Rethinking Tourism and Ecotravel

Book Description

A fully revised and comprehensive overview of the history and global development of tourism, often considered the largest industry in the world. Despite promising great benefits to hosts and guests alike, tourism has resulted in some very stark and painful consequences for local host communities and the environment.

Book Description

Deborah McLaren presents a comprhensive overview of the history and global development of tourism, often considered the largest industry in the world today. No study of the globalization of the world's economy and industry can afford to ignore the impact that tourism is having in an ever shrinking world where wealth is concentrated in fewer and fewer hands- and within this important book the impact of tourism is thoroughly explored.

Customer Reviews:

LONG ON ACCUSATION, SHORT ON SOLUTIONS.......2001-11-29

McLaren paints a gloomy picture of the collective state of mind of the Tourist and the tourism industry. The sub-title of her book, "The Paving of Paradise and What You Can Do to Stop It" is misleading. The first 100 pages of this 132 page book contain a blanket condemnation of tourism, the tourist industry and the tourist as exploiters and dispoilers. McLaren spends little time looking at solutions to the myriad of international problems travel and tourism create, preferring instead to catalog their excesses. Like electricity and gasoline, tourism is not a fact of the world which can be "cured". It must be wisely developed and carefully managed in the context of local desires and the local economy. It is not enough to preserve the integrity of a local population of indiginous persons when they are staving and sick and watching the rest of the healthy prosperous world via television or speaking about it on their cell phones. RETHINKING TOURISM AND ECOTRAVEL offers little in the way of hope or solution. It is a value in that it presents a picture of an inadequate response to the abuses of the tourism industry and supporting governmental bodies, but it is useless as a guide to actually "rethinking" or restructuring the industry or the mindset of the traveler.

A valuable tool for understanding the impact of tourism........1999-02-03

The Resource Center of The Americas has recently published a curriculum on tourism in Mexico, using Rethinking Tourism and Ecotravel as its major resource book. Tourism is one of the world's largest industries and Deborah McLaren has done indepth research into its impact on the host community and the environment. Her book helps readers/travelers to analyze the relationship between poverty, environmental exploitation and tourism. It is not all bad news, however. The book shows that there are ways to travel that are responsible. The excellent bibliography gives information on "rethinking tourism" organizations, tour operators and programs, including many web sites. The curriculum that the Resource Center of The Americas developed using Rethinking Tourism and Ecotravel is titled Buen Viaje: Mutually Beneficial Tourism (ISBN 1-893440-00-1). It is for grades 8-12 through adult. It includes descriptions of four tourist sites in Mexico, with narrative accounts from Mexicans who live or work in those areas.

Big hit - will engage, entertain and infuriate its readers........1997-10-10

El Planeta Platica (http://www.planeta.com)

Deborah McLaren's Rethinking Tourism and Ecotravel takes on the most pressing issue in the tourism industry today - how too often "ecotravel" destroys both natural resources and local cultures. But there are alternatives - if we care to pause and reflect - and that is what the author does in this book.

Rethinking Tourism could be a big hit in the airport bookstores and will open the eyes of many travelers. This book is written in a lively manner that will engage, entertain and infuriate its readers. McLaren contributes to our understanding of travel and its promise of improving the lives of local people and the environment.

Beginning with a personal journey to Jamaica, McLaren recounts her frustration seeking a meaningful encounter with Jamaican culture in Montego Bay. "I tried to meet some local people without being accosted by entrepreneurs," she writes. "But I was taken to other all-inclusive resorts around the island... I noticed the creation of a fantasy tourism culture that by no means represented the real culture of Jamaica."

The book will not please everyone - especially the desciples of tourism and public relations. McLaren points out that tourism is often in direct conflict and competion with local people and the development of areas anround wilderness areas threatens the wildlife. She lists "Examples of eco-oh-ohs" traces failures in Costa Rica, the Galapagos islands, Malaysia and the Himalayas.

Yet it would be hard to characterize this book as a negative critique. This is a positive account of how to restructure (or at least rethink) tourism so that it does in fact benefit local people and their environments.

Average customer rating:
Rethinking Tourism and Ecotravel: The Paving of Paradise and What You Can Do to Stop It
Deborah McLaren
Manufacturer: Kumarian Press, Incorporated
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000MHODJK

Book Description

Large-scale experimentation allows scientists to test the specific responses of ecosystems to changing environmental conditions. Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory together with other Federal and University scientists conducted a large-scale climatic change experiment at the Walker Branch Watershed in Tennessee, a model upland hardwood forest in North America. This volume synthesizes mechanisms of forest ecosystem response to changing hydrologic budgets associated with climatic change drivers. The authors explain the implications of changes at both the plant and stand levels, and they extrapolate the data to ecosystem-level responses, such as changes in nutrient cycling, biodiversity and carbon sequestration. In analyzing data, they also discuss similarities and differences with other temperate deciduous forests. Source data for the experiment has been archived by the authors in the U.S. Department of Energy's Carbon Dioxide Information and Analysis Center (CDIAC) for future analysis and modeling by independent investigators.

Book Description

Bill Gleeson, proven expert at discovering out-of-the-way gems, betrays all his best finds in the California Wine Country in the latest guide in his hit Weekends for Two series. Itâ€™s one of the hottest, and most romantic, destinations in the U.S., and Weekends for Two in the Wine Country offers everyone in need of a little romance a chance to get off the beaten track. Each of the 50 hotels, inns, and bed & breakfasts has been chosen for its undeniable charm as well as added romantic touches, whether itâ€™s a handmade quilt on a four-poster bed or a glass of local wine enjoyed overlooking fertile vineyards. Gleeson takes the reader from the Napa Valley and lush Sonoma County, to rugged Mendocino County and the Gold Rush region. Illustrated with color photographs of every recommendation, this is the sort of book to inspire multiple trips throughout the seasons.

Book Description

The nursery rhyme begins, "In fourteen hundred and ninety two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue." Less well-known is the line that follows: "…to learn if the old maps were true." How can there be "old maps" of a land no one knew existed? Were others here before Columbus? What were their reasons for coming and what unexplained artifacts did they leave behind?

The oceans were highways to America rather than barriers, and when discoverers put ashore, they were greeted by unusual inhabitants. In Discovering the Mysteries of Ancient America, the author of The Atlantis Encyclopedia turns his sextant towards this hemisphere. Here is a collection of the most controversial articles selected from seventy issues of the infamous Ancient American magazine. They range from the discovery of Roman relics in Arizona and California's Chinese treasure, to Viking rune-stones in Minnesota and Oklahoma and the mysterious religions of ancient Americans. Many questions will be raised including:

What role did extraterrestrials have in the lives of ancient civilizations?

What ancient pyramids and towers tell us about the people who built them?

Are they some sort of portals to another dimension?

What prehistoric technologies have been discovered, and what can they tell us about early settlers, their religious beliefs, and possible other-worldly visitors?

Did El Dorado exist, and what of the legendary Fountain of Youth?

Was Atlantis in Cuba?

What are America's lost races and what happened to them?

Discovering the Mysteries of Ancient America brings to the fore the once-hidden true past of America's earliest civilizations

Frank Joseph is the author of The Atlantis Encyclopedia (New Page Books), as well as a dozen other books on history, prehistory, and metaphysics. He has been the editor-in-chief of Ancient American magazine since its first issue in 1993. He lives in Wisconsin.

Wayne May is the founder-publisher of Ancient American. Laura Lee is the award-winning producer and host of the nationally syndicated "The Laura Lee Show". David Hatcher Childress wrote the best-selling Lost Cities series. Zecharia Sitchin is the author of the best-selling Earth Chronicles series. Andrew Collins is world-renowned for his consistent bestsellers, including Gateway to Atlantis.

Customer Reviews:

Ridiculous conspiracy theories based on facts.......2007-04-29

This book is a compilation of articles that take facts and add conjecture or speculation to arrive at a possible thesis.
The articles in this book are generally based on large leaps of faith which have little or no basis.
The editor, Frank Joseph, is from a historical conspiracy theory type magazine called Ancient American.
The book is a collection of articles from the magazine, printed in book form for a quick buck.
If you looked for this book in your local bookstore, you would most likely find it in the "new age" or "alternative history" section.
It is not possible to read this book as non-fiction because some of it is based on guesswork or patchwork history.
If fact and fiction are mixed, you have fiction, no matter how much fact is involved.
Unless you are a conspiracy theorist or you are looking for a book full of magazine articles of historical fiction, you can probably skip this one.
Some of the stories are interesting, but all are portrayted as journalism when they would more accurately be described as historical fiction.

Authentic Ancient American History.......2007-04-29

Finally, people aren't ignoring the evidence of pre-Columbus voyages to America. This change in thinking has been a long time coming. This book presents some of the most compelling evidences for the voyages and visits. Even skeptics will have a hard time putting this book down. See also: Columbus Was Last: From 200,000 BC to 1492, A Heretical History of Who Was First & The Island of Seven Cities: Where the Chinese Settled When They Discovered America

excellent seller and product.......2007-02-13

Item as described and received in a timely manner... an excellent buying experience!

Discovering Mysteries.......2007-01-03

This is exactly what I looked for. A collection of interesting articles, and among them strong evidences that the Vikings were in America before Columbus. Just what I was looking for. Great!

Be Realistic In Your Analysis..........2006-05-24

Childress' book cites numerous known abberations to the common perception that most relics and antiquities found in North America are of "native" cultural origin, and having these bits all in one place in one book is useful and entertaining. However, the speculation on aliens, portals, and Atlantis-type culture is, as always, tedious. Anyone can speculate and it is a writer's choice on how he or she chooses to speculate. The reader ,however, must be realistic in their analysis and truth behind the writer's speculation. If it is for entertainment purposes, the book and its speculations are wothwhile; if it is for actual information, the book is worth the price to read about the additional relics that have been found in North America that can really question our prevalent interpretations of North American history - however, the speculation on aliens and such is just that...entertainment value only. Early Mankind was a lot more innovative and flexible than people like Childress give them credit for - no use of aliens and portals is necessary to explain the historical evidence that is apparent in the antiquities record.

Average customer rating:

Not a travel book
Very helpful

Uruguay (Discovering)
Charles J. Shields
Manufacturer: Mason Crest Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding

General | Ages 9-12 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 1590842901

Customer Reviews:

Not a travel book.......2007-02-04

A very interesting thin book about Uruguay, but it is not useful as a travel guide.

Very helpful.......2006-03-03

I liked that this book contained many facts and figures and charts, which was very helpful in learning about Uruguay before traveling there. I did think the book was rather 'pricey' for the size and scope of the book.

Average customer rating:

Paraguay (Discovering)
Roger E. Hernandez
Manufacturer: Mason Crest Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding

General | Ages 9-12 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 1590842979

The Light and the Glory for Children: Discovering Gods Plan for America from Christopher Columbus to George Washington

Average customer rating:

Must Read!
a must for all
Children will gain insight about America's Christian roots.

The Light and the Glory for Children: Discovering Gods Plan for America from Christopher Columbus to George Washington
Peter Marshall , David Manuel , and Anna Wilson Fishel
Manufacturer: Revell
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Ages 9-12 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Americas | History | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Religion & Spirituality Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
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ASIN: 0800754484
Release Date: 1992-12-01

Book Description

This interactive children's edition of the best-seller, The Light and the Glory, reveals how God worked through America's founding fathers. Ages 9-12.

Customer Reviews:

Must Read!.......2006-03-10

This book is a must read for children to get a proper perspective of history. Public school textbooks will not reflect our Christian roots. Parents should read the regular version. My 9 year old granddaughter says this is her favorite book.

a must for all.......2003-06-30

Great and educational book. My son loved it and he does not care to read. This is a must for all out there.

Children will gain insight about America's Christian roots........1999-06-17

Like the adult book of the same title, The Light and the Glory for Children examines evidence for America's Christian roots. The authors reveal a past that is not at all smooth. The challenges of settling this land and building a new nation are shown in their harsh reality. Equally, the faith that strengthened the people for these challenges is presented as inspiration for tomorrow's citizens and leaders. Review questions in the back of the book helped my children explore their own values and beliefs about their country. There could be no better way to raise responsible citizens than to have them investigate our Christian heritage through this book.

From Sea to Shining Sea for Children: Discovering Gods Plan for America in Her First Half-Century of Independence, 17871837

Average customer rating:

A continuation of the great Christian heritage of our nation

From Sea to Shining Sea for Children: Discovering Gods Plan for America in Her First Half-Century of Independence, 17871837
Peter Marshall , David Manuel , and Anna Wilson Fishel
Manufacturer: Revell
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Ages 9-12 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0800754840
Release Date: 1993-10-01

Book Description

From Sea to Shining Sea for Children tells Americas story during its first fifty years. These were the days of Benjamin Franklin and Daniel Boone, Francis Asbury and Charles Finney, Andrew Jackson and Sam Houston. During these years Conestoga wagons and circuit riders became famous, Indian wars and slavery were major concerns, and the Louisiana Purchase and the Oregon Trail expanded Americas boundaries from sea to shining sea. But God was also at work in the young nation, giving its settlers exciting opportunities to shape its history and to be His people. This book, written primarily for young people in the middle grades, includes study questions for each chapter and helps its readers see Gods part in American history.

Customer Reviews:

A continuation of the great Christian heritage of our nation.......1999-06-17

Once I read The Light and The Glory with my children, I knew that their education in American history would not be complete without this book. We were not disappointed. This book continues the narration of the great Christian heritage of the USA. As the settlers struggled to carve out a nation and our fledgling country grappled with issues between ourselves, our neighboring countries, and the Native American nation within our new boundaries, faith in God prevailed. The evidence for perseverence in faith is an inspiration to my children when they face daily struggles that are not as monumental. "Review" questions stimulate deep thought about the moral responsibility each one of us has to our country and our God. As with the first book, this is a great character building tool for our future citizens.

Average customer rating:

Colombia (Discovering)
Leeanne Gelletly
Manufacturer: Mason Crest Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding

General | Ages 9-12 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

Average customer rating:

Good Overall Information on Suriname

Suriname (Discovering)
Colleen Madonna Flood Williams
Manufacturer: Mason Crest Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding

General | Ages 9-12 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 1590842952

Customer Reviews:

Good Overall Information on Suriname.......2004-06-30

After just returning from a trip from Suriname I am ordering this book for all of us that went. I checked this book out of the library to get information for myself and my children to find out more about Suriname before going.

I found it had good information about all aspects of Suriname. The people, the government, the land, etc. It was perfect for learning about a country that very few people seem to know about! The book has good pictures too.

Book Description

At the end of the Ice Age, small groups of hunter-gatherers crossed from Siberia to Alaska and opened the last chapter in the human settlement of the earth. Many left little or no trace. But one group--the Early Paleo-Indians--exploded suddenly on the archaeological record about 11,500 years ago and expanded rapidly throughout North America and, eventually, into South America.

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