About the Author

Douglas Comer has conducted archaeological heritage management projects around the world as Principal of Cultural Site Research and Management. He is Co-President of ICAHM. Dr. Comer is a specialist in the use of aerial and satellite images and GIS in archaeological research and resource management. A former Fulbright scholar in Thailand in cultural resource management, he is the author of Ritual Ground: Bent's Old Fort, World Formation, and the Annexation of the Southwest (University of California Press, 1996), as well as many articles dealing with archaeological heritage management and remote sensing technologies.

Reviews

Although the authors focus on the negative impacts of tourism, they do so in the spirit of finding better ways to operate, as the situation is clearly urgent. In his conclusion, Douglas Comer uses the apt metaphor of a juggernaut that is out of control and destructive to summarize the frictions between preservation and profit based on mass tourism at Petra. Drawing on the threads laid out by each of the authors, Comer asks, what is the way forward? He focuses on the essential role of site management and calls on the World Heritage Committee to reform its procedures to restore the purpose of the World Heritage Convention and place a higher priority on preservation than on tourism.Barbara J. Little The Public Historian