There are few comparative tourism studies on Latin American post-revolutionary or post-conflict societies. Florence Babb's latest book on Cuba, Nicaragua, Mexico and Peru is one of them. These countries share a history of conflict, revolution and post-conflict transition that inspired Babb to question how tourism and revolution intersect. She concludes that in Cuba and Nicaragua, tourism takes up where social revolution left off. Tourism has allowed these countries to strengthen their economic development and national identity, while in Peru tourism can be perceived as part of a renewed appreciation of traditional culture in combination with a broader project of modernisation (pp. 63, 88). In Mexico, tourism has been spurred by revolution and uprising. As shown by the case of post-revolutionary Chiapas, the region attracts tourists because it was previously off-limits and has thus been protected from overexposure to commercialised travel. In general, tourism can serve the interests of revolutionary movements by promoting stability, peace and justice (p. 117).

The book comprises three parts, each containing two chapters. In the first two parts, Babb deals with each of the four countries in separate chapters. These countries are all post-conflict societies in social transition, but otherwise diverse in their history, social relations and cultural resources. Add to this the fact that tourism itself is a rapidly changing industry that is heavily influenced by global market forces, and it becomes clear that Babb's endeavour to bring all this together in a book of fewer than 250 pages is very laudable. This project is written in a personal style, in which Babb is present as author, tourist and researcher. She covers more than a decade of research travel in the four countries and also refers to her earlier days as an anthropologist engaged in other projects. She writes about her encounters with tourist workers, planners, bureaucrats and tourists and makes the reader part of them. She narrates her travels to traditional and alternative tourist sites, alone or in tourist groups, and talks about the people she met, the bars she visited, the excursions she undertook and the theatre shows she attended. She mixes all this with other scholarly work and journalistic accounts.

Babb's writing style turns this book into an attractive journey. However, as she eloquently glides through a host of impressions, experiences and situations, she may provoke feelings of unease in the reader, who might get lost among the many tourist snapshots she presents. But Babb's writing beautifully captures the volatility of tourist travel and she brings everything together in each chapter's conclusion.

The last part of the book is the most comparative, as in these chapters on the intersection of race and gender Babb deals with women in Nicaragua and Cuba who are involved in romantic and sexual relationships with foreign men (chapter 5) and with the cultural resources of indigenous women in Mexico and Peru (chapter 6). In the latter, she argues that tourists’ desire to learn more about an indigenous lifestyle can be especially beneficial to indigenous women, as they are often considered to be ‘more indigenous’ than their menfolk. I agree with her that tourism may indeed offer women economic opportunities based on their indigeneity and gender, and that this may profoundly change their relationships with their men, but reconstructing gender and ethnic identities in response to tourism is not exclusive to indigenous women. Based on my own research in the region, I would add to her argument that the gender/ethnic identity constructions of male guides who take tourists on hikes in the Cusco area of Peru and into indigenous villages in this region provide a comparable case. These lower-middle-class urban men reinvent their mestizo male identity, turning it into that of the Inca leader. They base themselves on the ideology of indigenismo, which arose in Cusco in the 1920s and 1930s. This ideology glorifies the Inca past and distances itself from contemporary indigenous peasants, who are often perceived as degenerate. In presenting themselves to tourists as the direct descendants of the Incas, the guides play with tourists’ nostalgic desires and seduce them into giving them large tips. In Chinchero, a tourist village known for its traditionally dressed indigenous women, the male guides are decisive for the women's income, as they decide to which weaving workshop they will lead their tourists. Although gender relations at the household level may have improved remarkably as a result of the income the women weavers generate, new gender inequalities are constructed based on the women's dependence on often disdainful male guides.

Having said this, Babb's book is highly recommended for tourism scholars who want to know more about the four countries under study and about the intersection of tourism and revolution. The writing style also makes it a good read for those tourists who want to know more about the places they visit than what the superficial accounts in travel guides tell them.