Nature and Tourists in the Last Frontier: Local Encounters with Global Tourism in Coastal Alaska

Citation

Okrant, M.J. (2009), "Nature and Tourists in the Last Frontier: Local Encounters with Global Tourism in Coastal Alaska", International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 21 No. 4, pp. 501-503. https://doi.org/10.1108/09596110910955730

When I first learned about Lee Cerveny's Nature and Tourists in the Last Frontier: Local Encounters with Global Tourism in Coastal Alaska, a 236‐page treatment of coastal Alaska tourism, I was very anxious to read it. I spent parts of five memorable years working as a tourism development consultant for the University of Alaska Anchorage's Center for Economic Development. During that time, I worked on projects and observed tourism initiatives at various stages of development in more than a dozen coastal communities. My subsequent work has taken me to coastal zone communities situated as far afield as Mount Desert Island (Maine) and Baffin Island (Nunavut). Therefore, I feel well qualified to state this is a very good examination of the subject matter.

The author's purpose in conducting research within three southeast Alaska communities was to utilize qualitative analysis to determine how rural residents “perceive growth in tourism and its effects on their lives and livelihoods”. What she has produced is a great deal more. The volume offers an excellent case study of the interrelationship among tourism development, natural resources, and the socio‐cultural environment within three subject communities. Nature and Tourists in the Last Frontier: Local Encounters with Global Tourism in Coastal Alaska is presented in seven well written, compelling chapters:

• 1) “Introduction”;

• 2) “Rainforest economy: lure of the last frontier”;

• 3) “Fish and ships: political ecology of Alaska tourism”;

• 4) “Haines, Alaska: cruise ships and the nature destination”;

• 5) “Hoonah, Alaska: nature, culture and cruise ships”;

• 6) “Craig, Alaska: consumptive tourism off the beaten path”; and

• 7) “Local and global encounters in the last frontier”.

As Cerveny states in her introductory chapter, the book actually has two parts. Chapters 1 through 3 provide a theoretical framework and utilize geographic, historical, and anthropological perspectives to develop readers' understanding of the evolving relationship between tourism and destination communities. The subject settings are three far‐flung communities in southeast Alaska, but the principles she develops can be applied readily to any of the countless rural central places this researcher has experienced during the last several decades, regardless of geographic setting. Chapter 1 does an excellent job of establishing the book's context. After providing a brief description of the geography and settlement history of southeast Alaska, Cerveny discusses the forces that produced demographic and economic change along the state's wetted perimeter. She then models the growth of tourism as an industry and its importance to the world's economy, and as a force in engendering societal change. In this manner, she provides a solid context for what follows in the next six chapters. While chapter 1 provides a solid platform, it is not new ground by any means. I found chapter 3 to be the most important of the three introductory chapters; herein, we receive a treatise on how tourism evolves as a by‐product of forces from without as well as within, with both global‐ and local‐level ramifications. Ultimately, Cerveny exhibits a clear understanding of how consolidation, reification, and homogenization are the consequences of these forces.

For those university students who may wonder how a global corporation could possibly make in‐roads within closed societies such as they faced in southeast Alaska, chapters 4 through 6 will be enlightening. Cerveny explores how tourism has the potential to alter patterns of land and resource use in each of the three coastal communities, wherein different cultures yielded to diverse forms of tourism development. As anthropologists reliably do, each of these three chapters provides an up‐close‐and‐personal look at its subject community. In each locale, we are treated to a bird's‐eye view, followed by a first‐hand description of individuals and their changing circumstances in the face of this intrusion we call tourism. In Haines, the interloper is the cruise industry; in Hoonah, the cruise people are abetted by the National Park Service and others; and, in Craig, it is charter fishing entrepreneurs who have the greatest impact upon the area's natural and human character. In each instance, we see how growing visitor volumes and larger scale nature‐based excursions come into conflict with local patterns of resource use. Through Cerveny's three compelling vignettes, we observe something traditional texts have discussed for decades: that tourism is a product of multilevel forces and institutions acting on a destination; only, this time, we see how the lives of real people are impacted by decisions made by businesses and individuals situated both in their midst and far out of their reach. It must be emphasized that the way these circumstances are presented will have meaning for university students.

The author utilizes the final chapter to drive home her message; here Cerveny summarizes the lessons learned and the implications for rural development and natural resource management in coastal tourism destinations. Ultimately, she addresses these key questions: how do local and global people responsible for tourism shape its development in coastal Alaska; how does the state's role as a nature destination shape this process just as it impacts upon those who depend upon the resources for their living; and, what are the implications of tourism growth for rural development and the lives of locals within these settings?

I found this brief volume to be a well researched, compelling presentation of tourism development in rural, indigenously populated, coastal communities. The author exhibits a remarkable understanding of what happens when tourism developers apply the numerous tools at their disposal to maintain a carefully crafted “feel” within a destination, at the same time they are “taming” it. Her statement that one who seeks a genuine experience within one of these communities needs to visit during the off‐season – when the tourism businesses and proprietors temporarily cease to overwhelm whatever remains real – is priceless. It also reflects a level of awareness and understanding that normally takes decades to develop. I recommend this volume be used as a reader in advanced undergraduate tourism development and rural tourism courses. Other options are McLaren's Rethinking Tourism and Ecotravel or Ryan and Aicken's Indigenous Tourism: The Commodification and Management of Culture. Cerveny's book does have one shortcoming: it offers a very brief (five pages) section on mitigation. For this reason, an accompanying tourism planning text is a must.