Introducing river tourism: physical, ecological and human aspects.

Abstract

Collectively, the chapters in this book represent the first serious attempt to develop a coherent body of work that examines aspects of river-based tourism, including tourists' use of major riverine systems, aspects of fluvial hydrology, river management and travel writing based on river travel. Rivers have occupied a central place in human history since the dawn of civilization, and before. They provided water and the fertile alluvial plains that sustained the first human settlements, and in so doing helped foster the accumulation of wealth based on agriculture and trade. This allowed the great civilizations of the past to flourish. Early civilizations and their cities flourished on the banks of many of the world's great rivers including the Indus, Nile, Tigris, Euphrates, Mekong, Rhine, Danube, Yangzi and Yellow rivers. In the modern world, rivers continue to be closely associated with great cities and in the contemporary era have become a significant tourism resource. In some regions, cities and their cultural landscapes are interwoven with the fabric of river life to create unique urban environments, while in rural and other less-developed regions rivers have retained their natural characteristics, creating interest in rivers as ecotourism and nature based resources. Rivers also act as political boundaries for municipal, regional, state and international entities. In North America, for example, the Colorado River divides municipalities, states (California and Arizona, Nevada and Arizona) and countries (the USA and Mexico), while in Europe the Rhine forms parts of the borders of Germany, France, Austria, Liechtenstein and Switzerland.

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