Explorer Travellers and Adventure Tourism

Jennifer Laing is a Senior Lecturer at La Trobe University, Australia. Her research interests include heritage, events, travel narratives and the interaction between media, popular culture and tourism. She also co-edits the Advances in Event Research series (Routledge) with Warwick Frost.Warwick Frost is an Associate Professor at La Trobe University, Australia. His research interests include natural and cultural heritage and the interplay between tourism and popular culture. His recent publications include Books and Travel (with Jennifer Laing, 2012).

• 1. Introducing the Explorer TravellerSection 1 – The Hero’s Journey2. The Call to Adventure3. Preparation and Departure4. The Journey5. The ReturnSection 2 – Imagining Explorers6. Fiction and the Myth of the Explorer7. Desert Island Castaways8. Re-enactmentsSection 3 – Tourists At Play9. Crossing Borders10. On SafariSection 4 – The Future11. Destination Mars12. The Explorer Traveller: The Myth ContinuesSourcesReferences

Engaging, well-written and concise, this book provides a context for the tourist-traveller debate – a microcosm of social and cultural complexity where the quotidian meets the extraordinary and the economy of colonisation meets the egos of the great explorers. It is this legacy that explains our ongoing fascination with frontier adventure travel from exotic journeys through 'otherness' to space travel.