The concept of margins and limits is often referred to within the tourism academic literature and includes subjects as diverse as carrying capacities, peripheral economies, technological advancement, adventure tourism, dark tourism and socially marginalized communities. After identifying a number of ways in which ‘limits’ might be defined Taking Tourism to the Limits explores concepts and challenges facing contemporary tourism in five main sections, namely in tourism planning and management, nature based tourism, dark tourism, adventure and sport tourism and the accommodation industry.

    Drawing upon case studies, current research and conceptualizations these different facets of the ‘limits’ are each introduced by the editors with commentaries that seek to identify themes and current practice and thinking in the respective domains. The picture that emerges is of an industry that reinvents itself in response to changing market parameters even while core issues of stakeholder equities and political processes remain problematic.

    International in scale, the book links with its companion piece Indigenous Tourism – the commodification and management of culture (also published by Elsevier) as an outcome of the very highly successful conference, Taking Tourism to the Limits hosted by the University of Waikato’ Department of Tourism Management in 2003.

    Introduction – conceptualizing ‘the limit’(C. Ryan, M. Aicken). Section One: Tourism Planning and Management. Tourism Planning and Management. (S.J. Page). The Muskwa-Kechika Management Area – the Failed; Planning and Management of the Serengeti of the North. (P. Mitchell-Banks). Monitoring visitor patterns of use in natural tourist destinations. (C. Arrowsmith, D. Zanon, P. Chhetri). The Use of Strategic Visioning to Enhance Local Tourism Planning in Periphery Communities. (L. Ruhanen, C. Cooper). The Development of a Regional Identity for the Macarthur Region. (S. Kemp). Section Two: Nature Based Tourism. Nature-based Tourism. (S.J. Page). Making Ecotourism Work: An Assessment of the Value of an Environmental Education Programme on a Marine Mammal Tour in New Zealand. (M. Orams, A. Taylor). The Politics of Ecotourism. (R. Duffy). African Wilderness® Pty Ltd: An Authentic Encounter with the Big Five, Death and the Meaning of Life©. (M. Draper). The Limits of Tourism in Parks and Protected Areas: Managing carrying capacity in the U.S. National Parks. (R. Manning). Section Three: Adventure and Sport Tourism. Adventure Tourism and Sport – an introduction. (C. Ryan, B. Trauer). Acquiring status through the consumption of adventure tourism. (S. Ferguson, S. Todd). Looking the part: The relationship between adventure tourism and the outdoor fashion industry. (C. Cater). Getting into the Spirit: Using Internet Information Search to Heighten Emotions in Anticipation of the Sport Tourism Experience. (T. Harrison-Hill). Adventurism: Singapore Adventure Tourists in ‘Soft’ Capitalism. (Ong Chin Ee). Section Four: Dark Tourism. Dark Tourism – an introduction. (C. Ryan). Motivations of Participants in Dark Tourism: A Port Arthur Example. (T. Preece, G. Price). Presentation of Dark Tourism: Te Wairoa, The Buried Village. (N. Smith, W.G. Croy). Travels to the edge of darkness: towards a typology of ‘dark tourism’. (R. Sharpley). Section Five: The Accommodation Sector. Trends in the Accommodation Sector – an introduction. (C. Ryan). Organisation Culture as a Method of Shaping and Planning Behaviour in a Hospitality Organisation. (S. Kemp). The Role of Innovation in Enhancing Sustainability: A Case Study on the Motel Sector. (L. Roberts, L. Jago). The Hotel as an Entertainment Centre. (A. Mohsin, T. Lockyer).

    Biography

    Ryan Chris, Page Stephen J., Aicken Michelle

    "...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."
    -David Bowen, Oxford Brookes University, TOURISM MANAGEMENT, 2006 (in press)