The tourist as a metaphor of the social world

This book contains a selection of papers from the prestigious Research Committee on International Tourism presented at the World Congress of the International Sociological Association, Brisbane, Australia, July 2002. It provides a sociological and anthropological critique of existing tourism theory as well as some directions for its future development and research. While much of the present understanding of the tourist and tourism is grounded in metaphor (e.g. tourism as a sacred journey, tourism as play, the tourist as a child, etc.) such analogies need to be linked to transformations in tourism generating and receiving societies. Hence the focus on the tourist and everyday life, socio-psychological dimensions of the tourist experience, the tourist and conflicting expectations, and the tourist in a changing world. This book includes 15 papers selected from the presentations that were delivered at the 15th World Congress of the International Sociological Association. These papers were prepared for that organization's research committee on international tourism, which took as its overall theme 'the tourist as a metaphor of the social world'. Following the introductory chapter, two contributions (chapters 2 and 3) raise serious fundamental questions about how academics should research (and hence theorize) about tourists. The next two contributions (chapters 4 and 5) provide a critique of conventional tourism wisdom. Chapter 6 suggests that tourism is an intricate and evolving social network with varying degrees of trust that are based on the correlative processes of self-presentation and interpretation. Chapter 7 conceptualizes the tourist and the social world within a paradigm of social facts so that the former becomes a sign of the latter. Chapter 8 sees the tourist as never entirely alone on an uncharted journey, because there are always those who have undertaken it before. Chapter 9 asks the question as to whether or not tourists experience reality. Chapter 10 provides an analogy between tourism and love in all its many phases. Chapter 11 emphasizes that it is necessary to go beyond traditional analyses that focus solely on the 'tourist gaze'. The next two essays (chapters 12 and 13) highlight the fact that not all tourists are identical and hence, by implication, that the tourist as a metaphor of the social world must be understood as a multiple persona figurative of complex reality. The final three contributions (chapters 14-16) present postmodern and futuristic perspectives on tourists. The book has a subject index Contents......Page 6 Contributors......Page 8 1 The Tourist as a Metaphor of the Social World......Page 10 2 The Ethnographic Tourist......Page 28 3 The Discursive Tourist......Page 50 4 The Tourist Experience and Everyday Life......Page 70 5 The Home and the World: (Post)touristic Spaces of (In)authenticity?......Page 86 6 Trusting Tourists: an Investigation into Tourism, Trust and Social Order......Page 118 7 The Tourist as a Social Fact......Page 130 8 Tourism as Metempsychosis and Metensomatosis: the Personae of Eternal Recurrence......Page 144 9 Tourism: Enacting Modern Myths*......Page 178 10 A Love Affair with Elsewhere: Love as a Metaphor and Paradigm for Tourist Longing......Page 198 11 Leading the Tourist by the Nose......Page 218 12 Re-centring the Self in Volunteer Tourism......Page 246 13 Glastonbury: a Tourist Town for All Seasons......Page 272 14 The Tourist as Peak Consumer......Page 290 15 The Cinematic Tourist: Perception and Subjectivity......Page 306 16 The Cybertourist......Page 326 Index......Page 350 CABI Contents 6 Contributors 8 1 The Tourist as a Metaphor of the Social World 10 2 The Ethnographic Tourist 28 3 The Discursive Tourist 50 4 The Tourist Experience and Everyday Life 70 5 The Home and the World: (Post)touristic Spaces of (In)authenticity? 86 6 Trusting Tourists: an Investigation into Tourism, Trust and Social Order 118 7 The Tourist as a Social Fact 130 8 Tourism as Metempsychosis and Metensomatosis: the Personae of Eternal Recurrence 144 9 Tourism: Enacting Modern Myths* 178 10 A Love Affair with Elsewhere: Love as a Metaphor and Paradigm for Tourist Longing 198 11 Leading the Tourist by the Nose 218 12 Re-centring the Self in Volunteer Tourism 246 13 Glastonbury: a Tourist Town for All Seasons 272 14 The Tourist as Peak Consumer 290 15 The Cinematic Tourist: Perception and Subjectivity 306 16 The Cybertourist 326 Index 350 ISBN-13:,9780851996066

This book contains a selection of papers from the prestigious Research Committee on International Tourism presented at the World Congress of the International Sociological Association, Brisbane, Australia, July 2002. It provides a sociological and anthropological critique of existing tourism theory as well as some directions for its future development and research.

While much of the present understanding of the tourist and tourism is grounded in metaphor (e.g. tourism as a sacred journey, tourism as play, the tourist as a child, etc.) such analogies need to be linked to transformations in tourism generating and receiving societies. Hence the focus on the tourist and everyday life, socio-psychological dimensions of the tourist experience, the tourist and conflicting expectations, and the tourist in a changing world.

This text contains a selection of papers from the Research Committee on International Tourism. It provides a sociological and anthropological critique of existing tourism theory as well as some directions for its future development and research