More than a tourism primer

Abstract

FEW would doubt the increasing appeal of natural area tourism and its contribution to the economies of many communities. There is also a popular perception that it is environmentally benign in comparison to resource exploitation industries and therefore deserves a significant place in ecologically sustainable development. However, several authors including Honey (1999) and Butynski and Kalina (1998) show that perception is not always reality and that natural area tourism may have significant environmental impacts that question its long-term sustainability. Overall, tourism's potential for deleterious impacts, its importance in some regional economies and the complexities in designing and managing tourism experiences make it an important and growing area of study. It is therefore timely and valuable that Newsome and his colleagues provided an integrated approach to the natural area tourism topic that covers all these broad components. The book will be valuable as a text for undergraduates in a range of disciplines including environmental and life sciences, tourism and the social sciences, giving students a critical insight into the interdisciplinary nature of the subject. It should also become a well-thumbed reference on many professionals' shelves because of the value of its interdisciplinary overview to specialists seeking insights from beyond their disciplinary expertise.