outdoor (it: countryside and often

wilderness) recreation and its litera-

ture. It has three forms of deficiency.

It has little reference to British or

North American literature after lY75-

76; so. for example. it fails to refer to

the work of. Coppock and Duffield

(1975). Baster (1979) or Glyptis

(1981). Elson ( 197940)’ and others in

Britain, or of the recreation geog-

raphers in Holland. Sweden. France

or Germany. The book also lacks an

understanding of the smaller scale and

socially more complex patterns of

urban recreation. Finally. it fails to

link the patterns of recreation activity

on the rural landscape with the social

forces acting on the populations in the

urban areas from which the visitors

originate.

Plea for the human approach

DE L’HOSPITALITE A L’RCCUEIL

and ACCUEIL D’AUJOURD’HUI ET

DE DEMAIN

by Jose Seydoux Editions Delta et Spes, Denges, Switzerland, 2 volumes

This is the first complete work to be

written on the role of ‘the art of

welcome’ in modern tourism. It is an

original and comprehensive study of

the broad role of decision making in

touristic activities, showing a new way

of conceiving policy for every firm or

organization working in the tourism

sector.

Jo& Seydoux is head of the French-

language editorial section of the Hotel Revue et Revue Touristique, the lead-

ing Swiss weekly publication for the

hotel and tourism industries. A spe- cialist journalist, he is a strong propo-

nent of tourism with a human face,

founded on genuineness and har-

mony.

This work is published in two

volumes (in French only) which are

not available separately: De I’Hospita- 1% ci [‘Accueil (From Hospitality to the

Art of Welcome) and Acclteil d’Au- jourd’hui et de Detnain (The Art of Welcome, Now and in the Future). The

first part of Volume I is devoted to an

historic approach to the notion of

hospitality, while the second part sets

tourism against the economic, social

and cultural background of present-

day life. The author then analyses the

‘welcome’ that is wanted by each

category of customer and lastly puts

forward a new definition of the art of

welcome.

The contents of Volume 2 cover the

integration of a policy of welcome in

the structures and policy of modern

tourism: a critical analysis of the pre-

sent situation; practical solutions and

duties in respect of the art of welcome;

firms/organizations (at all levels) and

the art of welcome; amenities,

architecture and the environment of

welcome; advertising; marketing and

training in the art of welcome.

Ren6 Baretje

American recreation traditions

RECREATlON GEOGRAPHY

by Stephen L.J. Smith Longman, London and New York, 1983, 220 pages, f5.95

explanatory forms to prediction, the

author comes to models for site

selection, recreation business turnover,

and to trend and gravity models for

recreation travel. In his final section

he looks at approaches to planning.

The author in his preface describes

this book as being “about how recrea-

tion geographers do the things they

do”, and recreation geography as “the

systematic study of recreation patterns

and processes on the landscape”.

The book has an idiosyncratic struc-

ture, categorizing research in recrea-

tion geography as descriptive, ex-

planatory, predictive and normative.

The descriptive section covers firstly

inventories of facilities and activity

sites, natural resources, and images of

regions, and travel patterns. Follow-

ing these themes through what he calls

He concludes by asking what issues

are of ultimate concern to recreation

geography and answers “There are

none recognized yet. Development of

the ability to formulate the great

question in our specialization is the

single greatest research need we face.

Once we have this the more specific

questions with important practical ap-

plications will emerge”.

Wilderness

The book is dominated by the North

American tradition, and hence by

TOURISM MANAGEMENT September 1984

Insubstantial

For British geography students this

book will be an intriguing. but rather

insubstantial review of Sorth Amer-

ican geographical analysis. with none

of the pragmatic and practical down- to-earthness of Patmore‘s recent Rr- creatiotl and Resowces.’ It is a reason-

ably priced book, but not in my view

the basic theoretical test that one

would have wished a major British

publisher to produce.

Michael Collins Research Director

The Sports Council 16 Upper Wobum Place

London WClH OQP, UK.

Notes

‘J.T. Coppock and B.S. DuWield. Recrea- tion in the Countryside. A Spatial Analysis, MacMillan, 1975; J. Baxter, Measuring the Benefits of Recreational Site Provision, The Sports Council/SSRC, London, 1979; M.J. Elson, Countryside Trip Making, The Sports Council/SSRC, London. 1979; M.J. Elson, The Leisure Use of Green Belts and Urban fringes, The Sports Council/SSRC, London, 1980; and S. Glyptis. Room to Relax in the Countryside, Tne Planner, September/October 1981. pp 20-22. ‘J. Allan Patmore, Recreation and Re- sources, Basil Blackwell. Oxford, UK, 1983, reviewed by Fred Coal&r in Tourism Managemenf, Vol 5, No 1, March 1984, pp 77-78.

243