See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/240186316

Chris Ryan, Stephen J. Page and Michelle Aicken, Taking Tourism to the
Limits: Issues, Concepts and Managerial Perspectives, Oxford, Elsevier (2005)
ISBN 0080446442 (xxii+302, £57....

Article · April 2007

DOI: 10.1016/j.tourman.2006.09.002

CITATIONS READS

0 134

1 author:

David Bowen
Oxford Brookes University
25 PUBLICATIONS   639 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

‘Familiar places: tourist well-being and tourism sector consequences.' View project

‘Enclave resort tourism in the Maldives: the reality of benefits and non-benefits.' View project

All content following this page was uploaded by David Bowen on 10 January 2018.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 ARTICLE IN PRESS
Tourism Management 28 (2007) 637–639
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 of
papers from the December 2003 conference of the same
title, hosted by Waikato University, New Zealand, and
published within the series Advances in Tourism Research.
Published conference collections do not often make the
most 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 of
potential authors—and so, no pun intended, setting an
obvious limit to the range and depth of potential
contributors. This can present problems for the editors to
meld together the raw material that they are presented
with. Moreover, in the now customary drive to break-even
(sometimes much more than break-even) to satisfy
university administrators, there can be slippage with regard
to the style, length and topic focus of submissions that are
accepted. So, it is all the more pleasing to find a collection
of conference papers that largely avoids the pitfalls above
and, for the most part, is both well integrated and contains
papers that are interesting, informative, well researched
and well written.
Chapter 1 of the book dives in at the deep end with an
attempt to conceptualise ‘the limit’. In one sense, the
ensuing philosophical debate is disconcerting so early in the
text. Within the first paragraph Ryan and Aicken make
mention of the rationalism of the enlightenment, J.S Mill’s
utilitarianism and 20th century modernism. With all due
respect most students, including post-graduates (one
intended audience), would find this hard going. There is
too much assumed knowledge. This is compounded by
obtuse turns of phrase. I am still not sure what is meant by
‘dialogic process if questioning and answer’ (p. 1) that
apparently linked the different perspectives opened up by
the conference theme. On the other hand, a conceptualisa-
tion is certainly called for in such a collection of papers. It
hastens along the melding process. Moreover, as authors
and researchers and teachers we can frequently burrow
away in our own specialist areas and rarely sit back and
reflect in a more holistic manner. So it is good when
somebody else does it for us and thus provokes our own
reflection. The opening introductory chapter to this
doi:10.1016/j.tourman.2006.09.002
www.elsevier.com/locate/tourman
compilation does this—more rather than less. More,
through a listing of 12 different interpretations of ‘the
limit’ and some perceptive points on tourism research such
as its growing ‘particularism and contextualisation’ (p. 3).
Less through the philosophical overdose that is offered. At
least so early in the piece, for one must agree with a later
comment by Page that ‘Whilst empiricism is certainly the
easy option for many researchers, more philosophical and
theoretical 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 certainly
adds some necessary coherence—and projects the impres-
sion of logical purpose. For example, as a steer for Section
1 (Tourism Planning and Development), Page provides an
opening chapter (pp. 9–14) that delivers a rapid overview
of the state of tourism planning and management. It draws
on key recent academic discussions and a practical knowl-
edge of planning—especially as related to Scotland and
New Zealand. The choice of planning and management in
such a collection is made to seem judicious insomuch as
‘planning helps to set the limits of tourism if it can fully
understand the scope and wide-ranging effects on the
localities it affects’ (p. 13). Each of the subsequent chapters
in Section 1 is indeed interesting, informative, well
researched and well written. For example, Ruhanen and
Cooper in Chapter 5 (pp. 53–63), advocate the benefits of
the (relatively new) strategic visioning approach to tourism
destination planning. They set strategic visioning within
the wider tourism planning process and then apply it to the
example of the Tweed Shire, New South Wales, Australia.
As such the paper successfully fuses the general and the
specific. As another example, Kemp in Chapter 6
(pp. 65–74), details the process of involving the community
and other stakeholders of the Macarthur region of Greater
Western Sydney in developing collaborative vision, goals
and strategies—so creating a distinctive identity, and a
sense of ownership to underpin regional tourism strategy.
Their action learning process pushes ‘the limit’ by outlining
a new methodology and approach to an aspect of tourism
planning.
Sometimes, on the other hand, the connection to the
conference theme is not always obvious. In the otherwise
fine papers of Mitchell-Banks in Chapter 3 (pp. 15–31) and
Arrowsmith, Zanon and Chhetri in Chapter 4 (pp. 35–52)
there is no specific mention of how the paper takes tourism
to the limit. In the latter case the authors presumably
consider that their innovative research techniques, that
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
638 Book review / Tourism Management 28 (2007) 637–639
combine global positioning systems (GPS) and on-site
surveys to identify behaviour patterns within a national
park setting, lie at the limit of convention. This is certainly
the case—but perhaps all conference organisers (and
editors) should insist that all presenters address the
conference theme directly at some stage of a conference
paper. Despite the introductory overviews in this Section
(and subsequent Sections), it is sometimes left to the reader
to 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 they
reckon 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 papers
in a theoretical context. This is carried forward by most of
the ensuing chapters. For example, Duffy in Chapter 9 (pp.
99–112) explores the political dimension of ecotourism,
especially neo-liberalism. From a consideration of the
literature, Duffy argues ‘that tourism is inter-related with
one particular strand of globalisation, namely the exten-
sion of development ideas and policies that are informed
and defined by neo-liberalism’ (p. 101). Through an
application to Madagascar, Duffy concludes that ‘a
reliance on eco-tourism and the market may not provide
a 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 exemplar
of its type. It would encourage a new post-graduate student
to engage with the philosophical alongside the empirical.
Section 3, on Adventure and Sport Tourism, again
provides papers that are interesting and well written,
although without the depth of the previous section.
Perhaps this is inevitable in a (still) less-researched area
of study. Some chapters are truly exploratory in nature. In
the steer (pp. 143–147) Ryan and Trauer adapt a frame-
work they developed in 2004 and then attempt to provide
some linkage between the chapters—whilst rather ambiva-
lently suggesting that the chapters provide only ‘various
degrees of evidence for the framework’. So, work in
progress. No doubt in the conference paper there was
plenty of follow up conversation (the ‘dialogic process of
question and answer’?) both in and outside the formal
presentations. Proceedings and edited books, however well
done, can only go so far.
In contrast to Section 3, it might be argued that the
literature on Dark Tourism, the subject of Section 4, has
developed far and apace since the work of Seaton (1996) or
Lennon and Foley (2000). Initially, one might query why
dark tourism deserves a space within the conference
theme—even if one sides with the view of Ryan (p. 190)
that dark tourism is a specific type of tourism experience
and 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 commercial
offerings (such as the often quoted opportunity to follow
JFKs assassination route from the airport in Dallas
through Dealey Plaza and onward to the Parkland
Memorial Hospital—seated in a Lincoln Continental) do
seem to lie on the extreme limit of accepted taste, yet alone
ethics, even over 40 years since the event. Therein lies a
justification. Moreover, the papers in Section 4 do move
things on from a conceptual point of view. For example,
Smith and Croy, in Chapter 19 (pp. 199–213), note both
the popularity of research on dark tourism and also how it
is still in its infancy as regards definition (a common
situation in tourism research that the editors decry on
many occasions). Accordingly, Smith and Croy redefine
the term and extend its scope to include personalisation
of 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 of
grey tourism’) through the linkage of both the providers
and the consumers of such experiences. His pithy title
‘Travels to the Edge of Darkness: Towards a Typology of
Dark Tourism’ helps to convince, too, that the subject
matter 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 argued
since the early 1990s that, as Ryan expresses it (p. 232), ‘the
accommodation sector is not simply an ancillary to tourism
as it is perhaps often contended, but increasingly a tourism
product in its own right’. Such a statement is almost a
truism rather than a new thought. Indeed, with a back-
wards glance to the conceptualisation at the start of the
book it is difficult to see where exactly the accommodation
sector squeezes in. And if accommodation is considered,
why not also consider each and every other sector of the
tourism industry?
But this and other criticisms should not detract from
what is an admirable, focussed and yet eclectic collection of
papers, good and sometimes very good on theory and the
application of theory and also knotted together in a far
superior form to many other such efforts. There is indeed
much in this book that deserves to be thought through by
the post-graduate market and several copies should find
themselves on to the reference shelves of all worthwhile
universities. The book does not lose sight of its managerial
perspectives and whilst practising managers might find
themselves busy with other things, managers of the future,
currently in university, should find much to stimulate
them—and, indeed, enthuse them to attend some upcoming
conferences.
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 are
hardly touched on. But a really tight congruity between
what the conference organisers (and editors) conceive and
what the conference going public deliver would be unlikely
given that the papers emerge from the one conference
rather than a series of conferences on the same theme—or a
wider collection of papers through time. And therein lies a
final thought. How interesting would it be to compare this
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
Book review / Tourism Management 28 (2007) 637–639 639

view of the limit with further views in 5 years or 10 years Seaton, A. V. (1996n). Guided by the dark: From thanatopsis to
time? thanatourism. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 2(4), 234–244.

References David Bowen

Business School, Department of Hospitality, Leisure and
Boniface, P. (2001). Dynamic tourism: Journeying with change. Clevedon:
Channel View Publications. Tourism Management, Oxford Brookes University,
Lennon, J., & Foley, M. (2000). Dark tourism: The attraction of death and Gypsy Lane Campus, Oxford OX3 0BP, England
disaster. London: Continuum. E-mail address: dbowen@brookes.ac.uk.

View publication stats