Book Review

by Paul Ganderton

Fennell DA. 1999. Ecotourism - an introduction. Routledge. Pp xx + 315. ISBN 0 415 20168 3.

Tourism is one of the fastest growing commercial sectors. The environment is of major importance to an increasing number of people. Put the two together and you have a "niche market" enterprise called ecotourism. The object is to travel but make minimal (or ideally, no) impact on the environment. Fennell seeks to introduce us to this new subject. This is no easy task: tourism has yet to produce a coherent academic framework and so often, one has a mixture of business studies and geography. Here, there is a real attempt to blend the two. Fennell starts with analyses of the nature of tourism and ecotourism. The next chapter looks at the raw materials for tourism i.e. national parks, conservation areas etc. and their management. Chapter 5 deals with the often neglected topic of policy with economics, management and marketing as a following chapter outlining the issues involved. Development is subjected to a study at different scales next with ethics and a concluding chapter finishing the text.

Although not obviously aimed at traditional school subjects there is much to recommend this text. All GNVQ courses with a tourist orientation should use this text as an excellent introduction to the subject. Other students could use the information there for their own projects and follow-up work. The text is well written and the numerous tables, diagrams etc help to reinforce the work. An excellent review of the subject.