Pergamon

PII: S0261-5177(97)00112-X

Tourism Management, Vol. 19, No. 2, pp. 185-187, 1998 © 1998 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved

Printed in Great Britain 0261-5177/98 $19.0(I + 0.0()

Book Reviews

Tourism - How Effective Manage- ment Makes the Difference Roger Doswell Butterworth Heinemann, Oxford (1997) x+319 pp £16.99 softcover. ISBN 0750622725

There are currently few texts available which attempt to explain how the public sector, internationaly, should be involved in managing tourism and its impacts; the organizing framework for this book is based on the perspective of the GTA - Government Tourism Administration. Doswell outlines his preference for this term over that of NTO (National Tourism Organiza- tion) though he does not comment on why NTA (National Tourism Admini- stration) is unsuitable. The reasons may be implicit in comments on pages 93 and 95, i.e. a GTA involves national, regional, area and municipal levels and covers all branches of government. Nonetheless, is another acronym in the industry necessary? Whilst the preface outlines the rationale for the perspective, the back cover does not indicate this; it is important since the reader dipping into only one or two chapters may wonder at the paucity of examples. For example, Chapter 4 'The Travel Trade' gives no examples of well- known companies in the industry yet refers to Mercedes, Rolex, Ford and Nikon. The explanation cannot be one of appealing to a range of national markets and, therefore, avoidance of British companies; in any event, tour operators such as Airtours and Thomson are international. Vertical integration is given a paragraph here though, arguably, other forms and diversification have an input to the background.

There are fifteen chapters equally divided into Part One - 'The Background to Tourism Manage-

ment', Part Two - 'Tourism's Impacts and Other Management Criteria' and Part Three - 'Planning and Manage- ment Strategies'. The final chapter in Part One is titled 'Government tourism administration'. This is where examples of named GTAs should be - if only to identify those with similar features and those which differ markedly in some way. Does FONATUR' function in the same way as Maison de la France? This is salient since Doswell comments that 'depending on the part of the world, public administration deficiencies tend to be of the following types ... patronage ... Government jobs may be exchanged for political support or favours' (p. 88). The following section refers to malpractice by government officials - with the only example given being the 1993 UK Audit Commission survey which revealed 54 cases of fraud regarding the award of contracts and granting of planning permission. Later, in the same chapter, QUANGOs are mentioned but with no examples of British ones let alone those overseas. This emphasis on examples is significant since students usually associate specific organizations by categorizing them; the omission of examples - good or bad - suggests an abstract approach, making the text drier than it need be. The last two pages of Part One identify a range of intergovernmental bodies.

'Tourism and the economy', the first chapter in Part Two, comprises 19 pages and discusses a range of concepts from national development plans to multipliers and what they measure; data for the latter is drawn from Archer and Fletcher (1990). 2 Examples of locations pepper the chapter on tourism and the environ- ment though, given the existing litera- ture, the types of carrying capacity could be identified - especially, if

effective management is to make a difference, the potentially very different figures for physical, ecological and perceptual capacity on the same site should be noted. The European Union's environmental management standards are referred to later in this chapter. The remaining chapters in Part Two cover sociocul- tural effects, development issues ('bold GTA intervention can change the product markedly', p. 165, would benefit from examples), and planning and management.

Part Three - Planning and Manage- ment Strategies - is indeed, compre- hensive - incorporating various lists; for example, what should be included in a GTA management information system. Given that the Caribbean is mentioned in the text, reference to the 1993-1996 EU-funded Tourism Development Programme could be made to illustrate both the market development and area tourism development aspects - of which post- employment education (p. 279) was a key feature. 'Managing public aware- ness programmes' is an apposite final chapter with many sound proposals; the use of host programmes, tourist newspapers and local community action groups are outlined. The biblio- graphy lists 106 works: the predictable but also authors such as Edward Said (Orientalism) and Clifford Geertz (The Interpretation of Cultures).

In the final analysis, this book will be put on the reading list for a second-year under-graduate module entitled Tourism Planning and Management since it provides a more detailed assessment of National Tourism Administration roles than Vellas and Becberel (1995)? Given the author's background, it is surprising that much more detail for both good and bad examples of GTAs is not given - this would illuminate

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Book reviews

how effective management does make the difference. In many respects, this book is a management-oriented version of his 1978 and 1979 works. 4"5

References l. Inskeep, W./WTO. National and

Regional Tourism Planning. Routledge, London, 1994, pp. 148-150.

2. Archer, B. and Fletcher, J. (ed.), Tourism: Its economic importance in quest, M. Horwath Book of Tourism. Macmillan, Basingstoke, 1990.

3. Vellas, F. and Becherel, L., Inter- national tourism - an economic perspective. Macmillan, Basingstoke, 1995.

4. Doswell, R., Case studies in tourism. Barrie & Jenkins, London, 1978.

5. Doswell, R., Asong, C., Bougard, A., Gamble, P. and Lamothe, T. Q., Further case studies in tourism. Barrie & Jenkins, London, 1979.

Graham D Busby Department of Land Use &

Rural Management University of Plymouth

Newton Abbot Devon, UK TQ12 6NQ

PII: S0261-5177(97)00119-2

Quality Management in Urban Tourism P E Murphy (ed) John Wiley and Sons, Chichester, 1997, 297pp £34.95

This book is the product of a confer- ence held in Victoria, British Columbia in November 1994. Of the 58 presented, 18 have been chosen for publication in this volume. The editor states that the aims of the book are to discuss how a quality product and experience can be developed in urban destination areas, and how to ensure that this experience does not conflict with the needs of the local community. The book is divided into three sections, management issues, commercialising heritage and culture, and management partnerships, although these distinctive emphases are not always apparent.

Several of the authors remark that a tourist's experience, whether satis- factory or not, is always judged against the expectations they had. Likewise with a book, expectations may be developed from the title and the editor's aims. The term 'urban tourism' is not defined but it is surprising nevertheless to see chapters on the running of a country estate, the problems of running a museum (which is not related to tourism) and indige- nous tourism in rural British Columbia. This latter chapter by Heather Norris Nicholson is a very thorough, thoughtful and comprehen- sive account of the issues and a discussion of how they can be handled, but appears somewhat misplaced in this book. Again with the word 'management' in the title, a reader might expect the papers to be practical, emphasising how the job could be done better. But one or two of the chapters are highly theoretical and academic with few implications for the practitioner. Perhaps this is not surprising given that only one of the chapter's authors is not an academic.

For this reviewer the most interesting and relevant chapters were as follows. Butler and Mao reviewed the issue of seasonality which while less extreme in urban areas can still be a problem. The strategies to deal with this were evaluated. As a non-North American I found Broad- way's review of urban tourism in Canadian useful. In passing, Broadway highlighted the role which special events have played in Canadian city tourism. This theme is taken up in the following two chapters. Dimanche discusses the long term effects of the 1984 World's Fair in New Orleans and concludes that although it appeared a failure at the time, it has had long term benefits for the city through its stimulus of tourism. Hall in the following chapter provides a useful comprehensive review of the legacies of mega-events and the need for careful management. Hughes examines the role of the performing arts in urban tourism. He believes they have a role, but that they need to be researched more and

handled careful so that there are no conflicts with the local population. Wall examines urban tourism in the Third World city of Yogyakarta in Indonesia where the development of tourism is hampered by the weakness of the basic infrastructure. The chapters by Haywood and Postma and Jenkins are the only ones in the book which take a deep look at quality management. They discuss some interesting general ideas and it would have been useful if they could have illustrated them with more relevant examples. Jamal and Getz examine how communities can develop visions for their future. This is an important topic since it allows local people to express their ideas about tourism. Three of the four examples quoted are from small communities, and although Calgary is an example, it does appear difficult to get the population of a large city involved in consultative process which results in a vision statement. Finally Murphy examines the development of the three Disney theme parks in the western world exploring the developing management approach for what is regarded as a quality product.

As with most books which are conference proceedings the reader will find the chapters variable in quality, comprehensiveness, usefulness and relevance. Many of the chapters contain stimulating ideas and have useful discussion which will prompt many readers to dip into the book from time to time. Overall this reviewer was disappointed about the lack of widespread discussion on how a quality product was to be produced at an urban destination. It would have been helpful to have had some practi- tioners who could get beyond the usual description of successes and propaganda to theorise about how their job is done or ought to be done. In the title, Peter Murphy has highlighted a very important topic, and it is to be hoped that this book stimulates further research and debate.

C. M. Law Department of Geography

University of Salford UK

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