Polar tourism has been growing dramatically over the last couple of decades. This latest addition to the literature comes at a time when communities in the polar regions are facing unprecedented challenges in terms of environmental and social change and aims to use ‘cutting-edge empirical research’ (p. 10) to bring the key issues forward to a wide audience of academics, students, industry operators and government bodies. This 306 pp. book is divided into four main sections (Arctic; sub-Arctic; Antarctic; and sub-Antarctic) with an introductory chapter by the editors and a concluding chapter by Debra Enzenbacher. Each of the main sections has its own introductory chapter which is followed by three chapters (Arctic and Antarctic) or two chapters (sub-Arctic and sub-Antarctic) of empirical research from the given region.
The strength of this book is its balance between offering a broad and detailed overview of tourism in the polar regions and, at the same time, sharing recent empirical studies. The editors note that this is a departure from previous volumes which have tended towards ‘description or reviews’ (p. 11) and, perhaps, marks a development in research on polar tourism. Future volumes will be able to release themselves from the shackles of basic description and instead advance the research agenda with a concerted focus on empirical and theoretical research. The book also includes 30 figures (16 greyscale maps and 14 black & white pictures) and 29 tables to augment the text, and all figures and tables are clear and accurate. A very minor criticism is that ten of the sixteen pictures appear in the first 57 pages. The book is easily read and offers a very detailed but accessible introduction to polar tourism for those who may be new to this area of research. This book will also find a home on the bookshelf of more experienced polar academics who will no doubt appreciate its depth in the section introductory chapters and, of course, the varied empirical approaches employed throughout. This book will act as a useful reference text for polar tourism going forward.
Chapter 2 by Margaret E. Johnston introduces the Arctic region and sets the scene for the empirical chapters to follow. The perennial measurement challenges of Arctic tourism are highlighted as well as ‘the question of whether Arctic communities are interested in tourism development’ (p. 22). The three chapters that follow examine resident attitudes in Nunavut, Canada, impacts on wildlife in Northern Manitoba, Canada, and tourism strategies in Ilulissat, Greenland. Missing from this section, however, is a chapter from the Eurasian Arctic although the section on the sub-Arctic addresses this area in both John S. Hull's section introduction (Chapter 10) and Tervo-Kankare and Saarinen's work on northern Europe (Chapter 12). A highlight of the Arctic and sub-Arctic sections is Lemelin and McIntyre's chapter on resiliency and tourism in Northern Ontario, Canada (Chapter 11), which brings together the key titular dimensions of this volume – human, environmental and governance – and combines a theoretical focus on complex adaptive systems with an applied focus by clearly stating some policy goals based on their research on wildlife tourism in the Polar Bear Provincial Park of Northern Ontario.
Crosbie and Splettstoesser's introduction to Antarctic tourism states that ‘the key to the continued successful management of Antarctic tourism will need to involve careful planning, cooperation and collaboration between the Antarctic Treaty Parties and the industry that is both transparent and inclusive’ (p. 117). Patrick T. Maher's research in this section focuses on ambassadorship, i.e. that visitors to this sensitive region will return home with a renewed and redoubled desire to help conserve the Antarctic (Chapter 7). Chapter 8, by van Polanen Petel, looks at the effects on Weddell Seals of various types of human interaction and offers a number of management guidelines for more sustainable human–wildlife interactions. The Antarctic section closes with a policy chapter by Kees Bastmeijer focusing on the Antarctic Treaty System and the future for tourism with respect to the Treaty (Chapter 9). Shelton's introduction to sub-Antarctic tourism notes there ‘are still very few empirical tourism studies available’ (p. 239) but his overview offers an insight into the developing tourism research agenda in the region. The two chapters that follow examine Australia's and New Zealand's sub-Antarctic islands where visitor numbers are relatively small but growth is occurring. The authors believe that now is the time to plan for greater numbers in order to minimize the negative effects of future tourism growth. Missing from the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic sections, arguably, is a contribution from South America and the Antarctic peninsula although Eric J. Shelton does make some reference to tourism originating from Ushuaia and other southern areas of South America.
This volume goes a long way towards developing a better understanding of the complex nature of polar tourism in its various forms and locations. It is easy to point out what is missing from this volume, most notably a contribution on Russian Arctic tourism and something on South American Antarctic tourism, but also some research from the Northwestern Americas would be of interest, especially given the prevalence of cruise and drive tourism in Alaska and Northwestern Canada. This is not a criticism of this volume but rather a call for future volumes to consider covering other polar areas as well. Polar Tourism: Human, Environmental and Governance Dimensions often refers to its empirical strength and this strong empirical grounding is both a reason to read this book and a demand on future volumes on polar tourism to advance the scientific contributions for the people and policy makers of the polar regions.
Acknowledgments
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2011.609904