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igour. The main sectors covered by this journal
are accommodation, tourist board, holidays
organiser, transportation and tourism attractions.
First published in 1994, it appears quarterly,
published by Henry Stewart Publications �ISSN
1356±7667).
journalism
RENE BARETJE, FRANCE
The continuous expansion of tourism since the late
eighteenth century to the present almost exactly
coincides with the rise of popular journalism, first
in America and Europe and then elsewhere. Until
the 1920s the press was the major journalistic
form, but radio, film and television have
greatly expanded the journalistic field.
Two kinds of journalism affect tourism. One is
non-specialist, general news coverage. Mainstream
news commonly presents coverage of places,
people and events which may have a positive or
negative effect on tourism. Reports of wars,
terrorism, health scares and environmental
disasters in countries or regions may inhibit travel
�for example, in Northern Ireland since the late
1960s). Conversely, destinations may be boosted by
favourable coverage. Since the Second World War,
and particularly during the last twenty years of the
twentieth century, the tourism industry itself has
been a subject of mainstream news �such as
hallmark events and tourism innovations). The
second kind is specialist tourism feature journalism.
The expansion of the industry has also stimulated
journalism focused exclusively on it. By the early
twentieth century there were magazines devoted
to travel �Outing, launched in America and UK in
the 1860s, and The Traveller, founded in 1900).
National and regional newspapers have increasingly
featured weekly or monthly travel sections,
and today many publish such large weekly
supplements. Since the 1970s, radio and television
stations worldwide have broadcast regular travel
programmes and series, and in the United States
there is a travel channel �Discovery).
Given the volume of journalism and its
importance as an information source for tourism
decisions, the almost complete absence of research
into its scope and effects is surprising. A basic
research agenda into tourism journalism would
need to address four main issues: how much is
produced, how is it produced and what factors
influence the shape it takes, how many people are
exposed to it and what are their profiles, and what
influence does it have in the short term �on
immediate tourism decisions) and long term �on
destination images and so on). Until these
questions are systematically investigated, assessments
of journalistic impact on tourism must be
restricted to anecdotal instances, primarily supplied
by the industry. Many national tourism organisations
inventory the media coverage they have
achieved in the marketing and public relations
sections of their annual reports, and there is
recognition that such coverage may achieve
cheaper, more far-reaching effects than commercial
advertising.
Further reading
Seaton, A.V. �1989) The Occupational Influences and
Ideology of Travel Writers:Freebies, Puffs, Vade Mecums
or Belles Lettres?, Newcastle: The Centre for
Travel and Tourism and Business Education
Publishers.
jungle tourism
jungle tourism 341
A.V. SEATON, UK
Jungle tours have become a major component of
green tourism in tropical destinations. A jungle
is a subclimax tropical forest consisting of a tangled
growth of lianas, trees and scrub which may form
an almost impenetrable barrier to the tourist. Itis
characteristic of former clearings and of riversides
where light penetration is greater than the forest
interior. By contrast, true climax rainforest has little
undergrowth since light penetration is poor and,
contrary to popular images, is easily negotiated.
Nevertheless, both sets of environments are usually
characterised by the tourism market as jungle.
Jungle tours are a relatively recent phenomenon of
Western international tourism. Although nineteenth-century
travel expeditions to South America
and Southeast Asia bore some of the hallmarks of