The%20Anthropology%20of%20Tourism

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The Anthropology of Tourism

• Tourism and Globalization

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Defined

• Tourism Difficult to define because business
  travelers and convention goers can combine
  conferences with tourist-type activities
• A tourist is a temporarily leisured person who
  voluntarily visits a place away from home for the
  purpose of experiencing a change
• One of the most important aspects of tourism
  is..IT IS NOT WORK!

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History

• The establishment of tourism as a legitimate
  topic for anthropological study is a relatively
  recent development. 
• Theron Nuñezs Tourism, Tradition, and
  Acculturation Weekendismo in a Mexican Village
  (1963) is often credited as the earliest
  tourism-related article in American
  anthropological literature. 

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• Rich residents of Guadalajara, Mexico, who built
  villas in a poverty stricken community on
  environmentally pristine Lake Chapala.
• Strange thing here, the locals envisioned the
  tourists as foreigners, assuming they were
  American/Canadian/etc
• He suggested that tourism may be studied within
  the general framework of acculturation. Tourists
  act as donors of culture to regional
  recipients (ie enclaves of tourist culture,
  the transition of culture models from tourist to
  local)
• Not a one way street though

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History

• Hosts and Guests (1977) a seminal anthology which
  collected work from numerous scholars
• The hosts must adjust to the needs and demands of
  the more dominating guests
• It proved extremely influential in the
  development of an anthropological system of
  tourism studies
• Since the publication of Hosts and Guests there
  has been an explosion of interest in tourism
  within the anthropological community

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Theory and Themes

• The anthropological literature on tourism has
  been dominated by ethnographic descriptions of
  niche variants of travel
• Studies of tourisms effect on local communities
• Few scholars have focused on developing
  comprehensive theoretical models 

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Theory and Themes

• The most influential approaches in current
  anthropological thinking are H.H Graburns
  construction of tourism as a personal
  transformative experience and Dennison Nashs
  view of tourism as a form of modern imperialism.

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• Graburn (1983) chose to analyze tourism as a
  symbolic superstructure (ie. Interactions between
  people).
• Substructure cultural base (normative culture)
• Infrastructure social organization (law)
• Superstructure mores and norms of society
  (ideology/the human experience)
• Nash (1996) has elected to focus his attentions
  on tourisms political and economic aspects

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Theory and Themes

• Dean MacCannells research on identity
  construction and staged authenticity (1973,
  1976) is perhaps more valid to our study of
  globalization than any otherhe was a
  SOCIOLOGIST!
• How we construct the show of tourism
• How local cultures define themselves for their
  guests

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• Staged Authenticity making a modern
  interpretation seem authentic
• Bad examples include period towns like Old Town
  Sacramento which provide only a veneer of
  authenticity.
• Good examples can get quiet elaborate like
  Lincoln's New Salem outside of Springfield, Ill

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Staged Authenticity

• Does tourism require 'pseudo events' that are
  presented to satisfy tourists' needs for new
  (simulated) experiences ?
• Does tourism product depends on the staging or
  re-creation of ethnic or cultural traditions?
• Can high perception of authenticity can be
  achieved even when the event is staged in a place
  far away from the original source of the cultural
  tradition (ie traveling shows)?

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Staged Authenticity

• An attempt is made to copy the original then the
  copy is modified to meet the needs of the modern
  community.
• Tourism, which emerges as a part of this quest,
  is based upon the belief that authentic
  experience resides outside the boundary of
  everyday life in contemporary society (MaCannell
  1976).

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• Fine and Speer (1997) an authentic experience
  involves participation in a collective ritual,
  where strangers get together in a cultural
  production to share a feeling of closeness or
  solidarity not only with each other, but also
  with the locals.
• Sometimes this is positive, sometimes negative

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• Tourees (hosts) put their culture (including
  themselves) on sale in order to create an
  appealing package.
• MacCannell argues to the degree that this
  packaging alters the nature of the product, the
  authenticity sought by the visitor becomes
  staged authenticity provided by the touree (
  MacCannell 1979 596)

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History of Tourism

• The elite have always traveled to distant parts
  of the world to see great buildings and works of
  art, to learn new languages, to experience new
  cultures, and to taste different cuisines
• Historically, we can trace such activities back
  to Rome, but without a doubt earlier
  civilizations participated in leisure travel

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History of Tourism

• European tourism may have originated with the
  medieval pilgrimage
• Primarily for religious reasons
• The pilgrims in the Canterbury Tales saw the
  experience as a holiday
• The term itself being derived from the 'holy day'
  and its associated leisure activities

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History of Tourism

• By the 17th century. elite often undertook a
  Grand Tour of European countries
• The sons of the nobility and gentry were sent
  upon an extended tour of Europe as an educational
  experience
• Thus the history of touring

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History of Tourism

• Leisure travel, as we think of it today, is
  associated with industrialization
• Initially, this applied only to the owners of
  production, the economic oligarchy, the factory
  owners, and the traders
• As the middle class expanded and economic growth
  spread through the society, the working class
  began to also take advantage of leisure time

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• An argument could be made that the rise of
  tourism and world travel had as much of an impact
  on the development of a globalized world as
  colonization.
• Colonization hegemony by physical force
• Tourism hegemony by economic force

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Tourism Types

• Ethnic Tourism
• Cultural Tourism
• Historical Tourism
• Environmental Tourism
• Recreational Tourism

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Examples of special interest tourism

• Business Tourism
• Convention Tourism
• Culinary / Gastronomic Tourism
• Cultural Heritage / Ethnic Tourism
• Dark Tourism
• Environmental / Eco-Tourism
• Farm Tourism
• Genealogy Tourism
• Health / Spa Tourism
• Religious Pilgrimage Tourism
• Sex Tourism
• Space Tourism
• Sports Tourism
• Volunteer / Service-Based Tourism

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Our Tourism Exersize

• Get into groups of five or so
• Consider
• Economic exchanges you experienced as a tourist
  or a local
• Impacts of tourism on economic systems from both
  perspective
• Larger relationships of dependency between
  tourists and local
• How local culture is being sold
• What that sale might mean

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• I. What is your favorite tourist spot? Why?
  What do you do there? What do you look for? Are
  you alone? What do you feel when you go there?
  Who are your favorite companions? How could it
  be better? What would make it worse?
• II. Think about Monterey or Santa Cruz? What
  makes it a popular tourist spot? What do people
  do there? What kind of "reputation" does it
  have? How could it be improved? What would make
  it worse?
• III. Think about San Francisco? What makes it a
  popular tourist spot? What do people do there?
  What kind of "reputation" does it have? How
  could it be improved? What would make it worse?
• IV. How could Silicon Valley be made into a
  tourist spot? What is here that could be
  nurtured? Be specific. What else is needed to
  improve it's marketability?
• V. What do you want from your tourism? How does
  this reflect your values? How do places
  acquire/change their characters and reputations?

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