Pacific Island Tourism (review)

Pacific Island Tourism is a collection of papers originating from the tourism sessions of the Pacific Science Association Inter-Congress held in Suva in July 1997. Thus the studies are a little dated by the time of publication, and the editor apologizes for this fact at the beginning. Nevertheless, despite the massive literature on tourism that has been published in recent years, there are still relatively few studies of tourism in the Pacific, and this volume does produce material not seen elsewhere.

The editor's introductory chapter reviews themes in Pacific tourism and includes data on tourist arrivals that is more up-to-date than the accompanying chapters. This includes brief reviews of the history and patterns of Pacific tourism as well as the predictable debate about the tourism's sustainability and its relationship with development. The other ten chapters deal with these issues but other aspects of tourism as well, and can be classified into three types: general analyses of tourism, country overviews, and local case studies.

Peter B Meyer's chapter, entitled "Ecotourism as Mining or as Services," considers the way that "Common Pool Resources" used in ecotourism may be either "mined" and depleted, or treated as sustainable services. The assessment of which of these paths is being taken must consider issues of carrying capacity in relation to three elements: ecology, tourist, and host. Options for the management of Common Pool Resources include privatization, nationalization, and collective management.

The national-level studies include one on the Cook Islands, one on Easter Island, and two chapters dealing with Fiji. Drawing on her PhD thesis, Tracy Berno considers the "acculturative influence" of tourism in the Cook Islands, especially its sociocultural and psychological effects. The acculturative influence is not explained, so some readers will be leftwondering which culture Cook Islanders are being acculturated into: "global," "Western," "New Zealand" (if such a thing exists), or maybe just "tourism" culture? Berno is particularly interested in factors that modify some of the potentially negativeeffects of tourism, such as collective support systems, the degree of control over circumstances (locus of control), and "cultural distance" between tourist and host.

Quite a different type of review is undertakenby Max Stanton forEaster Island (Rapa Nui), one of the most remote but most archeologically interesting of all tourist destinations. The tragic history of the Rapa Nui people and their social and physical marginalization in recent times set the scene for contemporary tourism. But despite this history, the impact of tourism on the indigenous people is presented in a relatively positive light; Rapa Nui appear to have reaped some benefits in that they own and operate five of the six hotels, as well as most other accommodations, and tourism has fostered a craft industry reproducing the island's antiquities which "are reproduced with care and pride" (117).

Two chapters deal with overviews of tourism in Fiji. David Harrison and Jesper Brandt consider ecotourism, mainly focusing on the institutional actors who promote it. The Native Lands Trust Board, guardian of indigenous lands in Fiji, considers conservation areas as a major priority and thus has become an advocate of ecotourism.Other significant actors range from Fiji Pine Limited to the United Nations Development Fund, environmental nongovernmental organizations, and various government agencies. A subsequent chapter by Harrison, with Samisoni Sawailau and Manoa Malani, presents a blueprint for a national policy on ecotourism and village-based tourism in Fiji.

Perhaps the most interesting parts of Pacific Island Tourism are the five chapters with more detailed case studies. Diane Russell and Jessica Stabile look at "Ecotourism in Practice" in the highlands trekking project on Makira in Solomon Islands, although they are not the first to review the merits of this operation. The Makira trek is relatively vigorous and is thus only appropriate for fit ecotourists. This fact, and a conscious attempt to keep the project small-scale, means that the returns to local villagers have been relatively...