The Anthropology of Tourism

Tourism and Globalization

History The establishment of tourism as a legitimate

topic for anthropological study is a relatively recent development.

Theron Nuñez’s “Tourism, Tradition, and Acculturation: Weekendismo in a Mexican Village” (1963) is often credited as the earliest tourism-related article in American anthropological literature.

He suggested that tourism may be studied within the general framework of acculturation. Tourists act as “donors” of culture to regional “recipients”

History

• Hosts and Guests (1977) a seminal anthology which collected work from numerous scholars

• 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 communit

Theory and Themes

• The anthropological literature on tourism has been dominated by ethnographic descriptions of niche variants of travel

• Studies of tourism’s effect on local communities

• Few scholars have focused on developing comprehensive theoretical models

Theory and Themes The most influential approaches in current

anthropological thinking are H.H Graburn’s construction of tourism as a personal transformative experience and Dennison Nash’s view of tourism as a form of modern imperialism.

Graburn chose to analyze tourism as a symbolic superstructure (ie. Interactions between people)

Nash has elected to focus his attentions on tourism’s political and economic aspects

Theory and Themes Dean MacCannell’s research on identity

construction and “staged authenticity” (1973, 1976) is perhaps more valid to our studies than any other…he was a SOCIOLOGIST

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

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”

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

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…

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

Tourism Types

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

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

Tourism, a systems approach

Geopolitics, Economics, pop. Movement

Local culture, internal dynamics

Local micro-adaptation

• Describe the differences in these two beach front destinations. Why is the one so popular and the other not so popular. Its in the photo small details.