of current travellers (chapter 6); forecast of tourism demand, development and environmental impacts, and sustainability of tourism in the future (chapter 7); and a review of the strengths and weaknesses of operational measures in place for Antarctic tourism (chapter 8).

This book is one of the best written tourism texts I have ever read. It engages the reader from the start with its documentary-style writing. The descriptions of the continent and its unique flora and fauna and other geographic characteristics are so vivid that the reader feels almost as if they are actually experiencing the continent.

Overall, this book is a must-read for those interested in tourism or in commencing research into this field, or for anyone who is travel-hungry. The author provides a comprehensive introduction to the issues that need to be considered from tourism, marketing and environmental perspectives in the Antarctic. Especially noteworthy are the author's range of personal experiences in the Antarctic and the fact that this book is based on a PhD thesis, which enable him to bring issues to light from both a theoretical and applied perspective. The book is objective in that the author raises and discusses issues using factual, detailed and broadly referenced materials, thereby allowing the reader to make an informed decision about issues such as sustainability.

Of course there is room for minor improvements, particularly in two areas. The first could be made in chapter 2, which describes remote and fragile environments where tourism has been operating for years. The aim of this chapter is to describe, and compare and contrast, models of tourism in fragile environments to ascertain whether sustainable tourism can be achieved and, if so, what lessons can be learnt. While the descriptions of each of these destination are rich and comprehensive, the conclusions reached are very brief and do not adequately outline the main findings discerned through these cases. The emphasis of the concluding remarks is mainly on the Galapagos Islands, when in fact the author has described other similar fragile areas that provide further insights into tourism sustainability.

A second area for improvement can be noted on page 72 of chapter 4, which discusses the five-step decision-making process that consumers go through when making a decision to purchase travel. The author applies only four of the five steps in the decision-making process, omitting the third step of alternative evaluation. Furthermore, the author has incorporated elements of other steps of the decision-making process into the second step (information search). For example, the author has put the issue of where travellers booked their trip in the information search stage when it should have been in the purchase stage.

The advantages of having such a well-documented, comprehensive and interesting overview of the Antarctic, its opportunities, constraints and future development, far outweigh the book's minor deficiencies and I would strongly recommend it to anyone who has an interest in tourism and travel.

Hoda McClymont

University of Southern Queensland