ARTICLE IN PRESS

doi:10.1016/j.to

Tourism Management 28 (2007) 637–639

www.elsevier.com/locate/tourman

Book review

Taking Tourism to the Limits: Issues, Concepts and

Managerial Perspectives, Chris Ryan, Stephen J. Page,

Michelle Aicken. Oxford, Elsevier (2005) (xxii+302, £57.99

(hardback)), ISBN: 0080446442.

Taking Tourism to the Limits is a selected collection ofpapers from the December 2003 conference of the sametitle, hosted by Waikato University, New Zealand, andpublished within the series Advances in Tourism Research.Published conference collections do not often make themost coherent read. The range of publications is necessa-rily limited to the papers submitted to the conference,demanding a coming together in time and space ofpotential authors—and so, no pun intended, setting anobvious limit to the range and depth of potentialcontributors. This can present problems for the editors tomeld together the raw material that they are presentedwith. Moreover, in the now customary drive to break-even(sometimes much more than break-even) to satisfyuniversity administrators, there can be slippage with regardto the style, length and topic focus of submissions that areaccepted. So, it is all the more pleasing to find a collectionof conference papers that largely avoids the pitfalls aboveand, for the most part, is both well integrated and containspapers that are interesting, informative, well researchedand well written.

Chapter 1 of the book dives in at the deep end with anattempt to conceptualise ‘the limit’. In one sense, theensuing philosophical debate is disconcerting so early in thetext. Within the first paragraph Ryan and Aicken makemention of the rationalism of the enlightenment, J.S Mill’sutilitarianism and 20th century modernism. With all duerespect most students, including post-graduates (oneintended audience), would find this hard going. There istoo much assumed knowledge. This is compounded byobtuse turns of phrase. I am still not sure what is meant by‘dialogic process if questioning and answer’ (p. 1) thatapparently linked the different perspectives opened up bythe conference theme. On the other hand, a conceptualisa-tion is certainly called for in such a collection of papers. Ithastens along the melding process. Moreover, as authorsand researchers and teachers we can frequently burrowaway in our own specialist areas and rarely sit back andreflect in a more holistic manner. So it is good whensomebody else does it for us and thus provokes our ownreflection. The opening introductory chapter to this

urman.2006.09.002

compilation does this—more rather than less. More,through a listing of 12 different interpretations of ‘thelimit’ and some perceptive points on tourism research suchas its growing ‘particularism and contextualisation’ (p. 3).Less through the philosophical overdose that is offered. Atleast so early in the piece, for one must agree with a latercomment by Page that ‘Whilst empiricism is certainly theeasy option for many researchers, more philosophical andtheoretical debates are now neededy’ (p. 80).A guiding steer is also offered at the start of each of the

five sections of the book. This is welcome and certainlyadds some necessary coherence—and projects the impres-sion of logical purpose. For example, as a steer for Section1 (Tourism Planning and Development), Page provides anopening chapter (pp. 9–14) that delivers a rapid overviewof the state of tourism planning and management. It drawson key recent academic discussions and a practical knowl-edge of planning—especially as related to Scotland andNew Zealand. The choice of planning and management insuch a collection is made to seem judicious insomuch as‘planning helps to set the limits of tourism if it can fullyunderstand the scope and wide-ranging effects on thelocalities it affects’ (p. 13). Each of the subsequent chaptersin Section 1 is indeed interesting, informative, wellresearched and well written. For example, Ruhanen andCooper in Chapter 5 (pp. 53–63), advocate the benefits ofthe (relatively new) strategic visioning approach to tourismdestination planning. They set strategic visioning withinthe wider tourism planning process and then apply it to theexample of the Tweed Shire, New South Wales, Australia.As such the paper successfully fuses the general and thespecific. As another example, Kemp in Chapter 6(pp. 65–74), details the process of involving the communityand other stakeholders of the Macarthur region of GreaterWestern Sydney in developing collaborative vision, goalsand strategies—so creating a distinctive identity, and asense of ownership to underpin regional tourism strategy.Their action learning process pushes ‘the limit’ by outlininga new methodology and approach to an aspect of tourismplanning.Sometimes, on the other hand, the connection to the

conference theme is not always obvious. In the otherwisefine papers of Mitchell-Banks in Chapter 3 (pp. 15–31) andArrowsmith, Zanon and Chhetri in Chapter 4 (pp. 35–52)there is no specific mention of how the paper takes tourismto the limit. In the latter case the authors presumablyconsider that their innovative research techniques, that

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combine global positioning systems (GPS) and on-sitesurveys to identify behaviour patterns within a nationalpark setting, lie at the limit of convention. This is certainlythe case—but perhaps all conference organisers (andeditors) should insist that all presenters address theconference theme directly at some stage of a conferencepaper. Despite the introductory overviews in this Section(and subsequent Sections), it is sometimes left to the readerto recognise the relevance of the paper to the wider whole.Of course, this should not be an especially difficult task—but it is useful to get an author’s view, too, on how theyreckon that their paper is relevant to a conference theme.

Section 2 collects papers under the theme of Nature-based Tourism. The introductory steer by Page (pp. 78–81)is notable as a clear and coherent attempt to set the papersin a theoretical context. This is carried forward by most ofthe ensuing chapters. For example, Duffy in Chapter 9 (pp.99–112) explores the political dimension of ecotourism,especially neo-liberalism. From a consideration of theliterature, Duffy argues ‘that tourism is inter-related withone particular strand of globalisation, namely the exten-sion of development ideas and policies that are informedand defined by neo-liberalism’ (p. 101). Through anapplication to Madagascar, Duffy concludes that ‘areliance on eco-tourism and the market may not providea long-term conservation or development strategy’ (p. 112).This chapter offers such an easy fusion of (philosophical)discussion and applied knowledge as to act as an exemplarof its type. It would encourage a new post-graduate studentto engage with the philosophical alongside the empirical.

Section 3, on Adventure and Sport Tourism, againprovides papers that are interesting and well written,although without the depth of the previous section.Perhaps this is inevitable in a (still) less-researched areaof study. Some chapters are truly exploratory in nature. Inthe steer (pp. 143–147) Ryan and Trauer adapt a frame-work they developed in 2004 and then attempt to providesome linkage between the chapters—whilst rather ambiva-lently suggesting that the chapters provide only ‘variousdegrees of evidence for the framework’. So, work inprogress. No doubt in the conference paper there wasplenty of follow up conversation (the ‘dialogic process ofquestion and answer’?) both in and outside the formalpresentations. Proceedings and edited books, however welldone, can only go so far.

In contrast to Section 3, it might be argued that theliterature on Dark Tourism, the subject of Section 4, hasdeveloped far and apace since the work of Seaton (1996) orLennon and Foley (2000). Initially, one might query whydark tourism deserves a space within the conferencetheme—even if one sides with the view of Ryan (p. 190)that dark tourism is a specific type of tourism experienceand not just part of a wider trend to engage in sight-involving experience rather than sight-seeing experience(Boniface, 2001, p. 36 quoted p. 188). But commercialofferings (such as the often quoted opportunity to followJFKs assassination route from the airport in Dallas

through Dealey Plaza and onward to the ParklandMemorial Hospital—seated in a Lincoln Continental) doseem to lie on the extreme limit of accepted taste, yet aloneethics, even over 40 years since the event. Therein lies ajustification. Moreover, the papers in Section 4 do movethings on from a conceptual point of view. For example,Smith and Croy, in Chapter 19 (pp. 199–213), note boththe popularity of research on dark tourism and also how itis still in its infancy as regards definition (a commonsituation in tourism research that the editors decry onmany occasions). Accordingly, Smith and Croy redefinethe term and extend its scope to include personalisationof response (p. 201). Sharpley also, in Chapter 20(pp. 215–232), develops an interesting motivational typol-ogy for dark tourism (or what he calls on p. 225 ‘shades ofgrey tourism’) through the linkage of both the providersand the consumers of such experiences. His pithy title‘Travels to the Edge of Darkness: Towards a Typology ofDark Tourism’ helps to convince, too, that the subjectmatter is indeed out there close to some limit.Not so Section 5, the final Section of the book that deals

with the Accommodation Sector. This reviewer is sur-rounded by hospitality professionals who have arguedsince the early 1990s that, as Ryan expresses it (p. 232), ‘theaccommodation sector is not simply an ancillary to tourismas it is perhaps often contended, but increasingly a tourismproduct in its own right’. Such a statement is almost atruism rather than a new thought. Indeed, with a back-wards glance to the conceptualisation at the start of thebook it is difficult to see where exactly the accommodationsector squeezes in. And if accommodation is considered,why not also consider each and every other sector of thetourism industry?But this and other criticisms should not detract from

what is an admirable, focussed and yet eclectic collection ofpapers, good and sometimes very good on theory and theapplication of theory and also knotted together in a farsuperior form to many other such efforts. There is indeedmuch in this book that deserves to be thought through bythe post-graduate market and several copies should findthemselves on to the reference shelves of all worthwhileuniversities. The book does not lose sight of its managerialperspectives and whilst practising managers might findthemselves busy with other things, managers of the future,currently in university, should find much to stimulatethem—and, indeed, enthuse them to attend some upcomingconferences.Of course, the chosen themes for the sections do not

comprehensively match the 12 different interpretations of‘the limit’ (p. 2). Indeed, some of the interpretations arehardly touched on. But a really tight congruity betweenwhat the conference organisers (and editors) conceive andwhat the conference going public deliver would be unlikelygiven that the papers emerge from the one conferencerather than a series of conferences on the same theme—or awider collection of papers through time. And therein lies afinal thought. How interesting would it be to compare this

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view of the limit with further views in 5 years or 10 yearstime?

References

Boniface, P. (2001). Dynamic tourism: Journeying with change. Clevedon:

Channel View Publications.

Lennon, J., & Foley, M. (2000). Dark tourism: The attraction of death and

disaster. London: Continuum.

Seaton, A. V. (1996n). Guided by the dark: From thanatopsis to

thanatourism. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 2(4), 234–244.

David BowenBusiness School, Department of Hospitality, Leisure and

Tourism Management, Oxford Brookes University,

Gypsy Lane Campus, Oxford OX3 0BP, England

E-mail address: dbowen@brookes.ac.uk.