ARTICLE IN PRESSBook reviews / Tourism Management 29 (2008) 821–830826

temper the dose of theory with a practical reminder of whylanguage is so important and different in the Chinese contextcompared to, say, European languages in their context:

(The) differences are not just a rather esoteric field ofdiscussion for the followers of Saussure, Lacan orBaudrillard, but constitute the basic mindset of theChinese civilisation and therefore also influence thebehaviour of Chinese outbound tourists (p. 107).

Chapter 6, Destinations of Chinese outbound tourism,finds Arlt operating in a real comfort zone. He provides thedetails, the anecdotes, the issues and the story to sweep thereader through the outbound tourist experience of Chinesetourists in many specific countries in Asia (border tourismdestinations such as the Russian Far East; Hong Kong andMacao, pioneer VFR countries such as Thailand) Aus-tralia, New Zealand, Japan and Europe.

Chapter 7, Product adaptation and marketing of tourism

destinations and products is a natural follow-up to thepreceding chapters. Destination managers in Europe andNorth America could usefully think through the summarytable of what Chinese visitors want and what they get(p. 201) and carefully consider Arlt’s simple but keyobservation and argument that ‘Chinese tourists abroadsee themselves as Chinese tourists’ (p. 200). So, forexample, ‘Providing Chinese language written informationand signage is not only helpful to the individual Chinesetraveller, but shows respect to all Chinese and China ingeneral by acknowledging its importance in the world.’(p. 202). The need, too, to stress the role of thematisedviews and stories, real and imagined, in an interpretationof, say, landscape also highlights the importance ofChineseness—and strongly contrasts with western ideasof nature. Chapter 8, Consequences of China’s outbound

tourism development for tourism studies follows up on thecultural pitfalls that await the academic as well as thepractitioner. It concentrates on the western orientation oftourism research and takes several established academics totask for their misreading of tourism situations involvingoutbound Chinese tourists. Worse, the Chinese case isoften disregarded—as in Reisinger and Turner (2003).

The final chapter, The future of China’s outbound tourism

presents the argument for viewing 2005 as a new phase of

China’s modern outbound tourism—the increase of out-bound travel stayed within single digits and the touristsbecame more selective; ‘unabashed enthusiasm’ (p. 220) forChinese outbound tourism gave way to some concerns andirritations as in Australia; and the Chinese governmentoffered a more positive view on outbound tourism, whilstalso attempting some initiatives to regulate both theadministrative behaviour of tour operators and the generalbehaviour of tourists. The chapter also generalises onfuture travel motivations—shopping, gambling and ‘affir-mation of national pride’ (p. 223) overlaid by enhancementof status within the group; the forms of travel—mainlygroup, even without the ADS system but also some growthin individual travel; and, finally, the hot location—NorthAmerica.On occasion, there are paragraphs that need some

further editing and sometimes Arlt skims through atheoretical area that could be left aside (as on p. 218 withjust one paragraph covering mobility). But, China’s Out-

bound Tourism is well worth a very close read. It is rare tofind a tourism book that you cannot put down. But even ifyou take a rest from this book it draws you back quickly.It is full of detail, linked to theory, based in practical realityand, of course, highly relevant. It will surely become amarker for future study.

References

Dann, G. M. S. (1996). The language of tourism. A sociolinguistic

perspective. Wallingford: CABI.

Hofstede, G. (2003). Culture’s consequences. comparing values, behaviors,

institutions and organisations across nations (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks:

Sage.

MacCannell, D. (1999). The tourist. A new theory of the leisure class.

Berkeley: University of California Press.

Reisinger, Y., & Turner, L. W. (2003). Cross cultural behaviour in tourism,

concepts and analysis. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.

Zhang, W. (1997). China’s domestic tourism: Impetus, development and

trends. Tourism Management, 18(8), 565–571.

David BowenBusiness School, Department of Hospitality, Leisure and

Tourism Management, Oxford Brookes University, Gypsy

Lane Campus, Oxford, OX3 0BP England, UK

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

doi:10.1016/j.tourman.2007.07.004

Adventure tourism, R. Buckley (Ed.). CABI, Wallingford,

Oxfordshire OX10 8DE CABI (2007). pp. xix+515 (pbk),

ISBN: 1-84593-122-X

This is a very interesting, lucid and comprehensive bookfocussing on the actual commercial products offered by

adventure tourism operators as experienced by the author(Authors actually, since there are six contributing authorsin addition to Ralf Buckley as both the editor and themajor contributor). This makes for a very personal accountof many of the ‘adventures’ described; an approach thatadds some measure of weight and authenticity to anarrative dominated by brief descriptions of commercial

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operations within each of the component subsectors ofadventure tourism. In all, there are 27 chapters, 6 generaland theoretical and 19 sub-sectoral case studies, plus thepreface, introduction and conclusion; and over 100 retaillevel, individual adventure tour product descriptions aspart of the case study material. Analysed to a set format,each tour is however dissected from an intensely personalpoint of view, with much anecdotal evidence of perfor-mance and impact rather than rigorous analysis.

Is this a novel approach? Well, yes, but it works, and notonly because many of the adventure tourism products areinteresting in themselves. Professor Buckley manages totightly control the disparate subject matter well through adouble introduction (using a preface to outline theaccepted definitions of the industry and the approach ofthe book, and a normal introduction to look at theimplications of the commercialisation of adventure experi-ences). This method, along with a literature review inChapter 2 and a discussion of the set format of the casestudies in Chapter 3, sets the scene for those case studies.He notes that the bread and butter of the industry is in‘soft’ adventures (perhaps the archetypal ones are horsetrekking in National Parks and some white-water raftingexperiences), which are expanding in appeal to masstourism, while the ‘high end’ lies in high-cost, high skill-based and extremely risky small group tours designed onlyfor the very experienced. The defining differential char-acteristic here though is level of skill, not risk, since risk isconsequential on preparation and approach as much as onthe nature of the experience itself.

This approach also makes no apology for differentiatingbetween aspects of adventure tourism based on commercialtour products rather than on destinations or generaliseddescriptions of leisure activities. This means little previousliterature is extant to be surveyed, thus making this bookone of the first of its kind in the tourism literature.Nevertheless, the authors do make an attempt to place eachof their contributions in a wider context of the structure ofthe industry, its economics, the psychology of participants,risk analysis, codes of conduct and the like, despite thefact that much of the material is describing actual practiceat ground level. The resultant analyses take on the form ofan audit, and this does pose some difficulties for theauthors in that this approach is essentially limited andbased on personal choice and/or personal experiences. Itcan only produce snapshots of the adventure tourismindustry and cannot answer broader questions—it is notabout planning, economic impact, or psychological factors,it is not about travel magazine material, and it is not aboutindependent outdoor recreation. Nor does it coverexperiences not open to English speaking participants orsubsectors not directly experienced by Prof. Buckley or hiscontributors.

Having said that, any general reader or student willdiscover in this book a really extensive set of actualadventure experiences, commercially packaged for thetourist, and therefore tried and tested (certainly by the

author(s)!), and in most cases immediately available fortesting themselves. Much relies on a personal audit of up to40 years of experience and is therefore not terriblyanalytical, but it is certainly interesting and informative. Inthe type of audit chosen it is hard to reach any depth inindividual sections, but the sector summaries are very wellwritten as we would expect from a scholar of ProfessorBuckley’s stature, and more than make up for the oftensparse descriptions of individual experiences.Space in this review does not allow description of the

material in the 19 chapters of case studies in any greaterdepth, and in any event each reader will perhaps only beinterested in the descriptions of experiences that theythemselves have had or might wish to try. Particularhighlights for this reviewer are no different; I mustdeclare a predilection for all things to do with whitewater,sailing, off-road safaris, and hiking, and an aversion toheights, ice, and aerial activities without powered flightassistance! The chosen material in this book doesshow however the importance of international standardisa-tion in products offered, in the qualifications required oftour operators and guides, in their training, and inthe infrastructures available to support individual activ-ities. It also shows that adventure tourism, while oftencriticised as an impact activity in many environments, isperhaps unfairly labelled when compared to the normalactivities of communities in the same areas. This is becauseit is still of a relatively small scale, and if carried outresponsibly has very little actual impact on surroundingenvironments.The final four general chapters provide a more usual form

of analysis, in that they deal with questions of whatconstitutes an adventure destination, what backs up the label‘Adventure Capital of the World’, cross-case analyses (safetyand environmental management for particular types ofadventure), and a further analysis of product patterns. Theseare again very well-written and informative, the best examplebeing Chapter 23 by Buckley, Johnson & Ollenburg, whichcovers the clustering effect of adventure tours based onlocations such as Victoria Falls, Nepal, and the Great BarrierReef, and the approximately 17 locations that are the self-styled ‘Adventure Capitals of the World’. The latter iselaborated upon by Cater in Chapter 24 in respect ofQueenstown, New Zealand, where many of the iconic‘adventure’ tours such as bungy jumping were first developed.The book finishes with the standard conclusion, but

again this is in two parts, traditional conclusion and anepilogue. Buckley identifies 12 trends and patterns withinthe adventure tourism industry as his final word on thistopic which, while not subject to intensive analysis serve topoint out the major changes in this industry over the pastfew years and those which are likely into the future,especially in policy implication terms. He also makes thepoint that growth and change in the industry has not beenparalleled by similar changes in research in this area,especially in respect of analyses of commercial adventuretourism products. In all respects this is a most useful and

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thoughtful book that can be recommended to both thelayperson interested in deeper analyses of particularadventure tourism products and to the student seeking tounderstand and perhaps research this industry.

Malcolm CooperGraduate School of Asia Pacific Studies, Ritsumeikan Asia

Pacific University, Beppu, Japan

E-mail address: cooperm@apu.ac.jp

doi:10.1016/j.tourman.2007.08.005

Services Marketing Management, Peter Mudie, Angela

Pirrie. 3rd ed. Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford (2006).

267pp., ISBN: 0-7506-6674-9

The authors note that the book is introduced to build onthe success of the previous two editions, formerly entitledThe Management and Marketing of Services, to provide aneasily digestible approach to the service industry with aspecific focus on the management and marketing elements.In this edition, expanding the content, more emphasis hasalready been given to such topics as the impact of callcentres and the significance of technology, organizationalclimate, relationship marketing and yield management. Tothis end, with my initial feeling, I agree with the note thatthis edition is particularly suitable for undergraduatestudents undertaking marketing, business and hospitalitycourses who require a good grounding in the basicprinciples of services marketing. However, the contentkeeps the book to remain far from such an optimisticfeeling to suggest as a reference book for postgraduatestudents, researchers or practitioners.

With 267 pages including index, this book is laid out in12 chapters. In the opening chapter, the definition, generalcharacteristics and problems confronting the developmentof services marketing are reviewed and placed in terms ofthe transformation of services through using technologyand mass production in the case of McDonaldization. Thebook begins firstly asking the most popular and challen-ging question ‘‘what is this thing called service?’’ taking itsoriginal style from a paper written with the same title byJohns (1999). In Chapters 2–6, considered as the back-ground information, the authors examine a range of topicsin relation to the organization and design of services,service settings and encounters. From Chapter 7 onwards,there is a mixture of materials, some are related purely withservices management such as managing people or perfor-mance measurement while some others partly point to theline of services marketing such as relationship marketingand monitoring or evaluation of services.

From an optimistic point of view, the strength of thisbook lies in its way of presentation as points made areillustrated or supported through some practical examplestaken from various countries, not heavily focusing on aspecific country or organization or even industry. One maynote the example given in relation to the deviant behaviorof employees working at a flight company and thecommunication between a check-in desk agent and a

passenger whose flight was cancelled. Next, the book is agood representative of a large scale of the literature onconsumer research, service research, services marketingand marketing management, reviewing the referencespublished in the field of psychology, sociology, marketing,tourism, management and so on. Finally, as noted on theback cover, this book also includes a web-based lecturerresource, which is believed to be highly helpful for thoseteaching a course on services marketing, although thismaterial has not formed part of this review.From a pessimistic point of view, at a quick glance, it is

apparent that the book chapters are organized withoutestablishing a direct link between them an even notsystematically divided into thematic groups. It appearsthat each chapter stands on its own. Thus, if we would liketo see an integrated book itself, the following changesshould have been taken into consideration in this presentedition. In terms of organization, there is no need to locatea separate chapter for service quality; so it could be a betteridea to link it with the material presented in Chapter 12(monitoring and evaluating the service). Chapter 10(performance measurement) could switch its presentlocation with Chapter 11 (relationship marketing). Chapter7 (managing people) and Chapter 8 (demand and capacitymanagement) could well move from their present locationsto a later part and included as the final four chapters, e.g.managing people, demand capacity management, perfor-mance measurement, and managing and evaluating theservice respectively. Structured as a textbook, althoughfollowing by a summary, each chapter should concludewith a few questions for discussion and a highlight of themost relevant readings. In addition, each chapter should bestrengthened by providing a relevant case study to supportthe meaning of concepts and help the readers betterunderstand the marketing concept from a practicalperspective.Moreover, I have doubt that this book provides a

comprehensive overview of existing theories and studyfindings dealing with various aspects of marketing manage-ment and their applicability to the services marketing. Forinstance, the final chapter has been devoted to building arelationship between service evaluation and its possibleimpacts over the success of services marketing. The onlydoubt in this chapter has evolved around the fact giving agreater detail about the meaning and measurement ofcustomer satisfaction, which would not directly fit into themission of this book. Brief discussion about the possible