Thirty Great North Carolina Science Adventures: From Underground Wonderlands to Islands in the Sky a

<p>Since its first mention in the academic literature, ecotourism has been endorsed by NGOs and governments as the most environmentally sound and locally beneficial method of tourist development. Over the last thirty years sub-Saharan Africa has adopted ecotourism as the primary focus for tourism development; research into this has demonstrated mixed results. In this publication, we seek to explore the actual outcomes for African countries that have developed their tourism policy around the principals and values of ecotourism. The sheer scope and magnitude of the task means that a complete evaluation of ecotourism in Africa is impossible. Instead, included here are spot assessments of various aspects of ecotourism related to conservation, policy development, environment, governance, community and indigenous peoples in southern Africa. The studies cover a wide array of countries, including Botswana, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Ghana, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. Though this is only the beginning of a needed long term evaluation of the positives and negatives of ecotourism, it provides a starting point from which to move forward. This book was originally published as a special issue of the <i>Journal of Ecotourism. </p></i>

Page, Stephen J

<p>This book is designed to show how ecotourism theory can be put into practice by exploring innovation, program applications, and research-supported case studies in ecotourism. The chapters reflect results of applied research focused on socio-economics of community development; the value of considering system-wide approaches to the relationships between communities and natural resources; the intricacies of capacity building and training facilitators in ecotourism; and education through ecotourism experiences. The cumulative impact of the research presented highlights innovative approaches to visitor management, community engagement, and education to critically address the complexities associated with visitation to natural areas and the dependence upon conservation of ecosystems and associated communities.</p><br/><br/><p>This book was originally published as a special issue of the <i>Journal of Ecotourism</i>.</p>

<p>From its late nineteenth century origins, the concept of protected areas has increased in scope and complexity. It now has to come to terms with the twenty first century world of neo-liberal politics, performance metrics and the growing and complex demands of tourism. This international collection of papers explores how this might be done, detailing the issues involved, and the value and values that protected areas have for economies, peoples and environments. Special attention is given to World Heritage Sites, tourism planning and their communities, to the growth of private protected areas, and to the health values of protected areas. Other subjects include private sector business involvement in protected areas, concessions policy experiments, and how the work of the world's largest protected area agency, the US National Park Service, is adapting to changing political and market demands, and to the challenges of sustainable development. It concludes with a searching interview with a member of UNESCO's World Heritage Committee. </p>The chapters were originally published in a special issue in the <em>Journal of Sustainable Tourism. </em>

Kosčak, Marko

<p>This book contains a collection of articles that include both case studies and theoretical insights applicable to the tourism development challenges of tropical coastal and island destinations throughout the world. Topics include the shortcomings of (eco)tourism in Madagascar, collaboration theory and successful multi-stakeholder partnerships on Indonesian resort islands, resilience theory and development pressures on a Malaysian island, results and implications of a detailed survey of cruise passengers in Colombia, perceptions of underdevelopment as limiting factors in Costa Rica, conflicts of perception and reality through the literary myths of Pitcairn Island, residents' attitudes toward tourism in the Cape Verde Islands, and 'slow tourism' as a soft growth alternative to mass tourism development in the Lesser Antilles. As a collection, not only do the chapters provide readers a broad overview of the range of issues found in tropical coastal and island tourist destinations but they also offer tourism managers and planners insights into both the positive and negative aspects of alternative tourism development in tropical destinations.</p><p></p><p>This book was published as a special issue of <em>Tourism Geographies</em>.</p>