1

Future of Tourism

Onno Reichwein

Cohen, Contemporary tourism. Diversity and change (june 2004)Ning Wang, Tourism and modernity: sociological analysis, (2000)

2

Ambivalence of Modernity• Logos - ModernityWork

Enlightenment

Rationalism

Daily world

Structure

Present-ness

Apollonian (order)

Centre-in-here

Active life

Gesellschaft (manmade)

• Eros- ModernityLeisure and Tourism

Romanticism

Emotionalism

Other world

Contra structure

Escape in past, future

Dionysian

Centre-out-there

Contemplative life

Gemeinschaft (nature)

3

Bright & Dark side of Logos-modernity• Logos – Modernity evokes 1. need for & 2.

possibility of Tourism (as form of Eros Modernity):

• Technical dimension

Causes alienation and need for Nature tourism

Enables tourism by transport & communication

• Institutional dimension

Causes inauthenticity and need for authenticity

Enables tourism by tourist-industry

4

The End of Tourism ?

• Paradox: ‘The more people travel, the less incentive there is to travel’

5

The End of Tourism ?

• MacCannell:

• ‘Tourism = quest for authenticity’

Tourists try to experience in another world what they’ve lost at home

• ‘Why leave home, if the other side of the world increasingly looks like home’?

6

The End of Tourism ?

• Ning Wang:

• Tourism is also Existential authenticity. Self-referential, so not connected to place

• So, why travel if you can reach existential authenticity at home?

7

Cohen: Tourism is not ending, it’s just beginning

• 3 post-modern trends:

pm1. Subtle differences

pm2. G-local-isation

pm3. Tourism-Leisure-shop mix

• 3 modern trends:

m1. Conservationists

m2. Tourist / explorer mix

m3. Space tourism

8

pm1. Subtleties make a difference

• Post tourists search familiarity (Lisker)

• Cohen ‘not to be confused with sameness’

• ‘Tourists look for distinction (status & identity) by small differences within the familiar.

• Example: ‘Guggenheim’ Barcelona

9

pm2. Not Globalisation: G-local-isation

• Paradox: Different parts of the world look increasingly the same, but there is an increasing differentiation on local level.

• Tourist attraction: Fusion

• New form of otherness of the unexpected new (instead of the otherness of disappearing traces from the past)

10

pm3. Theme parks on consumerism & fantasy

• Traditional boundary between tourism, leisure & consumerism is disappearing.

• Example: Las Vegas, Disneylands, Edmonton Mall, serving continents

11

m1. Conservation movement

• Still believes in natural / cultural authenticity

• (in contrast to post-modern resignation in the disappearance of the original)

• Paradox: ecotourism consumes nature

12

m2. Tourism / exploration mix.

• Increasing sameness of the world incites desire to explore the last not yet explored.

• E.g.: Impenetrable areas like north pole, deserts and high mountains.

• Cohen: Existential authenticity is here enforced by objective authenticity

13

m3. Space travel = promising

1. All elite tourism becomes mass tourism

2. endless opportunities after planet earth is ‘consumed’ through exploration

Space tourist is ensconced & condemned to passivity! ‘Environmental bubble’ suitable for mass-, not for adventure tourism.