Abstract

This book draws together a wide range of sources to provide the most comprehensive handbook of tourism in Oceania available. It is designed to act as a single source of reference for tourism in a region that is growing in significance as a tourism destination. Oceania provides a detailed anatomy of tourism in the region on a country by country basis, as well as a view of the future and an analysis of key issues contributed by experts in the field.

A most comprehensive compendium of readings on a range of topics focussing on a part of the world which is becoming of increasing importance.

This is an authoritative, comprehensive and insightful examination of tourism in a complex part of the world. The book, with its exhaustive tables, charts and maps will make a significant contribution to our understanding the political, social and economic realities all too often masked by the centuries old myth of Pacific Paradise. With four major sections, the book quite rightly focuses its attention first on Australia and New Zealand, which between them, account for much of the territory's tourism. Following on from this, a detailed account of tourism in the Pacific islands of Micronesia, Melanesia and Polynesia. The final section on 'contemporary themes' neatly brings the various questions raised in the book together in a strong and thoughtful finish. The authors bring rare insights, underpinned by rigorous statistical data on tourism, the various economies and the natural environment. This book will make a much-needed and much-welcomed 'one stop' resource for scholars who have an interest in how tourism systems work across the scattered islands of the seemingly endless Pacific.”

Oceania: A Tourism Handbook is an extraordinary and admirable volume. The editors of this book deserve praise for their success.

Chris Cooper is head of the school of tourism and leisure management at The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. He has published a number of texts in tourism and is co-editor of Current Issues in Tourism. C Michael Hall is Professor of Tourism at the University of Otago, New Zealand. He has published widely in the tourism field and is co-editor of Current Issues in Tourism.

The topic of this book is a difficult subject to study, but the job has certainly been accomplished in a commendable way here. The authors are well known experts who are very familiar with the Pacific perspective. The book should be a very significant reference guide for those interested in trends and issues in Oceanic tourism, including industry and government officials as well as students.