Book Reviews / Tourism Management 32 (2011) 1232–1242 1233

increasingly complex structure of hotel chains are drawn withthose of Europe.

The fifth stage consists of Chapters 8 and 9: Establishment ofthe service business economy and the acceleration of hotel chains1960–1980. The case made in this stage is similar to that in thefourth stage, however with increased scale and scope as the paceof population growth and economic prosperity accelerated duringthis period. The foundations for the trend of dominance of hotelchains were established during those years, a trend that continuespresently.

The sixth and final stage consists of Chapters 10, 11, 12 and 13:Expansion of the service business economy and the dominance ofhotel chains 1980–2008. It is in these chapters that we see the paral-lels between expansion of service business economies and rapidexpansion of the hotel industry. The primary investigatory methodof the book is analysis of long-term historical trends. It is throughexposition of the trends during this period that the dual proliferationof the general economies in the US and Europe, and the expansion ofthe hotel business are brought into sharp relief. In a final message tothe hotel business, the author predicts that “we are about to entera golden age in the economic ascent of the hotel business” (p. 229).This forecast specifically includes a doubling of the largest chains’portfolios within the next decade. As with all economic predictions,the caution of ceteris paribus is applicable to acknowledge volatileassumptive factors, especially given the increasing levels of unpre-dictability in the world tourism environment of the recent decade.The most likely variant to the book’s argument is that the worldhospitality industry will continue to grow substantially in the longterm, but perhaps not at the explosive pace predicted.

The 4-page appendix about hotel supply and demandmodellingserves the dual purpose of cautioning about patchy availabilityof accurate supply and demand statistics, and of explaining the cali-bration measures used in the book’s primary method of analysis oflong-term historical trends.

The book successfully addresses the three knowledge gapsmentioned above. The story is as much a historical account as aneconomic one, and it is well written in a style accessible to readerswho are not necessarily economics experts. Unfortunately the texthas been let down by the editing process, as it contains a number ofspelling and continuity oversights such as the spelling of the wordevent (p. 2); year and names of the Foote reference between page 3and the Bibliography; and likewise the year of the Jay citation andthe spelling of Bernstein (p. 4). A thorough edit should be includedin future printings.

The book is suitable as a supplementary hospitality manage-ment course text, and would fit particularly well into a universityundergraduate or postgraduate curriculum focused on interna-tional aspects of the hospitality industry. It should also be on thebookshelves of scholars who seek awell-researched source of infor-mation about hotel industry development history.

References

Brotherton, B., & Wood, R. C. (Eds.). (2008). The Sage handbook of hospitality manage-ment. London: Sage Publications Ltd.

Clarke, A., & Chen, W. (2007). International hospitality management: Concepts andcases. Burlington, Massachusetts: Butterworth-Heinemann.

Cunill, O. M. (2006). The growth strategies of hotel chains: Best business practices byleading companies. Binghamton, New York: Haworth Hospitality Press.

Lockyer, T. L. G. (2007). The international hotel industry: Sustainable management.Binghamton, New York: Haworth Hospitality & Tourism Press.

Olsen, M., & Zhao, J. (2008). Handbook of hospitality strategic management. Burling-ton, Massachusetts: Butterworth-Heinemann.

Powers, T., & Barrows, C. W. (2006). Management in the hospitality industry8th ed.).Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.

Slattery, P. (2009). The Otus theory of hotel demand and supply. InternationalJournal of Hospitality Management, 28(1), 113–120.

Van Hoof, H. B., Vallen, G. K., McDonald, M. E., & Wiener, P. J. (2007). A host of oppor-tunities: An introduction to hospitality management. Upper Saddle River, NewJersey, USA: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Walker, J. R. (2009). Introduction to hospitality5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NewJersey: Pearson Education.

Michael J. GrossUniversity of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia

E-mail address: michael.gross@unisa.edu.au

doi:10.1016/j.tourman.2010.06.015

Tourism research: A 20-20 vision, Douglas G. Pearce, RichardW. Butler (Eds.), Goodfellow Publishing, Oxford (2010).xi D 241 pages, £ 44.99 hardback, ISBN: 978-1-906884-10-9

This book, derived from the 20th Anniversary meeting of theAcademy for the Study of Tourism, took longer than normal toread – because, within its genre, it is so good. Each chapter drawsin the reader and as a coherent whole the book offers both rangeand depth. The back cover is thoroughly accurate in its promise todeliver ‘reflective, challenging and sometimes provocative papers.’The reflection comes from the overview that each chapter provideson past, present and future research. The challenge and provocationcomes fromwell constructed arguments that encourage thinking –

and at best can leave you re-considering well worn orthodoxies orplanning new research interests.

The book is divided into four parts, although for any inveterateskimmer and dipper it can be read and made sense of in any order.At some stage, though, the reader is advised to fix the perspective ofthe editors by reading both their Introduction (Chapter 1) and theirConclusions (Chapter 18). Other than those chapters, Part 1 Perspec-tives on progress in tourism researchmight be considered the core ofthe contribution. There is provocation aplenty in Julio Aramberri’sChapter 2 The real scissors crisis in tourism research. Using theanalogy of an open scissors, Aramberri shows that each of the twoblades of tourism research has a divergent direction. On the onehand there is ‘how to’ (applied) research creating ‘endless lists ofbest practices’ (p. 17); and on the other side there is ‘why’ researchthat interminably questions and exposes tourism’s role in the crea-tion of modernity. The ‘how to’ researchers are criticised for their‘unbearable conceptual lightness’ – and the ‘why’ researchers fortheir ‘churlish moral superiority’ as they ‘lament the ways of theworld after the latest homily in the Annals of Tourism Research’(p. 17). Such is the turn of phrase in this chapter that for once onealmost feels that it would have been fun to have attended the eventthat spawned the book. The great and the good get an evaluativekicking. MacCannell is ‘abetted by a number of sycophants’ (p. 20)– a ‘small but vocal cottage industry that follows his authenticitycue. and revels in an endlessly idle discussion’ (p. 21). Turner’s‘liberation theology’ (p. 21) fairs no better; and themobilities schoolof Urry, Sheller, Hall and company ‘also winds up in a blind alley’(p.19). This is all good knock-about stuff – but by so doing Aramberridoes offer his serious consideration of tourism research past,present and future, which is the central focus of the book.

Also within Part 1 Stephen Smith and Hoffer Lee in Chapter 3 Atypology of ‘theory’ in tourism offer a less flamboyant but neverthe-less interesting view of how the word ‘theory’ has been used intourism, how it hasmetamorphosed through time andwill continuetometamorphose. David Harrison in Chapter 4 Tourism and develop-ment: looking back and looking forward–more of the same? illustrates

Book Reviews / Tourism Management 32 (2011) 1232–12421234

how his research context draws heavily on general developmentstudies and how there ‘has almost invariably been a failure tosubstantiate theories and/or findings over time and place’ (p. 45).He calls for ‘sustained and comparative attention’ (p. 48) toaddress the gaps and also writes passionately about what he callsthe ‘academic/practitioner apartheid’ that is ‘unproductive andunhealthy and needs to be broken down’ (p. 48). Such a view, ofcourse, is highly relevant and acutely felt in many other tourismresearch areas. Harrison comments on how tourism developmentstudies ‘have succumbed to the vagaries of academic fashion’(p. 45) and such an effect is also at the core of Richard Butler’sChapter 5 Carrying capacity in tourism: paradox and hypocrisy. Heoutlines ‘the rise and fall in interest and involvement’ in carryingcapacity – a concept that sits in mainstream text books but other-wise languishes in the backwaters of long-ago journal articles.The life-time expertise of such a writer helps to quickly put therise and fall in context. This is a valuable exercise for readers whomay spend their teaching, research or consultancy life in pursuitof other specialist areas. So, Butlermakes amatter-of-fact statementthat ‘The responsibility for the abandonment of interest in carryingcapacity can probably be assigned to the group of researchersresponsible for its appearance in the first place, those in the USForest Service’ (p. 57) – who subsequently promoted the notion‘Limits of Acceptable Change’. With such insight, probably run-of-the-mill for Butler, the understanding of the non-specialist can berapidly advanced. And as you read, you make an interim conclusionthat there is truly a need for such reflective essays, especially asresearch output explodes in so many disparate sub-areas. A lesscharitable view of Butler’s chapter, of course, might argue that heis just lamenting the passage of time and the usurping of themessage of carrying capacity, fundamental in his life-cycle model,to other more fashionable concepts. But that would be harshand wrong because he clearly articulates why carrying capacity isa complex and complicated theoretical and applied issue that isnot to be shirked. He initially calls the move away from carryingcapacity ‘puzzling’ and later calls it ‘amazing’ but then offers theindustry a beacon of comfort with note of a modified version ofthe traditional carrying capacity model by Li and Zhang (2009) inChina; and a ‘rare recent article’ by Jovicic and Dragin (2009).He concludes that ‘in avoiding this problem (carrying capacity),we are both ignoring a valid academic issue and failing thoseinvolved in the management of destination areas, and thusabrogating the right to criticise destinations on the grounds ofover-development.’ (p. 61). This is as much a call to arms as onecan find in any of the many other excellent chapters in this book.

Part II emphasisesadvances in researchonthebusinessof tourism.Gareth Shaw and Allan Williams Chapter 7 Tourism SMEs: changingresearch agendas and missed opportunities lament the disconnectionbetween tourism researchfields. It seems that it is not just academicsand practitioners who do not communicate – academics do notcommunicate (enough) with other academics. So, for example,‘despite considerable interest in issues of sustainable tourism thereis limited information on the environmental practices of SMEs’(p. 86). Of course, such an argument could be extended and appliedtothewidercontextof tourismresearch,not just SMEs– researchsilosexist throughout the field. Douglas Pearce in Chapter 8 Tourism distri-bution: a reviewand strategic research agendadirectly calls for tourismresearchers to peer over silo walls, not only within the tourism fieldbut also beyond tourism to the general literature. In a personal notehestates that ‘Thiswriter took sometime tomovebeyond the tourismliterature to mainstream distribution material but once there foundimmense value in referring to related issues and contextualising hiswork more widely’ (p. 98).

The business of tourism is not just composed of tourism busi-nesses and Richard Perdue et al in Chapter 10 Understanding the

value of tourism: a conceptual divergence show how different stake-holder groups determine and perceive the value of tourism. Theysuggest that there has been a divergence in theway that businesses,destination marketing organisations and community economicdevelopment authorities measure tourism value. The general trendhas been away from concrete, objective ‘exchange value’ measure-ment and toward a more abstract, subjective ‘use value’ (the wellbeing of individuals, communities and societies in general) – basedon benefits and not just pure economic value. The tourism setting ismost often a collective – ‘a place for residents to live in and a placefor visitors to create value’ (p. 131).

Part III delves more in to tourism research within a spatialsetting. It focuses on a range of national and regional perspectives– in Latin America, Mainland China and Bali. Regina Schluter andRodolfo Bertoncello Chapter 11 Tourism research in Latin America:past and future challenges offer a refreshing view from that conti-nent – another silo, this time language based, that the dominantwestern-centric and Anglo-centric perspective fails for the mostpart to penetrate. With a review of the contribution made totourism studies in Latin America by the publication Estudios yPerspectivas en Turismo, the authors chart the course of researchdevelopment through time. The conclusion is a positive one – itis considered that ‘tourism has matured as a field of research,moving from the fixed black and white photos of the past, eitherpositive or negative, to the colourful and dynamic productions ofthe present day’ (p. 143). Reading such a paper highlights thetwo-way benefit of collaboration with Latin American academiccounterparts. This would lead to the practical breaking down ofa language silo – perhaps similar to the academic exchange andcollaboration with China as charted by Cathy Hsu in Chapter 12Tourism and hospitality research in Mainland China: trends from2000 to 2008.

All papers look in some part to the future of tourism research –

and Part IV concentrates on emerging themes. Tom Baum and GeriSmyth in Chapter 14 Charting a journey: from refugee to tourismemployee and tourism entrepreneur outline both a positive andnegative scenario for migrants who find tourism as a gateway toemployment and, eventually, legal entrepreneurial activity. Baumand Smyth plot a preliminary research agenda for the future(p. 186) that might be very useful for an aspiring researcher. InChapter 15, Myriam Jansen-Verbeka and Bob Mckercher Thetourism destiny of World Heritage cultural sites record how ‘research(in their area) has been historically fragmented, case-based andnot integrated’ (p. 197) – and so call for an agenda that challengesmyths and ‘expand(s) the body of knowledge, focusing on processesrather than on ad hoc perceptions and descriptions of impacts andthreats’ (p. 197). This agenda would again be of use to both existingresearchers and incomers to the field – and the same can be said forthe papers of Gianna Moscardo in Chapter 16 Tourism researchethics: current considerations and future options and Chris Cooperand Pauline Sheldon in Chapter 17 Knowledge management intourism: from data bases to learning destinations. Few of the contrib-utors, not only in Part IV but throughout the book, do not quotetheir own work from journal publications; so they can all be calledestablished commentators – an almost wholly positive influence.In their Conclusions (Chapter 18), Douglas Pearce and RichardButler critique the limitations of their book and suggest that ‘theauthors are mainly established senior scholars whose views onwhat is important, especially with regards to future agendas, nodoubt differ from those of a newer generation of forward-lookingresearchers’ (p. 229). But, on the other hand, the ‘usual suspects’in terms of authors also bring perspective based on individualand collective endeavour and memory. This is important as a fieldlooks back over what has been achieved – and what remains tobe achieved.

Book Reviews / Tourism Management 32 (2011) 1232–1242 1235

References

Jovicic, D., & Dragin, A. (2009). The assessment of carrying capacity – a crucial toolfor managing tourism effects in tourist destinations. Turizam, 1(1), 4–11.

Li, J. & Zhang, Y. (2009). Regulation and improvement of the model of tourismenvironment carrying capacity – Shuanglong Scenic Area as an example. Paperpresented at 2009 International Forum on Ecotourism, August, Xining, China.

David BowenBusiness School, Department of Hospitality,

Leisure and Tourism Management, Oxford Brookes University,Gypsy Lane Campus, Oxford, OX3 0BP England, UK

E-mail address: dbowen@brookes.ac.uk

doi:10.1016/j.tourman.2010.06.016

Tourism in Japan: An Ethno-semiotic Analysis, A.A. Berger,Channel View Publications, Bristol, UK (2010). pp. xxii D 159(pbk), ISBN 13: 978-1-84541-133-6

If one were collecting linguistic trivia, it would be interesting tonote that manga are popular both in India and Japan. In the former,it is the Tamil term for mango, the English term being derived fromTamil; in the latter, manga is the word for comic books, which arevery popular in Japan. As an anthropologist, this reviewer findsTourism in Japan very fascinating. It is written in simple style andas a short introduction, makes its impression as being comprehen-sive while at the same time being brief.

One can always point out omissions in any good book. In thisbook, one could point up the absence of discussion of saki, Japanesebeer, and the heavy drinking bouts that many Japanese seem toresort to in order to drive away the tiredness that their intensework culture brings about; the Japanese managerial culture andflat organizations; Japanese predilection with and aggressiveattitude towards prostitutes (cf. Buruma, 1995); the history of theJapanese empire and samurais; the prevalence of vendetta andthe culture of the Japanese mafia; suicidal tendencies of Japanesebusinessmen who go bankrupt; technological innovations againstpollution like roadside oxygen ‘bars’, and many such trivia.

As mentioned at the outset, all this would be interesting titbits ifonewere collecting trivia – and that is not the intention or aim of thisbook. Concentrating on the aspects of tourism and cultural changethat relate to Japanese society, the book is divided into two parts:the first termed ‘Japan as a Tourist Destination’ (but includes partof a chapter on Japanese outbound tourists), while the second in on‘Semiotic Japan’. This division seems a bit forced, since the secondpart includes chapters on tourism and cultural change and even (!)an explanation of how this book fits into the publishers’ ‘TourismandCultural Change’book series. This is also a note for the publishers,whowould have served themselves and the readers better by havingmore than just two book series on tourism, and authors of the booksbeing compelled to justify their inclusion in one or the other series.

Admittedly, the scope of this book is very broad and the numberof pages in the book too few to do full justice to such a study.Indeed, though the book does cover Japanese national characteras well as stereotypes of the Japanese among westerners, theauthor is unable to go deep into this sub-theme. As a result, sociol-ogists and anthropologists reading the book find it very interestingbut too brief. There is only a passing mention of anthropologistswho studied Japan like Geoffrey Gorer and Ruth Benedict(The Chrysanthemum and the Sword, a book on Japanese societyand culture), which is an important omission, especially since the

study is ethno-semiotic and ethnography alone does not make upfor a thorough sociological or anthropological study.

Partof the reasonbehind these anomaliesmaybebecause thebookis not meant solely for academics, but aspires to be interesting forpotential tourists or tourists, which, though a laudable attempt, islike trying to straddle twoboats at the same time.However, in keepingwith this aim, the book is written in a light and reader-friendly style.

There are some other aspects of Japanese tourism that aremissing in this book. For example, much more could have beenwritten on how Japanese tourists behave when on a group tour(the usual or common form of travel); images of Japanese touristsin the minds of tourees in South-East Asia; the obsession amongmany Japanese male tourists for sex with South-East Asianwomen,and the underlying feelings of domination over and subjugationof South-East Asia, in particular, and Asia, in general; the Japaneseobsession with golf tourism and the concomitant spread of golfcourses in tourist resorts in Asia (including India); tables or infor-mation on the total number of Japanese outbound tourists and allthe countries that they visited; Japanese tourismmarket segments;cultural festivals of Japan (though covered, but not in detail); haikupoetry and the Japanese concern with ecology and the environ-ment; single Japanese women travellers; and the Ainu tribefound in Japan that could be the attraction for tribe tourism inthat country, as well as the basis for analysis of (lack of) Japa-nese–Ainu interaction, which could give us insights into Japanesecapitalism.

As well, the division of the book into two parts is artificial anddoes not help in structuring the book. In covering such a vast topicthe book, though interesting and at times fascinating, is sometimesdisappointing and superficial. If the author and publishers decidesome time to publish another edition of this book, it is hopedthat they will cover the above-mentioned topics and presenta richer understanding of Japan and outbound Japanese tourism.

The book provides very interesting statistics, though, and it isstrange to another Asian to know that despite an average annualfamily income equivalent to US$ 60,000, many married urban Japa-nesemen andwomen have to hire a room in a hotel in order to havesex, since their flats are too small for privacy. The comparisonsthroughout the book of USA and Japan are very revealing andthough one could say this is a discrepancy (why should the authoralways compare these two countries, when the book is clearlymeant for an international readership?), it is at the same time aptsince these two nations are among the five leading economies ofthe world. Moreover, this comparison (of the author’s countryand the other, Japan) makes the book truly anthropological anda welcome addition to literature on the anthropology of tourism.Also, such analysis goes some way in explaining what makes thesetwo countries tick. Overall, the book is a unique contribution to thetourism literature and will be liked by laypersons and students(and professors) in this field. It is highly recommended.

Reference

Buruma, I. (1995). A Japanese mirror: Heroes and villains of Japanese culture. London:Vintage.

Sagar SinghCentre for Tourism Research and Development, Lucknow, India

E-mail address: sagar_66@hotmail.com

doi:10.1016/j.tourman.2010.06.017