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. 874–876, 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 (figures,
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 subject’s 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 tour-
ism 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 con-
fusion. Reputable research discussions have elevated the subject above mere
titillation and voyeurism, and scientific surveys have begun to furnish dis-
cussions with credible data on the social, economic, and geographical circum-
stances. One might speculate that the rapid growth of publications on these
topics fans flames of interest without contributing to the consolidation and
coordination of what is known. In recent years, several significant commen-
taries have appeared (Bishop and Robinson 1998; Kempadoo 1999; Opperm-
ann 1998, 1999; Ryan 2000; Ryan and Hall 2001; Ryan and Kinder 1996; Seab-
rook 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 first part draws attention to the paradigms of sex tour-
ism (Chris Ryan), commercial sex (Taylor; Ford and Wirawan; Luongo;

874
 PUBLICATIONS IN REVIEW 875

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 motiv-
ations 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 profile 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 difficult 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 prede-
termined 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 cir-
cumstances in which the health issues occur — the “sex in tourism” perspec-
tive. Most authors of these papers are medical practitioners or do research in
health-related fields. This section of the book follows in the tradition of Clift
and Grabowski (1997) and Clift and Page (1996). In contrast, the first part is
more focused on tourism as a motivation for travel. Its papers examine parti-
cular behavior of tourists and responses from some members of the host com-
munities. 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 parti-
cularly 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. 왎

Michael Fagence: Department of Geographical Sciences and Planning, The Uni-

versity of Queensland, Brisbane Q.4072, Australia. Email <m.fagence@mail-
box.uq.edu.au>.
876 PUBLICATIONS IN REVIEW

REFERENCES
Bishop, R., and L. Robinson
1998 Night Market: Sexual Cultures and the Thai Economic Miracle. Lon-
don: 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 Littlefield.
Oppermann, M., ed.
1998 Sex Tourism and Prostitution. New York: Cognizant Communication Cor-
poration.
Oppermann, M.
1999 Sex Tourism. Annals of Tourism Research 26:251–266.
Ryan, C.
2000 Sex Tourism. In Special Interest Tourism, N. Douglas and R. Derrett,
eds., pp. 384–406. 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: Fulfilling Similar Needs? Tourism Man-
agement 17:507–518.
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. 876–878, 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. (figures, 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 field. They come from