Tourism – The Ins & Outs and the Ups & Downs by Michael Gardner
Reviewed by Vincent Carruthers
Tourism can be a benefit or a curse to the environment – a benefit by offering economic viability to nature conservation; a curse by damaging or over-exploiting sensitive ecosystems.
Michael Gardner has spent almost 60 years in the tourism industry. His involvement has ranged from being a small-time canoe safari operator with three fibre glass craft on Lake Kariba to several years as Director of Tourism for Rhodesia and later Zimbabwe. For the past 25 years he has headed a successful tourism consulting practice in South Africa finding solutions to a plethora of diverse tourism issues. The wisdom gained from this breadth of experience is now captured in a modest, easily accessible handbook. Aimed primarily at practitioners in the tourism business, it is also a valuable guide to environmentalists, nature guides and anyone seeking a clearer understanding of how tourism can be used to the advantage of the planet – and how to avoid it being the opposite.
Using plain, clear language, Gardner unravels much-used and often abused terms such as ‘community-based tourism’, ‘eco-tourism’ and ‘responsible tourism’. He clarifies the distinction between the tripper, the tourist and the traveller, explaining how to find mutually beneficial ways of meeting the needs of all three. He tracks changing trends in tourist behaviour such as the increase in demand for ‘adventure’ tourism and the growing popularity of ‘MAD’ (Making a Difference) tours and volunteerism.
As the title suggests, there have been bumps on the way and other hazards may lie ahead, but responsible tourism can make constructive and practical use of these developments and find the opportunities they offer for greater environmental awareness and education, as well as a richer tourist experience.
The book is a wealth of this type of information, and it stimulates new ways of using tourism to tackle some of the thorny conservation issues that confront us.
Title: Tourism – The Ins & Outs and the Ups & Downs.
Author: Michael Gardner
Publisher: AriesScribe
Order a copy by emailing your name and nearest Courier to wudsmoke@mweb.co.za.
Price: R300 including Courier Guy locker-to-locker courier delivery.
