- Email: [email protected]
Coastal Mass Tourism: Diversification and Sustainable Development in Southern Europe
282
PUBLICATIONS IN REVIEW
honeymoon market, and the role of the Internet in facilitating sex tourism. In general this book will not appeal to sophisticated researchers in that most of the chapters are written more like popular magazine articles with methodological issues not being addressed. Nevertheless, there are many revealing insights that have the potential to spark more serious research projects. Edward Herold: Department of Family Relation and Applied Nutrition, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada N1G 2W1. Email
Assigned 3 February 2004. Submitted 14 May 2004. Accepted 31 May 2004 doi:10.1016/j.annals.2004.05.009
Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 32, No. 1, pp. 282–284, 2005 Printed in Great Britain 0160-7383/$30.00
Coastal Mass Tourism: Diversification and Sustainable Development in Southern Europe Edited by Bill Bramwell Channel View Publications,, 2004, xii + 357 pp (figures, tables, bibliography, index) $29.95 Pbk. ISBN 1-873150-68-7 Jan T. Mosedale University of Exeter, UK Coastal Mass Tourism (part of the Aspects of Tourism Series), edited by Bill Bramwell is in response to a perceived lack of academic books on coastal destinations. Despite the inclusion of numerous papers on the Mediterranean, this is more than a book just on tourism issues in that region because all chapters are placed in the context of sustainable development. Most authors see mass tourism and sustainability as mutually exclusive and, further, assume the latter is achievable only through the development of ‘‘alternative’’ tourism. Bramwell, though, provides a compelling counterargument with this book, thus trying to create a balance in academic discourse on sustainability by examining policies and techniques that make mass tourism more sustainable. The chapters focus on two main trends—product diversification and rejuvenation of existing resorts—and evaluate the effectiveness of these strategies in terms of sustainable development. The book has been developed in parallel with two special issues of Journal of Sustainable Tourism (Vol. 11, issues 2 and 3). While this invariably means that some articles have previously been published in the journal, there are also eight new chapters that round off the overall structure of the book. It comprises 17 chapters examining the tourism development in different Mediter-
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ranean countries, such as Spain, North and South Cyprus, Turkey, Malta, Greece, Croatia, Slovenia, and Montenegro. Case studies assess policies and techniques to promote sustainable development and demonstrate that appropriate tourism development is dependent on the specific local environmental, sociocultural, and economic context. Coastal Mass Tourism is structured into four sections. The first consists of two introductory chapters; chapters in the next section examine tourism impacts in coastal regions and relevant policies and management for sustainable development. Section three, on the other hand, focuses on issues affecting Mediterranean coastal resorts while the last section assesses different types of tourism according to the overarching principle of sustainable development. The first of two introductory chapters by Bramwell introduces the concept of sustainability as a discourse with room for different interpretations and definitions. The second chapter relates policy to capitalist development, capital accumulation, and changing market trends and discusses possible policy instruments for sustainable tourism. In the following chapter, Helen Briassoulis adopts a ‘‘stages of development’’ framework to analyze the interactions between the local and external tourism systems of Crete within three time segments. Paris Tsartas provides the reader with an analysis of tourism development of Greek insular and coastal areas and examines two prominent changes that occurred: social and institutional (policy) change. Cevat Tosun, ¨ tztu¨rk examine the use of tourism as a tool for Dallen Timothy and Yu¨ksel O balanced regional economic development in Turkey and agree that unexpectedly, tourism has actually increased regional and class disparities. The following two chapters by Konstantinos Andriotis and Jon Sadler focus on the issues and difficulties faced by geographically and politically isolated areas in the Mediterranean. Andriotis studies specifically Greek insular regions, whereas Sadler analyses tourism planning in Northern Cyprus. In the next section on coastal resorts, Michael Barke and John Towner examine two case studies in the Andalucian region of Spain to determine whether new developments actually learn from past mistakes and engage in planning for sustainable tourism development. The chapter by Fernando Vera Rebollo and Joseph Ivars Baidal, deals with the measurement of sustainability through a system of indicators. The authors use a land use—tourism model in the municipality of Torrevieja, Spain, to take the importance of real estate in tourism development into account. In the next chapter, Gonzalo Malva´rez Garcı´a, John Pollard and Rafael Dominguez Rodrı´guez evaluate physical protection of coastal zones and urban planning policies and observe that sustainable efforts are prevalent in resorts, suggesting that such measures are mainly driven by economic imperatives. The chapter by Xavier Campillo-Besses, Gerda Priestley and Francesc Romagose appraises the application of two environmental planning tools (Local Agenda 21 and the European Eco-Management and Audit Scheme) and their integration in a Catalan coastal resort. The ‘‘Green Flags’’ project for increasing the sustainability and environmental performance of the hotel sector in Greece is analyzed by Artemios Chatziathanassiou, Daphne Mavrogiorgos, and Konstantinos Sioulas. In the next chapter, Ioannis Spilanis and Helen Vayanni introduce the section on the sustainability of various types of tourism by identifying diversification efforts in the Aegean Islands and assess the effectiveness of this particular strategy. Nadia Theuma focuses on the case study of Valletta, Malta, to analyze attempts at reviving a destination through the inception of special interest (cultural) tourism. Julie Scott aims to move beyond an ‘‘impacts’’ approach and offers an anthropological perspective on the creation of commercial casino gambling in Northern Cyprus. Richard Sharpley places sustainability in the general context of development theories and posits that mass tourism
284
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‘‘has made a spectacular contribution to economic growth and development in Cyprus’’ (p. 335). Therefore, the use of sustainable tourism as a development tool for Cyprus is inappropriate. In the final chapter of this book, Derek Hall examines the attempts to diversify the tourism product and rejuvenate coastal resorts in the Eastern Adriatic and evaluates post-conflict tourism policies of Slovenia, Croatia, and Montenegro. Overall, Coastal Mass Tourism contributes to the wider academic literature by placing sustainable development in the context of mass tourism and typical sun, sand, and sea destinations. As such, it is not only a necessary read for academics and students with a vested interested in sustainable tourism, but can also be useful for policymakers, national, regional, and urban planners, as it provides the opportunity to learn from past experiences. However, as all the contributions clearly show, sustainable initiatives are heavily dependent on the local context and successful measures cannot necessarily be transplanted to other destinations. Jan Mosedale: Department of Geography, University of Exeter, Exeter EX4 4RJ, United Kingdom. Email
Assigned 17 February 2004. Submitted 28 April 2004. Resubmitted 1 June 2004. Accepted 16 June 2004 doi:10.1016/j.annals.2004.06.001
Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 32, No. 1, pp. 284–286, 2005 Printed in Great Britain 0160-7383/$30.00
Tourism and Development in Tropical Islands: Political Ecology Perspectives Edited by Stefan Go¨ssling. Edward Elgar Publishing
PUBLICATIONS IN REVIEW
honeymoon market, and the role of the Internet in facilitating sex tourism. In general this book will not appeal to sophisticated researchers in that most of the chapters are written more like popular magazine articles with methodological issues not being addressed. Nevertheless, there are many revealing insights that have the potential to spark more serious research projects. Edward Herold: Department of Family Relation and Applied Nutrition, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada N1G 2W1. Email
Assigned 3 February 2004. Submitted 14 May 2004. Accepted 31 May 2004 doi:10.1016/j.annals.2004.05.009
Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 32, No. 1, pp. 282–284, 2005 Printed in Great Britain 0160-7383/$30.00
Coastal Mass Tourism: Diversification and Sustainable Development in Southern Europe Edited by Bill Bramwell Channel View Publications,
PUBLICATIONS IN REVIEW
283
ranean countries, such as Spain, North and South Cyprus, Turkey, Malta, Greece, Croatia, Slovenia, and Montenegro. Case studies assess policies and techniques to promote sustainable development and demonstrate that appropriate tourism development is dependent on the specific local environmental, sociocultural, and economic context. Coastal Mass Tourism is structured into four sections. The first consists of two introductory chapters; chapters in the next section examine tourism impacts in coastal regions and relevant policies and management for sustainable development. Section three, on the other hand, focuses on issues affecting Mediterranean coastal resorts while the last section assesses different types of tourism according to the overarching principle of sustainable development. The first of two introductory chapters by Bramwell introduces the concept of sustainability as a discourse with room for different interpretations and definitions. The second chapter relates policy to capitalist development, capital accumulation, and changing market trends and discusses possible policy instruments for sustainable tourism. In the following chapter, Helen Briassoulis adopts a ‘‘stages of development’’ framework to analyze the interactions between the local and external tourism systems of Crete within three time segments. Paris Tsartas provides the reader with an analysis of tourism development of Greek insular and coastal areas and examines two prominent changes that occurred: social and institutional (policy) change. Cevat Tosun, ¨ tztu¨rk examine the use of tourism as a tool for Dallen Timothy and Yu¨ksel O balanced regional economic development in Turkey and agree that unexpectedly, tourism has actually increased regional and class disparities. The following two chapters by Konstantinos Andriotis and Jon Sadler focus on the issues and difficulties faced by geographically and politically isolated areas in the Mediterranean. Andriotis studies specifically Greek insular regions, whereas Sadler analyses tourism planning in Northern Cyprus. In the next section on coastal resorts, Michael Barke and John Towner examine two case studies in the Andalucian region of Spain to determine whether new developments actually learn from past mistakes and engage in planning for sustainable tourism development. The chapter by Fernando Vera Rebollo and Joseph Ivars Baidal, deals with the measurement of sustainability through a system of indicators. The authors use a land use—tourism model in the municipality of Torrevieja, Spain, to take the importance of real estate in tourism development into account. In the next chapter, Gonzalo Malva´rez Garcı´a, John Pollard and Rafael Dominguez Rodrı´guez evaluate physical protection of coastal zones and urban planning policies and observe that sustainable efforts are prevalent in resorts, suggesting that such measures are mainly driven by economic imperatives. The chapter by Xavier Campillo-Besses, Gerda Priestley and Francesc Romagose appraises the application of two environmental planning tools (Local Agenda 21 and the European Eco-Management and Audit Scheme) and their integration in a Catalan coastal resort. The ‘‘Green Flags’’ project for increasing the sustainability and environmental performance of the hotel sector in Greece is analyzed by Artemios Chatziathanassiou, Daphne Mavrogiorgos, and Konstantinos Sioulas. In the next chapter, Ioannis Spilanis and Helen Vayanni introduce the section on the sustainability of various types of tourism by identifying diversification efforts in the Aegean Islands and assess the effectiveness of this particular strategy. Nadia Theuma focuses on the case study of Valletta, Malta, to analyze attempts at reviving a destination through the inception of special interest (cultural) tourism. Julie Scott aims to move beyond an ‘‘impacts’’ approach and offers an anthropological perspective on the creation of commercial casino gambling in Northern Cyprus. Richard Sharpley places sustainability in the general context of development theories and posits that mass tourism
284
PUBLICATIONS IN REVIEW
‘‘has made a spectacular contribution to economic growth and development in Cyprus’’ (p. 335). Therefore, the use of sustainable tourism as a development tool for Cyprus is inappropriate. In the final chapter of this book, Derek Hall examines the attempts to diversify the tourism product and rejuvenate coastal resorts in the Eastern Adriatic and evaluates post-conflict tourism policies of Slovenia, Croatia, and Montenegro. Overall, Coastal Mass Tourism contributes to the wider academic literature by placing sustainable development in the context of mass tourism and typical sun, sand, and sea destinations. As such, it is not only a necessary read for academics and students with a vested interested in sustainable tourism, but can also be useful for policymakers, national, regional, and urban planners, as it provides the opportunity to learn from past experiences. However, as all the contributions clearly show, sustainable initiatives are heavily dependent on the local context and successful measures cannot necessarily be transplanted to other destinations. Jan Mosedale: Department of Geography, University of Exeter, Exeter EX4 4RJ, United Kingdom. Email
Assigned 17 February 2004. Submitted 28 April 2004. Resubmitted 1 June 2004. Accepted 16 June 2004 doi:10.1016/j.annals.2004.06.001
Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 32, No. 1, pp. 284–286, 2005 Printed in Great Britain 0160-7383/$30.00
Tourism and Development in Tropical Islands: Political Ecology Perspectives Edited by Stefan Go¨ssling. Edward Elgar Publishing