The_international_marketing_of_travel_an.pdf

88 ences included, this book would certainly be worth a place among other introductory textbooks that are of value to new tourism students. A fourth edition of this book should pay more attention to the world outside North America and to developments in tourism, such as the new consumer, the changing scope of the industry and the role of information and communication technology (ICT), and it would gain a lot of value. The greatest asset of the book is its comprehensiveness and clear lay-out and the amount of review questions. If review questions could be included as well as `knowledge questions' and `insight questions', then it would gain even more. MAGIEL VENEMA Netherlands Institute of Tourism and Transport Studies

THE INTERNATIONAL MARKETING OF TRAVEL AND TOURISM Ð A STRATEGIC APPROACH by Franois Vellas and Lionel Bcherel (eds). Macmillan Press, London, 1999. No. of pages: 329. ISBN 0-333-71758-9 (hardcover). ISBN 0-33371759-7 (paperback). Marketing is an essential tool in any business activity (or activity that involves a relation between two or more engaged parties). International tourism has developed to the point of being considered the largest industry in the world economy today and one of the most promising for the next century. Competition is increasingly ®erce in this global business, and the success of tourism destinations and support businesses (airlines, hotels, tour operators, etc.) depends more and more on their marketing strategies and continuous development and innovation within marketing. The International Marketing of Travel and TourismÐ A Strategic Approach, presents its readers with a diversi®ed range of contributions that appeal to different audiences. In general, the book addresses major issues in¯uencing and shaping international tourism marketing today, such as globalisation, deregulation and technological developments (especially those applicable to the industry). The emphasis of the book is on strategic decision and planning to achieve organisational objectives. It also draws from examples of strategic marketing in various segments within the tourism industry. The book is divided in three main parts: Part 1 presents the theoretical basis of tourism marketing. It presents marketing from a strategic perspective, focusing on a diversi®ed number of techniques and Copyright # 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Book Reviews tools available to managers and professionals that could be applied for identifying strategic alternatives. This part offers basic, and commonly addressed, observations. Chapter 1 focuses on de®nitions and the role of international marketing in tourism. Chapter 2 addresses issues relating to the strategic marketing process and introduces `a few of the techniques used in developing a strategic plan' (p. 37). This ®rst part provides the background that the rest of the book is based on. Tourism is an evolving global business and is highly in¯uenced by developments in a number of areas. Part 2 of the book looks at speci®c issues that have been shaping and in¯uencing contemporary tourism marketing and explores how tourism will be marketed in the future. This part is comprised of four chapters that address a number of those in¯uencing factors. Chapter 3 focuses on the impact that technological development has had on tourism and marketing such as e-commerce and data-base marketing. Chapter 4 addresses the pressing issue of environmental awareness and explores and describes green initiatives in tourism and hospitality. It also examines `green trends' and `green marketing strategies' in the tourism and hospitality sectors. The in¯uence of human resource on tourism marketing is the focus of Chapters 5 and 6. Chapter 5 looks at how human resources have become a key factor in tourism marketing and Chapter 6 concentrates on service quality and internal marketing. The ®nal part of the book, Part 3, explores strategic marketing in different sectors of the tourism industry. This part has six chapters. The ®rst ®ve chapters explore marketing strategies in different sectors of the industry. More speci®cally, tourism destinations (Chapter 7), hospitality sector (Chapter 8), air transport (Chapter 9), tour operator (Chapter 10) and travel agency sector (Chapter 11). The emphasis of these chapters is on `marketing strategies rather than on describing the nuts and bolts of operational marketing' (p. 179). All chapters start with an overview of the sector and analyse the major factors provoking changes in that sector. This part of the book is perhaps the most practical because it explores and describes the strategic responses to changes observed in each of the sectors. The book concludes with a chapter devoted to the future trends in the travel and tourism industry. Overall, the book makes for pleasant reading, specially because it is rich in practical examples drawn from different sectors of the tourism industry and from many parts of the world. The numerous examples and case vignettes are a strong point, and help in giving the book the international Int. J. Tourism Res. 3, 87±90 (2001)

Book Reviews

89

perspective sought by the editors. Each chapter offers a mixture of theoretical and practical discussion. Another strength of the book is that it manages to comprise all major sectors of the tourism industry in one single volume. This makes the book appealing to a broad audience. Some parts appear to be very descriptive and the volume presents some minor proof-reading problems (e.g. p. 8, `However, it dif®culty for other functions ¼'; p. 22, American Express turnover: is it US$ 17.1 billion or million?). Nevertheless, the individual chapters never lose the relationship with the focus of the book and, in general, the contributions are highly informative and well structured and presented. The book de®nitely makes a good contribution to the tourism literature and will be appreciated by undergraduate and postgraduate students, researchers and professionals in the ®eld. The editors have succeeded in presenting a collection of contributions that illustrate how far tourism marketing has evolved (in a short period of time) and how it is contributing to the future of the industry. Moreover, readers interested in the dynamics of in¯uencing factors and responses will ®nd this book a stimulating publication. GUI SANTANA CTTMar, Universidade do Vale do ItajaõÂ - UNIVALI, Brazil

SUSTAINABLE TOURISM MANAGEMENT by John Swarbrooke. CABI Publishing, Division of CABI International, New York. No. of pages: 371. ISBN 0-85199-314-1. The topic of sustainable tourism is one of the most interesting nowadays. Although several books have been written, the approach of this text is both practical and comprehensive and therefore most welcome. The teaching methodological approach is evident, as the reader starts with the introductory Part one, where historical background is given, tourism sustainability is de®ned (the concept varies from country to country and a difference is made between `green tourist' and `ecotourism'), some carrying capacity issues are also de®ned. The author also shows his scepticism about the lack of best practices in sustainable tourism standards or indicators. Part two analyses the three dimensions of sustainable tourism (environment, economics and Copyright # 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

social), being precisely the sociocultural impact of tourism on the host community the best contribution of the book to that dimension. Part three is entitled `the key actors in sustainable tourism', including the media, and again this is a worthy, albeit too short, contribution to that topic. Part four establishes different types of sustainability for geographically different tourism products. The chapter dedicated to islands where the author says `that the issue of sustainable tourism is at its most challenging'. Part ®ve deals with the relationship between sustainable tourism and `functional management', i.e. marketing, human resources, operations and ®nancial management. A good point made by the author when considering marketing techniques as useful tools to create more sustainable forms of tourism. This is that destinations seeking to understand customers' motivations and attitudes, will be better placed to act on the marketing mix, which could lead to new marketing or even `de-marketing' techniques. Part six establishes different types of sustainability for sectorally different tourism products, such as cultural tourism, ecotourism, thematic parks, festivals and business tourism. However, the text does not deal with `sun and beach' tourism, the most popular of all types and at the same time the most detrimental to the environment. The author includes in part six topics such as `tourism destination issues relating to sustainability' (dealing with `resort life cycle', `attitude of local people' and the concept of `carrying capacity'), `hospitality sector and all-inclusive and self-contained complexes', `tourism transports' and `tour operations'. Being as the carrying capacity concept is a key part of the sustainability topic, the reader should be provided with a chapter dedicated to its concept and practice. Instead, the author deals brie¯y and repeatedly with `carrying capacity' throughout the text. On all occasions the repeated types of carrying capacity according to the author are: physical, environmental, economic, social, perceptual and infrastructional. One must congratulate the author for his sensitiveness when adding the `perceptual' capacity. This is a demand oriented limit in comparison with the other ®ve supply oriented limit. It is well described as `the number of tourists a resort can absorb before their quality of experience is adversely affected', although the author warns that this a very subjective measurement of capacity. Part seven presents the conclusions, and the author ends with this phrase: `Perhaps the most important, if rather contentious conclusion is that no one type of tourism is inherently more sustainable, or better than any other. Managed well, Int. J. Tourism Res. 3, 87±90 (2001)