Book reviews

two resorts, has so far failed to mater- ialize, but 12 hotels with over 3000 rooms between them have been de- veloped in Playa Dorada. This has, however, given rise to considerable land speculation and the failure of other tourism projects in the sur- rounding area.

The major criticism by the authors is the lack of an overall land use and economic development plan for the region as a whole, and the scant re- gard for the very considerable infra- structure development needed within the region. Somewhat fortuitously, although planned for the more affluent North American market, the resort has succeeded in attracting the European packaged holiday market which is more easily influenced by price.

The most interesting chapter for many European readers will be the study of the South Antalya tourism project in Turkey. Although there has been much criticism of excessive de- velopment on parts of the Turkish coast, South Antalya is considered to be the most successful tourism project of its type. Plans for the region date from the mid-1970s, and have evolved and expanded over the period. Cur- rent planned bed capacity for the area is 65 000.

It was recognized that conserving the scenic beauty of the area was important, together with conservation of archaeological and historic sites, and this led to the entire region being designated, planned and developed as the Olympus Seashore National Park. Since tourism was developed as part of a total regional development strategy, adequate provision has been made for new housing, community facilities and appropriate services, of which a plentiful water supply was among the most important.

Based on experience gained in South Antalya, Turkey has now adopted an Environmental Protection Law and is preparing environmental impact assessment standards and proc- edures to be applied to specific de- velopment projects.

The final case study is of Lanzarote, where the objective is not so much to develop as to control tourism in an already mature resort area. Measures

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reflect widespread concern that tour- ism development should not go un- checked and that increasingly strin- gent planning and other regulations must apply if prosperity is to be sus- tained in the longer term. The current plan is therefore to limit future expan- sion and to look to future developers to pay their fair share of any addition- al infrastructure costs incurred.

Tourism is expanding world-wide at an ever increasing rate, yet only a tiny proportion of the world’s population currently travel. WTO, together with all those seriously concerned about the future of tourism, is anxious that development should be properly plan- ned, genuinely sustainable in the lon- ger term, spreading economic and so- cial benefits more widely, but avoiding some of the mistakes which have been made in the past. The authors con- clude (hardly surprisingly) that well-

planned resort developments can suc- ceed, and that an integrated approach to their development is the right way forward. This is a fundamental mes- sage for governments, including those currently obsessed with deregulation and leaving everything to market forces. It is particularly relevant to developing countries where gov- ernmental, planning and political sys- tems may be less robust and where there is greatest temptation towards short-term exploitation of natural assets which cannot easily be replaced. It deserves to be widely read.

Stephen Mills ETB

Thames Tower Black’s Road

London W6 9EL UK

THE PAST IN CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY: THEN, NOW by Peter J. Fowler Rout/edge, London, 1992, 192 pp, f40 hb/f 15.99pb

Britain’s heritage is big business, affecting not only the inhabitants of this small island but also the millions of people who visit the British Isles because of our heritage and Professor Peter Fowler underlines this, quoting some of the relevant figures pertaining to the vast numbers who visit historic properties in the introduction to his book The Past in Contemporary Socie-

ty: Then, Now. He also fairly and squarely accepts the fact that he is not able to touch on all aspects of the heritage business and with a style that is both wry and readable I sat back and expected to enjoy a didactic tome with balanced arguments.

As an archaeologist, Professor Fow- ler is basically interested in interpret- ing the past through buildings and the remains of buildings, and as tourists seem to be mainly concerned with visiting buildings for a taste of the past, he is well within his rights. His

aim is also that the reader should be completely aware of how to interpret the past correctly and one soon gains the impression that he feels that he is one of the few people in Britain with the good taste and savvy to be able to do this. Unfortunately, as the book proceeds, the realization begins to dawn that if he does, indeed, possess the secret to the past he is not going to share it with us and, like Dr Who, only he and a few hand-picked friends will be able to see precisely how things really were, with him acting as the Time Lord in his Tardis.

Rather than being a textbook on how to portray aspects of the past, it instead becomes a list of the many aspects of the heritage industry that he dislikes. Professor Fowler is scathing about the antics of organizations like the Sealed Knot and sneers at celebra- tions of the various centenaries that are regularly researched throughout Britain, writing them off as ‘anniversaryism gone mad’.

Thus, reading through the chapters entitled ‘Past with people’ and ‘A day in the life of the past’ one can agree with most of what he says and many of his examples often raise a smile but

Time travel for the few?

Tourism Management I994 Volume 15 Number I

Book reviewslPublications

ism, he has perhaps forgotten that the majority of tourists make their visits because they believe it will be enjoy- able. However much tourism visits are analysed, enjoyment is the elusive fac- tor that is uppermost in people’s minds when making them and whether an experience is historically correct or not will matter little to the majority. It is, therefore, the responsibility of peo- ple like Professor Fowler to ensure that the heritage experience is as cor- rect as it can be, if he can explain it, and at the same time as enjoyable as possible.

then, in the ensuing chapters, the sheer volume of his vitriol begins to pall and one starts to look for the pointers as to how all these people should really be doing it. Unhappily, as enigmatic as the Doctor, he never lets on and this is the basic weakness of his book. If only Professor Fowler could give us examples of how he considers heritage should be inter- preted . there must be some some- where. But he refuses to take the bull by the horns and contents himself by simply criticizing.

I wish Professor Fowler had tried to define heritage initially. It is not a word that is easily explained, although we all think we know what it means; languages like French, German and Spanish do not even possess words that are direct translations in this con-

text. Once he had first defined what he, at least, understands heritage to be it would have been simpler for him and for us to propose how it can best be interpreted. It seems sheer mad- ness, for instance, that Eurodisney have the gall to present the public with fairytale castles just outside Paris, when France has real chateaux that will take a visitor’s breath away. However, the visitor may want a total- ly different experience from his/her Disney castle than from the one which can be found down the road and which produces some of the greatest wine the world has ever tasted.

Professor Fowler is, of course, right to point out the inherent dangers attached to the presentation of the past but, like some other academics who have become involved with tour-

fat/ Barrett Director ‘Celtica ’

Wales Tourist Board 2 Fitzalan Road

Cardiff CF2 1 UY, UK

Publications received Business German by Dieter Herde and Martina Rohr (Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford, 1993, f29.95) An audio pack for business executives and students with some knowledge of the lan- guage, comprising a textbook covering business travel, computing, export and haulage, trade fairs, market research, banking and social occasions, etc and two C-40 cassette tapes.

European Hotel Industry 1993 (Horwath Consulting, London, 1993, 6-sided folder, free) Horwath Consulting’s fourth survey of the hotel industry in nine European countries presents statistical and graphical informa- tion on average room occupancy rates, guest characteristics, operational data, re- venues per available room, payroll and other expenses and gross operating profit as a percentage of total sales.

International Travel and Tourism by Donald E. Lundberg and Carolyn B. Lundberg (John Wiley, New York, 1993, 469 pp. 535.50) Second edition of a textbook - aimed prin- cipally at the North American market - of information on the development of tourism and the issues that affect it today. Part I looks at marketers, facilitators and sup- pliers, Part 11 focuses on travel destinations by region and Part III covers travel safety.

Sightseeing in the UK 1992 (ETB, London, 1993, 74 pp, f74) The annual survey of attractions in the UK. Data provided includes number of visits to attractions, visitor trends, proportion of overseas and child visitors, access, visitor capacity, admission charges, revenue and employment. A total of 23 tables is pre- sented and an appendix list attractions re- ceiving 30 000 or more visits in 1992.

Student Workbook: Dimensions of the Hos- pitality Industry by Paul R. Dittmer and Gerald G. Griffin (Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 1993, 255 pp, $16.50) UK edition of a study guide for students starting basic hospitality courses in the USA.

Tourismuspsychologie und Tourismusso- ziologie: Ein Handbuch zur Tourismuswis- senschaft edited by Heinz Hahn and H. Jtirgen Kagelmann (Quintessenz Verlag, Munich, 1993, 630 pp, DM98) An interdisciplinary handbook which aims to cover all the psychological and sociolo- gical aspects of the phenomenon and disci- pline of tourism. Each section (eg on theoretical concepts, research methodolo- gies, specific holiday types, marketing and advertising, and problems of tourism) is divided into a number of short articles on specific topics such as motivation psycholo-

gy, crowding, jet lag, postcards, cultural identity and hitchhiking.

The West European Business Travel Market 1993-97 by Kevin O’Brien (Financial Times, London, 1993, 108 pp, f244/$406) This report assesses the characteristics and the major developments shaping the busi- ness travel market in Western Europe. It focuses on the factors affecting the demand for, and the supply of, services related to corporate travel.

Yearbook of Tourism Statistics, Vols 1 and 2 (WTO, Madrid, 1991, 139 and 437 pp, $125) Annual publication of the most important internationally comparable data for the analysis of tourism development at the world, regional and national levels. Volume I covers world aggregates of arriv- als at frontiers or in accommodation estab- lishments, arrivals by mode of transport, accommodation capacity and tourism re- ceipts and expenditure. Volume II pro- vides data on country of origin for total arrivals and overnight stays of international inbound tourism for some 150 countries.

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