PUBLICATIONS IN REVIEW

This Department publishes reviews of recent publications in or related to the study of tourism. Individuals interested in submitting review essays and book reviews should write directly to the Associate Editor for Publications in Review, Stephen Smith (Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies, University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3G1. Email <slsmith@healthy.uwaterloo.ca>). Unsolicited reviews will not be accepted.

BOOK REVIEWS

Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 29, No. 3, pp. 874876, 2002 Printed in Great Britain 0160-7383/02/$22.00

www.elsevier.com/locate/atoures

Tourism and Sex

Edited by Stephen Clift and Simon Carter. Pinter (Wellington House, 125 Strand London, WC2R 0BB, United Kingdom) 2000, xiv+297 pp (gures, tables, references, index) $28.95 Pbk. ISBN 1-85567-636-2.

Michael Fagence University of Queensland, Australia

In the introductory chapter, the editors explain that the complexity and diverse nature of issues associated with sex and tourism frustrate any attempt to explore comprehensively the subjects many dimensions. This situation is evident in the burgeoning of sources available in both printed and electronic forms. For example, an exchange of messages on TRINET, the popular tourism research listserve, in February 1998, Internet site searches, and the recent outpouring of published papers and books reveal the interest in this complex issue. But, what is sex tourism? The diversity of interpretations and the range of disciplinary perspectives of authors contribute to the high level of confusion. Reputable research discussions have elevated the subject above mere titillation and voyeurism, and scientic surveys have begun to furnish discussions with credible data on the social, economic, and geographical circumstances. One might speculate that the rapid growth of publications on these topics fans ames of interest without contributing to the consolidation and coordination of what is known. In recent years, several signicant commentaries have appeared (Bishop and Robinson 1998; Kempadoo 1999; Oppermann 1998, 1999; Ryan 2000; Ryan and Hall 2001; Ryan and Kinder 1996; Seabrook 1996; Truong 1990). It is against these sources that the contribution of this book has to be judged. This collection attempts to sharpen the focus on two perspectives: tourism and commercial sex (seven chapters), and tourism, sexual activity, and risk (seven chapters). The rst part draws attention to the paradigms of sex tourism (Chris Ryan), commercial sex (Taylor; Ford and Wirawan; Luongo;
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Carter), and child prostitution and exploitation (Davidson; Hoose, Clift, and Carter). Most presentations struggle, with varying success, to cope with the different paradigms and interpretations of this tourism. There are serious attempts to grapple with moral issues as a traded commodity, and the motivations of the potential (and actual) clients and those providing the service. Some papers examine the race, gender, power, and colonial issues, while others investigate the organizational and spatial aspects of the commercial sex that services both residents and tourists. There are examples of sex tourism in the Caribbean, Asia, and the United States. Given the research prole of the editors of this volume, important health issues are given considerable exposure. This orientation pervades the second part of the book, where the focus shifts to the non-commercial sexual activity of various tourist groups, their sexual behaviour, and patterns of risk exposure. The results of empirical survey are examined to identify patterns of sexual behavior and levels of risk among selected groups of international tourists (Bloor et al; Hart and Hawkes; Khan et al), including gay men (Clift and Forrest) and Punjabi women (Bradby). Black, Clift, and Carter consider the opportunities for the application of social theory in the analysis of sex in tourism and foreshadow a number of future lines of inquiry. It is difcult to assess the contribution this collection of papers will actually make to an intelligent understanding of the nexus between tourism and sexual behavior under this theme. One reason is the prescriptive formula and predetermined orientation that seems to control the contributions by most of the authors. The second part of the book, with its overt commitment to health issues, has a focus that will be appealing to health professionals and researchers. Here the tourism aspect is little more than the operational circumstances in which the health issues occur the sex in tourism perspective. Most authors of these papers are medical practitioners or do research in health-related elds. This section of the book follows in the tradition of Clift and Grabowski (1997) and Clift and Page (1996). In contrast, the rst part is more focused on tourism as a motivation for travel. Its papers examine particular behavior of tourists and responses from some members of the host communities. These papers are more in the tradition of the published sources mentioned earlier in this review. The contributions of Ryan (chapter 2) and Black (chapter 15) are particularly useful in advancing understanding of the tourism (rather than the health) dimensions of the subject. In addition, the seriousness of exploitative aspects are important indicators of both social and economic impacts and consequences of tourism, complementing the more common assessments of environmental impacts associated with other forms of the industry. Linking both parts of this volume are the assertions that institutional intervention is becoming increasingly important to afford some measure of protection to both the host and guest communities. However, one still remains skeptical about the potential of such actions to seriously inhibit the activities of the sex entrepreneurs, and the complicity of clients and service providers. This volume presents the usual anecdotal and idiosyncratic evidence as well as a reprise of viewpoints expressed in other published sources. Thus, it can be used to complement those other sources, although potential readers should note that the papers are skewed more towards health than tourism issues.
Michael Fagence: Department of Geographical Sciences and Planning, The University of Queensland, Brisbane Q.4072, Australia. Email <m.fagence@mailbox.uq.edu.au>.

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REFERENCES
Bishop, R., and L. Robinson 1998 Night Market: Sexual Cultures and the Thai Economic Miracle. London: Routledge. Clift S. and P. Grabowski eds. 1997 Tourism and Health: Risks, Research and Responses. London: Pinter. Clift S. and S. Page eds. 1996 Health and the International Tourist. London: Routledge. Kempadoo, K., ed. 1999 Sun, Sex and Gold: Tourism and Sex Work in the Caribbean. Lanham MD: Rowman and Littleeld. Oppermann, M., ed. 1998 Sex Tourism and Prostitution. New York: Cognizant Communication Corporation. Oppermann, M. 1999 Sex Tourism. Annals of Tourism Research 26:251266. Ryan, C. 2000 Sex Tourism. In Special Interest Tourism, N. Douglas and R. Derrett, eds., pp. 384406. Brisbane: Wiley. Ryan, C., and C. Hall 2001 Sex Tourism: Marginal Peoples and Liminalities. London: Routledge. Ryan, C., and R. Kinder 1996 Sex Tourism and Sex Tourism: Fullling Similar Needs? Tourism Management 17:507518. Seabrook, J. 1996 Travels in the Skin Trade: Tourism and the Sex Industry. London: Pluto Press. Truong, T. 1990 Sex, Money and Morality: Prostitution and Tourism in Southeast Asia. London: Zed Books.

Assigned 25 January 2001. Submitted 8 June 2001. Accepted 25 June 2001.

PII: S0160-7383(01)00095-0
Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 29, No. 3, pp. 876878, 2002 Printed in Great Britain 0160-7383/02/$22.00

Trends in Outdoor Recreation, Leisure and Tourism

Edited by W. Gartner and D. Lime. CABI Publishing (Wallingford, Oxon, OX10 8DE, United Kingdom) 2000, xxi+458 pp. (gures, tables, references, index, list of contributors) $100 Hbk. ISBN 0-85199-403-2.

Paul F.J. Eagles University of Waterloo, Canada

This collection of 37 papers from 56 authors is an eclectic mix of trend topics from the broad area of tourism, leisure, and outdoor recreation. The contributors represent some of the best authors in the eld. They come from