The new tourist — turning point for leisure and travel

ReporriViewpoinf

Through the establishment of prop- erly protected and interpreted national parks, there can be new opportuni- ties for Moroccans and others to study and to marvel at the extraordinary flora and fauna , geological features and scenic values that are unique to Morocco.

And as agricultural and other natu- ral resource-related human practices within and immediately adjacent to national parks shift to accommodate

the needs of a tourism-based economic system, hopefully, significant steps may be taken to improve the quality of the land and the waters on which Morocco’s population must de- pend for its very survival.

The National Park Service technical assistance team whose members re- cently have completed the study that will initiate this important work are proud to have been a part of it. Hopefully, the work that we have

begun will, in the near future, make a reality of Morocco’s most important opportunity.

Priscilla R. Baker Special Assistant to the

Director (Tourism) United States Department

of the Interior National Park Service

PO Box 37127 Washington, DC 200/>7127, USA

Viewpoint The new tourist - turning point for leisure and travel

People are motivated to travel by the desire to escape from the monotony of the daily routine, and the actual destination is to some extent irrelevant. Jost Krippendorf, of the University of Bern Tourism Research Institute, explains why he believes that present changes of attitudes towards work and leisure will eventually produce a new type of tourist having more consideration for, and a more informed understanding of, the host population and environment. ’

Travel has become one of the most curious phenomena of our industrialized society. Travel occupies 40% of our available free time, made up of 30% for excursions and other short trips - note the week-end exodus from the cities - and 10% for longer holidays. Human society, once so static has gained true mobility.

Travel today

The urge to travel grips the majority of the population in the industrialized nations. Every opportunity is taken for travel, for escape from the daily routine. We undertake short trips during the week and at week-ends and go on longer journeys during our holidays. When we approach retirement, we have the urge to live in a new area. Indeed, anything but stay at home. We must keep on the move.

Could there be something wrong in this? Is balance lacking in our lives? Our desire for travel is quite separate from daily routine. People travel more and more because they do not feel at ease where they are, where they work and where they live. They need to escape from the burdens of their normal life, from their homes and leisure activities, to become recharged to cope with their increasingly auto- mated and remote work. Man resents the monotony of his daily routine, the functional nature of factories, offices, houses, stations and terminals. He senses the loss of human relations and of spiritual values. He is faced by the remoteness of nature and surrounded by artificiality. For many people this describes the defects of their ordinary life, which can lead to stress, to mental and physical exhaustion, and to utter boredom. Note the negative connota-

TOURISM MANAGEMENT June 1986

tion of the term ‘everyday’. Dirt.

noise, work, rush, school, effort, spoilt environment, all these terms are included in ‘everyday’. Even its de- scription employs depressing terms and colours like grey, dull, tiring, sad, boring and so on - and yet life consists of more ‘everydays’ than of holidays and Sundays.

Compensation

We travel to find compensation for that which we miss in our everyday life, to gain some independence, to switch off, to recharge, to make contacts, to rest and to find some happiness to take back home. We can only tolerate the long-term everyday routine if we can escape from it some time. Leisure, and particularly travel, should add the spots of colour to our drab everyday canvas. They mean rejuvenation and renewal. In short, we must travel away in order to live and to survive. It is curious that we work, in part at least, to gain holidays, and we need these holidays to be able to work. We relax so that we can work even harder when we return. On our journeys we ‘consume’ the climate, nature and countryside, indeed the culture and the populations of the places we visit. Then we return home and we are more or less capable of withstanding the everyday problems - until next time. It has worked! Yet,

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before long, the wish to escape

appears more and more often. for we cannot compensate for a dreary life during a few week-ends and a few holiday weeks.

This is how the great travel and holiday machine operates. We go round this circle year after year. without realizing we are all tied to it. But there are some further factors which have made mass travel possible, and indeed have been its cause:

0 in Switzerland we have a per capita income in real terms 50% higher than SO years ago:

0 we have 20% more leisure than SO years ago: and

0 we also have 2.5 million motor cars - a private car for every other person - whereas 30 years ago there were only 150 000 cars in Switzerland.

These remarks give some background information to explain the unbeliev- able leisure mobility of the present time. In particular, we have to understand the psychological effects which turn us into such curious creatures as soon as we become tourists, and which often cause us to behave quite differently during travel and holiday than at home. We become strange human beings trying to compensate for so many things that we hardly know where to start. We are wanting in sovereignty, and experience because nobody has taught us how to behave as travellers. We are wanting in readi- ness to face up to the host country and its people - time and again we elementarily lack the necessary energy.

As tourists we usually become egocentrics. At last we are on holiday! Now 1 can decide for myself what I want to do, what is good for me. I no longer receive orders. Instead, I can give orders. I want to do the best for myself, I want to enjoy myself, to amuse myself, to be spoilt. I might play a role which I do not possess in my everyday life. For as short while I can be like a royal gldesr and expect to be treated accordingly. How wonder- ful to feel that one is ‘somebody’. One gains in self awareness, although at other people’s expense. Without realizing it, one feels that one is

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always right. The traveller can appear aggressive and inconsiderate. ‘-Hur- rah. here I come, far from home, and free! No need to consider anybody else! I can do what I want. I can wear what I like. I can eat what I like. I can spend money, I can feast and cele- brate as never before. I can really let go. Never mind what other people think of me. After all. I have paid!” In these ways we tourists become different people to our normal selves. We forget even the basic rules of behaviour. In short. we ignore our up- bringing completely.

Escape

There is something else typical of tourists: we travel nway from something - from home, from everyday life - than to travel to something, to a particular country or people. It mat- ters little where we travel to, so long as we can get away from our everyday surroundings and switch off completely. So the actual travel destinations for most tourists are readily interchange- able. Destination is a secondary question. The main thing is that there should be snow for skiing, or sun for tanning, the sea for swimming in, and facilities for entertainment.

The ‘toward’ element, the positive motivation to discover something, conscious mental processes, the desire to make contact with other people, with other countries and different cultures, even self-analysis, does not matter so much. Many holiday-makers are satisfied with the feeling of freedom from work, and of being away from home. They do not ask for more than that. All else can just as well go on as in everyday life. Perhaps they even want the rest to be just as at home. ‘Abroad’ is like an exotic stage set. If it is too strange then it becomes uncomfortable, even threatening. One longs for the familiar, for the same food, the same drinks, the same language, the same games and the same comforts as at home. So the flight away from ‘everyday’ actually leads to the opposite, and then inevitably back to ‘everyday’. Might we not just as well have stayed at home?

This explains why there is no group of people more often criticised,

laughed at. blamed, or made fun of. than the tourist. The most exotic part of tourism is the tourist himself! What- ever the tourist may do, he is always in the wrong!

Funny ro~rist. This type is immediately recognized from a distance by the camera dangling in front. His ‘leisure’ outfit, his pale skin, his fat, protruding stomach, probably half-naked. make him a figure of mirth.

Stupid rowist. The stupid tourist has never been abroad before, does not know languages, does not know the way, and asks stupid questions. Peo- ple will always take advantage of him.

Organized tow-ist. This tourist is un-

sure of himself and is lost without his package-tour group and group leader. Like a sheep, he is only at ease in a herd of equals.

Ugly IOIM~SI. The ugly tourist behaves as though the world belonged to him. He does exactly that which is forbid- den at home.

Philistine tourist. The Philistine tourist spends the whole holiday lying on the beach. He cares nothing about the country and people around him. Just as at home, he watches television, plays cards and eats fish and chips.

Rich tourist. This type can afford everything he wants, buys up everything, brags about his wealth and expects to be served like a lord.

Exploiting tonrisf. This is the sort of tourist who enjoys his holiday at other people’s and other countries’ expense. He takes advantage of other people’s poverty.

Environmentally negligent tourist. The tourist who spoils the environment is the cause of enormous rubbish avalan- ches and of exhaust-gas pollution. He tramples over fields and meadows, pollutes the rivers, lakes and oceans, and generally spoils the countryside.

Alternative tourist. The alternative tourist keeps away from other tourists and penetrates the last unspoilt reces-


ses of a country. He is the precursor of later mass tourism.

Resentment against tow’sts

Needless to say, a tourist is always the other person! The general resentment against tourists is ill considered and leads nowhere. The much maligned tourist is still a human being, engaged in the perfectly legal search after holiday enjoyment. He badly needs the freedom offered by travel; he enjoys himself even if, in the syrs of his critics, he is unable to make sensible use of this freedom. Up to now, nobody has bothered to warn him of the effects of his deeds. Hence he is unaware of the responsibilities he

shares.

Changes in societ)

Is there an indication that a new, indeed a ‘better’, tourist is coming, that a new travel culture has arisen? The changes, even the rapid changes which can be observed, are not so much a revolution in the field of travel but represent a fundamental change in society. We are at the threshold of a new society which will bring with it a new understanding of leisure and travel. This will lead to a new breed of tourists.

What are the characteristics of this new society? One thing is certain: it will no longer be based on the work ethos. Present forms of society are obsolete. The future may not produce a true leisure society. but rather conditions which could be described as societies for living. I shall try to outline this change in a few salient

words. Ever since the reformation

preachers, we have been taught that we should tame the world to serve us, that one should base one’s whole life on work. We have slaved, laboured and we have admired above all the concepts of work, production, order, discipline and duty. This has allowed us to reach the present wealth-based industrialized society, centred on work and on the creation of wealth. Education and training for employment have priority, leisure is considered a time for rest and further consumption, and retirement is a well- earned reward for a life of continuous

hard labour. “His life was all work, even in his spare time.” Nothing can describe the situation better than this quotation from the memorial address of Kurt Martis. We have achieved much as a result of this work-based society. Above all, we have gained the desired material wealth, we have eli- minated poverty and have reduced working hours. But at the same time there have been darker sides which are gaining greater significance and which people now resent: a loss of human contact at work (because of mass production and the extreme demands at work); reduced satisfaction with work, and hence with life generally; rigid clock discipline, and above all. growing unemployment. In the microelectronic age these problems are likely to become more severe. The ‘work society’ will run out of work! It is futile to hope that our sick ‘work society’ can be cured by the old prescription of ‘full employment due to continuous economic growth’. There is no chance of a renewed economic boom as it is prevented by too many factors.

In parallel with these changes in economy, people’s values themselves are changing rapidly. We hear more and more criticism of our work-based society. That which many generations accepted unquestioningly, is now sub- jected to severe criticism. Attempts are made to redefine the objects, the very purpose and quality of life. It has been said that “the greatest intellec- tual revolution since the renaissance” is in progress. There are millions of people who criticise the present order of the world, whether in secret or openly. They are ready to try new things, to change their lives to something new, to something better. The key question in most people’s minds must be their new attitude to work and to the economy. Once the most important economic needs are satisfied, our interests change. We put the art and quality of living ahead of living stan- dards. Values such as freedom, participation and self-awareness come into the foreground. Professional advance- ment, security and salary level become less important. We realize that an excess of money and goods cannot compensate for lack of time. Lack of


time for that which we really want to do. lack of time for our families and friends, lack of time for ourselves. In short, lack of time for living. People have rediscovered time. Instead of concentration on money, we have concentration on time. We might say: .-Exchange time for money”. More and more people begin to realize that the major defects of everyday life cannot be compensated by a few moments of freedom, of leisure, of happiness and of self-determination during holiday and leisure periods. They are no longer satisfied with this substitute freedom. with this life bounded by deadlines and by instal- ment payments. They want more time for real living.

Thus society had begun to focus on leisure time. We no longer concen- trate on work but on leisure. It is primarily the younger generation which is developing into pioneers of lifestyle, but the middle-aged and older generations will follow. The demands for more sense in life. for more time for living, for more human- ity, for a human dimension, are not only expressed by a few ‘alternative’ groups. Increasingly, these demands form part of the requirements of those in the ‘established society’. We want to be rather than to have. This thesis of Erich Fromm is gaining more and more support every day.

The new tourist

Against the background of these changes in society and in people themselves, a new concept of leisure and travel will develop rapidly. The num- ber of ‘new’ tourists will grow quickly. The new generation of tourists will develop in parallel with a new generation of people. Since the traveller’s characteristics are formed by his everyday life, a new form of society and new living conditions are needed before a new form of tourist can appear. The question is not about new travel, but about new people. Nevertheless, experiences during holidays and travel feed back to everyday life. We are not compelled to wait for improved tourism until society itself has improved. Rather, we can and indeed should, start with the world of travel and try to

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make improvements right here. I should like to summarize here

some of m I; proposals for a ‘human’ form of tourism, contained in my new book The Holida\ People. ’ I want to touch only on those theories which affect Us as tourists. on proposals for new consciousness and tourist behaviour on the part of each one of us.

Inrelligent tourist. However much we object. even if Eve keep far away from other tourists. if we try to use disguises so as not to look like tourists even if we think we are more ‘locals’ than ‘tourists’ - as soon as we travel, we become. and remain, tourists. And there is no reason to think that we shall be better tourists than the nest person. The new tourist kvill struggle to understand this, so that he can accept his touristic role. This is the basis for more open,ness. tolerance. modesty and willingness to communicate in the course of travel. both with other tourists and also Lvith the population of the countries visited. In this way the tourist will find it easier to accept travel as a mass activity. He will no longer attempt to escape from mass tourism. aluays to discover new destinations and new ways of holi- daying. just to be more original and individualistic. There is no reason why real holiday experiences should not be shared with others. To speak with a sneer of ‘tourist ghettoes’ is no help at all. There are many advantages in having large tourist establishments and holidav facilities.

Critical consumer tourist. The new tourist will be well informed as a critical consumer not only in his everyday life but also in choosing his holiday. He can be critical of the numerous travel brochures, and critical of himself. He checks. compares and confirms details before making his buying decisions. He tries to look behind the attractive promises. He is knowledgeable in choosing his destination. He objects to the competitive travel-trade attitude that prices are more important than destination countries. He considers the consequ- ences of his purchase, and of his actions. He considers who ivill benefit from his journey, and who will suffer.

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He will not always be guided by the lowest price and he bill not attempt to pay less and bargain more. because he knows that low prices are often the result of exploitation of other people. He chooses those forms of travel which are least harmful to the environment, which are least disturbing for the people and cultures of the tourist areas and from which they get the greatest benefit. He will consciousI\ use his money to purchase those pro- ducts and services of which he knotvs both the origin and who will profit. Above all, in this way he can support the local population. When choosinp accommodation, board. means of transport, when visiting perform- ances, when he buys souvenirs, he will

consider these factors intelligently. He will resist the meaningless summaries prepared by the normal tourist trade. He will oppose the powerful machine by his personal attempt never to es- ploit, but instead to accept responsibility.

,Wodest and adnptnble towist. The new tourist has simpler and more modest needs. He understands that we should cut back on the luxury aspects of tourism and of tourist installations and go for more simplicity wherever fiossi- ble, to make travel more profitable for all involved - ie for the traveller and for the population travelled to. The new tourist must adapt himself to the country visited, and to its people, and not the other way round. He must be ready to communicate with the real natives and local types of the countries visited. In this uay the tourist can learn about, and get to experience, the native culture. This applies not only to the architecture of the tourist installations but also to eating and drinkins. No longer will that horrible uniform ‘tourism taste’, that uniform lack of

culture, that soulless international touristic brew, find support.

Considernte roruisf. The new tourist knows that the countries which he visits consist not only of sunshine, mountains. snow, sand and ocean, but also of people who have their own needs, behaviour patterns and culture. The new tourist will consider these people and exercise care and courtesy

in attempting to learn something more about the people of the host country. He will no longer push himself to the fore everywhere he goes. He tvill no longer think he is always right. In other words the new attitude will be to meet rather than oppose: experience rather than exhaust: to show respect and consideration rather than con- tempt: to ask rather than answer: and to search rather than find.

Towisr guided from within. The new

tourist will attempt to find himself in the course of his journeys and holidays. We have to learn how to meet ourselves before we can be expected to show tolerance and consideration to others. Let LIS have ‘holidays with ourselves’ rather than ‘holidays away from ourselves’. Roman Bleistein, the theologian. offered a series of sugges- tions for meeting oneself. He talks of simple things. Avoid the search for the extreme. exotic or prestigious. Cannot we be satisfied by the insignificant? What about small discoveries at the edge of the forest? Let us look at a tree, a flower. a mountain or at the sky! Let us look long. observe. take note. learn to look for a little happiness, for that which we find or discover. Let us find time for others. Let us be there for others. Let us stop thinking of ourselves. Let us play with the children. the way they want to play. Take off that wrist-watch, Use your own rhythm. Share joys. That is the meaning of simple happiness on holi-

day.

Tourist nho sets own travel limits. The new tourist will consider carefully whether fewer journeys perhaps mean more. He will feel that it is. perhaps, better and healthier not always to travel so far. Distant places are not necessarily the best. We can discover surprising and even ‘exotic’ things nearby. There are adventures waiting just round the corner. The new tourist might change his destination less often, in order to establish real relations with the countries and people visited. Perhaps he will travel less often, and stay at home some of the time. What about a safari in the neighbourhood rather than one in the jungle’? Perhaps spend the bveek-end


or c~en a holiday at home instead of just madly rushing off.

Creuiire e.rperimenting tourisr. During his holiday the new tourist will be tempted to try new things for which he has no time during everyday life. He will receive encouragement for more movement and participation in sport and games, for more human contacts, for more creative activities (eg start your holiday with photography, pot- tery or drawing) or for more education and discoveries, in fact for more real esperiences. The new tourist knows that he has many hidden abilities which are limited by everyday obliga- tions. He will accept the help of trainers and holiday teachers. Train- ing is not just a great holiday circus but help towards self-help.

Tourist ready to learn. The new tourist will have learnt how to travel. He will devote the time needed to prepare himself for travel and holiday. He will be faced with travel from the earliest age at school. and will learn to accept

the responsibility which follows. Pub-

lic education and further education

systems. adult education, churches,

political parties. trade unions. consumer organizations and, ultimately, the commercial tourist industry sector. will become part of the ‘campaign for learning to travel’.

Summary

I agree that much of what I have described may seem Utopian at present. But there are many encourayiny

signs pointing to the arrival of the new tourist - of the better tourist who feels. thinks, takes part and shares responsibility. Only if we travel con- sciously can we travel differently, travel better.

Every one of us. personally, can make a significant contribution by his own thinking. by his own activities. So let us reiterate - it depends on the everyday preparation rather than on the journey itself, how much we gain from a holiday and from travel, and how we profit ourselves. If we are happy and content with our everyday life, if we have satisfaction, space and the possibility of further development in our work and in our home, if we are satisfied at home. then we have no need to travel on holiday for escape

and compensation. We can use holidays as genuine supplements and en- hancements of our lives.

Holidays and the leisure time spent away from home could become the basis for learn-g and experiments for everyday life?’ Perhaps tourism can be an impulse towards a more humane society. In this sense I wish all of us more holiday in our everyday lives and more holiday in our holidays.

Jost Krippendorf University of Berne

Tourism Research institute 307 1 Bern

Monbijoustrasse 29 Berne

Switzerland Notes

‘This paper was presented at the general assembly of the Swiss Reisckasse at Rapperswil on 26 April 1984. Text based on J. Krippendorf, The /-/o/i&v feoole - Towards.> New Understanding of Lksure and Travel, Orell Fksli. Ztirich. 19W. (Further sources quoted.)’ 2Krippendorf, op tit, Ref 1. 3Going away, not so much to forget everyday life, but to go ‘somewhere’, to find an opportunity. An opportunity to gain something, maybe freedom, mutual understanding and solidarity. Above all, to bring back a little bit of all this to our everyday life.

Travellers and tourists The Grand Tour

The long tradition of the traveller as writer and historian began some 16 centuries ago with Herodotus, the father of history. His many journeys throughout the Eastern Mediterra- nean - from the Black Sea to Egypt and the Nile - gave him the material for a classic account of the ancient world that is still good reading today. Again, the beginnings of modem Eng- lish literature followed out of the missions that Chaucer undertook for Richard II in Flanders, France, and Lombardy. In 1386 Chaucer began to draw on those experiences when he started on that most famous collection of travellers’ stories, The Canterbuq Tales. His brilliant descriptions of

travel and travellers record the long, slow journey as it used to be in those April days. when the roads dried out after winter and religious enthusiasm sent all manner of persons on their ways to the great shrines of Europe.

Three hundred years later the num- bers of travellers had increased greatly and their objectives had changed en- tirely. A special term - the Grand Tour - came into the language from the French to characterize the new practice of visiting the great cities of France and Italy. For most. the great attractions lay to the south in Italy. The golden land of classical antiquity had so much to offer - the marvels of the Roman past. the great buildings of

the Renaissance, the art collections of kings and princes, the latest develop- ments in music, and the many opera houses in Venice and Florence.

The exodus started soon after the ending of the Thirty Years’ War in 1648, when the English aristocracy led the move south of the Alps. They went as they pleased, often taking their carriages and servants with them: and prudent parents made special arrangements for tutors to oversee the education and the behaviour of their offspring in foreign lands. Towards the end of the 17th century the requirements of the new travellers en- couraged the beginning of a tourist trade in handbooks and guides. In 1670 Richard Lassels published Thr Voyage in Italy. a two-volume com- pendium on travel and travelling conditions which he commended to the reader as the work of a gentleman

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The new tourist — turning point for leisure and travel