REFERENCES

Eisenhardt, K. M.1989 Building Theory from Case Study Research. Academy of Management Review

14:532–550.Ellram, L. M.

1996 The Use of the Case Study Method in Logistics Research. Journal of BusinessLogistics 17:93–138.

McCutcheon, D. M., and J. R. Meredith1993 Conducting Case Study Research in Operations Management. Journal of

Operations Management 11:239–256.Yin, R. K.

2003 Case Study Research—Design and Methods. 3rd edition, Sage: Thousand Oaks,CA.

Assigned 31 May 2007. Submitted 7 March 2008. Accepted 10 March 2008

doi:10.1016/j.annals.2008.03.004

Quality Assurance and Certificationin Ecotourism

Edited by Rosemary Black and Alice Crabtree. CABI <http:www.cabi.org> 2006 xxxix + 516 pages (figures, tables, bibliography, index) USD$130 Hb. ISBN: 978 1 8459 32374

Rachel DoddsRyerson University, Canada

Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 35, No. 3, pp. 838–840, 2008Printed in Great Britain

838 Publications in review/Annals of Tourism Research 35 (2008) 833–846

Ecotourism is often put forth as an alternative to conventional tourism; as such,it faces many challenges in definition, implementation, and monitoring. Thisbook, with contributions from the academic, industry, and non-profit sectors, isa milestone of achievement as it aims to offer perspectives of multiple stakeholders,as well as guidelines for quality assurance in ecotourism. A distinct strength of thisbook is the global diversity of case studies: Peru, New Zealand, South Africa, CostaRica, Australia, South Pacific, and Ecuador, among others. These case studies coverimplementation practices, certification issues, and lessons learned from manyregions of the world.

The book uses a reader-friendly writing style; however, there is considerable con-fusion in the use of terminology such as responsible, sustainable, fair trade, andecotourism. These terms are treated as interchangeable, and this book does notadequately address the differences among them. Significant confusion over theconcept of ecotourism exists and since the International Year of Ecotourism, multi-ple governments have positioned ecotourism as a solution to making tourism sus-tainable. In fact, this confusion led a Canadian representative at Quebec’s

Publications in review/Annals of Tourism Research 35 (2008) 833–846 839

conference to say, ‘‘we aim to make all tourism, ‘ecotourism’’’. It may be thatecotourism is a fast growing niche, but it is just that, a niche. The book, for allits value, should clearly outline that the practices of ecotourism need to be adoptedwidely in other areas of tourism but as the foreword by David Weaver sug-gests, there is ‘‘a fine line between ecotourism and conventional mass tourism’’(p. xxii).

The book is separated into two parts and 24 chapters. Part I is a spectrum ofquality assurance tools and Part II outlines various stakeholder perspectives.Chapters 1 through 9 describe the tools in the quality assessment toolbox (awards,codes of conduct, certification, and accreditation). These provide a good con-ceptual understanding of what needs to be put in place to improve quality. How-ever, the book needs to define ecotourism within the broader realm of sustainabletourism (as well as corporate social responsibility and responsible tourism) asmany chapters do not talk about ecotourism specifically, but rather the broadercontext of what is needed to achieve sustainable tourism (chapters 3, 4, 8, and 9).

Part II examines stakeholder perceptions. Black and Crabtree (chapter 9) pro-vide an overview of the stakeholders in ecotourism. Xavier Font and MeganEpler-Wood (chapter 10) add a much needed viewpoint that ecotourism is sup-ply-driven rather than market-led, and note that there is little evidence of thegrowth of ecotourism. Zoe Chafe (chapter 11) contradicts this, saying there isgrowing demand although she examines a far greater market than just ecotourism(responsible tourism, sustainable tourism, fair trade tourism, etc.). Chapters 12 to14 present the community perspective. Abigail Rome looks at community-basedtourism in Costa Rica, while Luis Vivanco (chapter 13) argues that indigenoustourism voices have been largely absent in the development of ecotourism certifi-cation and outlines the need for dialogue and inclusion. Jennifer Seif and AnnaSpenceley (chapter 14) showcase how South Africa’s community benefits can beassured through fair trade certification and how this system could be consideredfor other areas. Chapter 15 (Colin Ingram) and 16 (Font and Sue Clark) look atprotected area certification in Western Australia and Pan Parks in Europe. Thebroader geopolitical, historical, and developmental issues that affect ecotourismuptake and certification are also addressed.

Chapters 17 and 18 assess eco-tour guides. As guide training in tourism in gen-eral is not main stream, ecotourism faces even greater challenges as many eco-guides must focus not only on quality and service but on conservation and socialissues. Rosemary Black (chapter 17) uses the examples of Savannah and the Eco-Guide Australia Certification program and Jon Kohl (chapter 18) focuses on thecontext of quality with eco-guides. Gemma McGrath (chapter 19) looks at guidesin Cuzco, Peru and the link with heritage tourism. Chapter 20 (Tara Rowe andJames Higham) explore awareness and perceptions of ecotourism operators inNew Zealand, and Hitesh Mehta (chapter 21) adds another dimension to the cer-tification debate arguing there is a need for an internationally recognized programfor ecolodges. Chapters 22 and 23 provide insight into three certification pro-grams: NEAP (Rik Thwaites), VISIT, and the Sustainable Certification Networkof the Americas (Hebert Hamele, et al). The book ends on a strong point withCrabtree and Black outlining what is needed for the future.

Although the book has many strong points, it also has a few weaknesses. Thebook does not provide adequate discussion of some of the challenges of ecotour-ism such as marketing (which is one of the largest failures of ecotourism certifica-tion), the lack of global standards, and ‘‘green washing’’. The first part of the bookoutlining tools for certification is not completely needed because certification isthe main topic of discussion rather than awards and other tools. Chapters oftenuse ‘‘responsible tourism’’ interchangeably with ‘‘ecotourism’’, which is not onlyconfusing to the reader, but also misleading.

Overall, the book, in spite of its few flaws, achieves its purpose and constitutes a

840 Publications in review/Annals of Tourism Research 35 (2008) 833–846

useful guide and source of references and case studies for both undergraduate andgraduate students, university faculty, policy makers, park planners, and ecotourismprofessionals. The book is a good starting point for anyone who wishes to get acomprehensive view of ecotourism challenges and who wants to understand thecurrent implications and case studies of ecotourism certification.

Rachel Dodds: Ted Rogers School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Ryer-son University, Toronto, ON, Canada, M5B 2K3. E-mail <r2dodds@ryerson.ca>

Assigned 10 December 2007. Submitted 19 February 2008. Resubmitted 5 March 2008. Accepted 6March 2008

doi:10.1016/j.annals.2008.03.005

Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 35, No. 3, pp. 840–842, 2008Printed in Great Britain

Risk Management for Meetings and Events

Julia Rutherford Silvers. Butterworth Heinemann <www.elsevierdirect.com> 2008, xxvi + 354 pp (figures, tables, bibliography, index) Pbk$47.95. ISBN 978-0-7506-8057-8

Linda M. RobsonUniversity of Waterlo, Canada

The event industry brings people, sometimes very large groups, together yet riskmanagement was not a critical part of the event planning process until recently. InNovember 2005, an industry publication survey found that almost half of all plan-ners did not have a risk management plan (Sturken 2005). Both industry and aca-demia have made efforts to assist planners and students in learning to developthese much-needed plans through courses and articles. Risk Management for Meet-ings and Events is another step in this process.

This book is divided into four parts, which is well illustrated by a table in the Pre-face. The table gives a clear picture of the direction, topics, and flow the authorwishes to achieve. This book has ostensibly been written for students and practitio-ners with the intent to introduce them to theoretical and conceptual risk manage-ment techniques. The author’s goal is to provide students and practitioners withtools and strategies to develop risk management plans that are suited specificallyto the event industry.

Part One contains two chapters aimed at providing a general understanding ofrisk management. Part Two examines the scope of risk management; the fourchapters in this part deal with legal and ethical issues, as well as loss prevention,security, preparedness, and health and safety. Part Three introduces organizationalsafeguards that can be used to develop and implement risk management plans. Fi-nally, Part Four presents operational safeguards applicable to the event industry.

The author provides some good definitions, and real-world examples. In addi-tion, references are made to numerous countries instead of narrowly focusing