11 Sociological and Anthropological Concepts in Tourism
At the end of this chapter, the reader will be
able to:
„
Understand tourism as a quest for contrived reality
„
Evaluate how tourism is a quest for authenticity
„
Define the environmental bubble and critique how it forms
the basis of commercial tourism
„
Evaluate Cohen’s five roles of tourists
„
Analyse Cohen’s quest for the other
„
Assess and be able to critique the concept of liminality
„
Identify aspects of risk and how they affect travel
behaviour
Copyright © 2020. Goodfellow Publishers, Limited. All rights reserved.
Introduction
Tourism is both a business and a social phenomenon. To
understand how tourism works, then, one must understand
both the business side of tourism as well as the human side.
Ever since large scale tourism began, people have been
examining it and trying to place it in a sociological perspective.
These e?orts have involved an examination of why people
travel, the social reasons for travel and the type of tourist
experience they are either ge ing or seeking. This chapter
McKercher, B., & Prideaux, B. (2020). Tourism theories, concepts and models. Goodfellow Publishers, Limited.
Created from unlv on 2022-09-11 06:46:50.
examines how the founding sociologists and anthropologists in
the ?eld looked at tourism and how they still shape our
thinking.
Social perspectives on tourism
Three dominant themes in the sociology of tourism have
emerged over the last 60 years. They are:
„ Boorstin’s essentially negative 1960s view that tourism
represents contrived reality;
„ MacCannell’s 1970s more positive view that tourism
represents a quest for authenticity; and
„ Cohen’s more neutral views that tourism represents a quest
for one’s centre.
In reviewing these themes, it is important to understand a few
points. One is that most take a very American-centric view to
the world. The second is to remember that these were wri en
over a nearly 30-year period and that they are heavily
in?uenced by the dominant social paradigm at the time of their
writing.
Copyright © 2020. Goodfellow Publishers, Limited. All rights reserved.
„