ARTICLE IN PRESS

doi:10.1016/j.to

Tourism Management 27 (2006) 1082–1083

www.elsevier.com/locate/tourman

Book review

N. Leiper, Tourism management, Third Ed., Frenchs Forest,

NSW, Pearson Education Australia, ISBN 1862505330,

2004, pp. 445 (pbk).

This is the third edition of a book originally published in1995. The author has written many seminal journal articlesin tourism and his thinking on the area now shapes almostany undergraduate tourism degree, where the ‘tourismsystem’ is examined. The book is not, like some text books,a collection of the author’s publications weaved togetherinto a student text. Far from that, it is what I can bestdescribe as the ‘thinking students’ introduction to TourismManagement. It is not a book for the less able reader, as itis challenging, and looks at tourism in a non-didactic andseemingly lateral manner. This is commendable for anyform of scholarship, but especially so in tourism wheresome critics of the subject point to the ease with which wecan publish. This book would be a coup for any publisher,though I suspect it would not be a high volume seller,mainly because of the challenging way of thinking andexploring Tourism as a subject.

This is too large a book within which to list all thechapter contents and debate whether the coverage of topicsmeets established needs for students and educators. If youare familiar with Leiper’s approach to tourism, agree withhis conceptualisation and enjoy reading a text that does notpull any punches, then this is a book for you to read. Inessence, the Preface sums up much of what is wrong withtourism research:

A lot of what is written about tourism seems to stemfrom one or the other of two agendas: either boostingtourism industries, or criticising them for the damagecaused to social and natural environments.

The 16 chapters in this book adapt a highly intellectualapproach to tourism, in that the formative influences ontourism are addressed (history, a systems approach,sociology, psychology, geography, economics, politics,management and organisational behaviour). This is nomean feat for any text, to be able to write coherently,provocatively and in an explanatory manner across such abreadth of topics. Leiper clearly introduces many of theissues he has researched over the many years which he haswritten on the subject (e.g. a systems approach, attractionsystem and tourism as a partially industrialised sector).This is the substance of the book, although the second partof the book, addressing thematic illustrations of part one,

urman.2005.10.014

include environmental interactions, tourism as a business,attractions and management issues. What is refreshing andunique is the discussion of the highly controversial topic—failure in tourism, namely, why management contributes tobusiness failure. It is a brave academic to examine failures,given the litigation culture which prevails in academicpublishing. Leiper gets to the heart of the issue, much as awell-experienced management consultant would in hisanalysis of a resort, theme park and airline.To thoroughly debate and engage with Leiper’s book,

and to question the thinking and approaches, wouldrequire 5–10,000 words as this is a seminal book. If youare looking for a simply, descriptive account of ‘what istourism’ this book is not for you. I have previous editionsof this book and as with a good cheese or wine, it getsbetter with age. This should be on every undergraduatereading list at some point in their degree. It is somewhatsurprising to see few tourism textbooks which develop thisunique, almost idiosyncratic conceptualisation of tourism.Most textbooks go for the safe, well known formulaic styleof writing and presentation, but one has to question theirability to develop critical thinking. If nothing else, thisbook cannot fail to develop a more critical, holistic andprovocative approach to tourism. If you go through thebook with a checklist of the key concepts you would expectto see, they are all present, but not necessarily presented ina neat, sequential manner.I have always liked this book in previous iterations,

though the use of Australian examples, given its develop-ment for that market, gives it limited appeal for aEuropean audience. Even so, it is in a different league tomany of its competitors. It is not a factual or empiricallyconstructed book. It is based on a series of thoughtprocesses predicated on a systems approach (one Icommend and have widely used) and a more abstractdeconstruction of the phenomenon we collectively describeas tourism.Neil Leiper is to be congratulated on this excellent text,

not least because it challenges the way we think abouttourism, its relationship with leisure and the businessworld. This book is written by a scholar as opposed to aformula textbook writer, and consequently the under-standing of the scientific analysis of tourism is excellent.The production of the book is of a good standard and theliterature reviewed in the 22 page Bibliography is what onewould expect from a book of this standing. I must admitthat I am frequently dipping into the book when I need to

ARTICLE IN PRESSBook review / Tourism Management 27 (2006) 1082–1083 1083

consult certain issues, not least because it offers a goodreference source.

As a minor aside, the book includes over 10 of theleading academics in tourism over the period since the1980s who happen to feature in particular plates.

Stephen PageDepartment of Marketing, University of Stirling,

Stirling, FK9 4LA, Scotland

E-mail address: s.j.page@stir.ac.uk