TOWARD A SOCIOLOGY OF INTERNATIONAL TOURISM

Author(s): ERIK COHEN

Source: Social Research, Vol. 39, No. 1, POLITICAL ECONOMICS (SPRING 1972), pp. 164-182
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press
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 TOWARD A SOCIOLOGY OF
INTERNATIONAL TOURISM1

BY ERIK COHEN

X n recent years, there has been an enormous

ber of people traveling for pleasure and the
and places visited regularly by tourists. S
seem to have neglected the study of tour
nomenon.2 Here I should like to propose
approach to the phenomenon of internation
includes a typology of tourists on the basis
to both the tourist business establishment a

Varieties of Tourist Experience

"After seeing the jewels at Topkapi, the f

and bazaars, it's awfully nice to come h
Istanbul Hilton"

(Advertisement in Time magazine)

Tourism is so widespread and accepted today, particularly in

the Western world,3 that we tend to take it for granted. Trav
i This paper was first written while I was a visiting scholar at the Institut
Urban Environment, Columbia University, New York. Thanks are due to th
Institute as well as to Dr. R. Bar-Yoseph, Prof. Elihu Katz, and Dr. M. Shoke
for their useful comments.
2 There exist very few full-length studies of tourism. One of the most com-
prehensive studies is that by H. J. Knebel, Soziologische Strukturwandlungen im
Modernen Tourismus (Stuttgart: F. Enke Verl., 1960). By far the most incisive
analysis of American tourism has been performed by D. Boorstin, The Image,
(New York: Atheneum, 1962), pp. 77-117. There is a chapter on tourism in J.
Dumazedier, Towards a Society of Leisure (New York: Free Press, 1967), pp. 123-
128, and in M. Kaplan, Leisure in America: A Social Inquiry (New York: Wiley,
1960), Ch. 16.
**or tne contemporary tourist Doom see a. k. waters, ine American lounst,
The Annals of the American Academy of Social Science, 368 (November 1966),
pp. 109-118.

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 SOCIOLOGY OF TOURISM 165

ing for pleasure in a foreign country b

is a relatively modern occurrence, how
early nineteenth century.4
It seems that mass tourism as a cultu
as a result of a very basic change in m
beyond the boundaries of his native h
mains largely ignorant of the existenc
cultures, he regards his own small w
lies outside is mysterious and unknow
and threatening. It can only inspire fea
lacking as it does any reality for him.
A tremendous distance lies between such an orientation and
that characteristic of modern man. Whereas primitive and tra-
ditional man will leave his native habitat only when forced to
by extreme circumstances, modern man is more loosely attached
to his environment, much more willing to change it, especially
temporarily, and is remarkably able to adapt to new environ-
ments. He is interested in things, sights, customs, and cultures
different from his own, precisely because they are different.
Gradually, a new value has evolved: the appreciation of the ex-
perience of strangeness and novelty. This experience now excites,
titillates, and gratifies, whereas before it only frightened. I be-
lieve that tourism as a cultural phenomenon becomes possible only
when man develops a generalized interest in things beyond his
particular habitat, when contact with and appreciation and en-
joyment of strangeness and novelty are valued for their own sake.
In this sense, tourism is a thoroughly modern phenomenon.
An increased awareness of the outer world seems to lead to
an increased readiness to leave one's habitat and to wander

around temporarily, or even to emigrate to another habit

Although we have little real knowledge of the way in which th
awareness grows, it would seem that the technological achieve
ments of the past two centuries have been prime determinan
* Dumazedier, op. cit., p. 125w. For the scarcity of tourists even as late as 186
see Boorstin, op. cit., p. 84.

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166 SOCIAL RESEARCH

While the invention of increasing

cation and the increasingly wid
these means helped make man m
at the same time a parallel phen
tation, making travel less arduous
consuming. Also, the creation a
class in many societies made trav
for large numbers of people, wher
nineteenth century only the aristoc
expenditure in money and time.
Though novelty and strangeness
tourist experience, not even mod
immerse himself wholly in an al
perience becomes too strange h
still basically molded by his nativ
habit to its patterns of behavior.
of these customs and complete im
vironment may be experienced a
ing, especially if prolonged. Mo
thing familiar around them, some
whether it be food, newspapers, li
from their native country. Many
enjoy the experience of change a
base of familiarity, which enab
to enjoy the strangeness of what
like to experience the novelty o
strange place from the security o
And many will not venture abroad
equipped with familiar means of
Often the modern tourist is no
customed environment for a new
to foreign soil in an "environmen
ture. To a certain extent he view
of that society through the prot

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 SOCIOLOGY OF TOURISM 167

vironmental bubble/' within which he functions and interacts

in much the same way as he does in his own habitat.5
The experience of tourism combines, then, a degree of novelty
with a degree of familiarity, the security of old habits with the
excitement of change.6 However, the exact extent to which famil-
iarity and novelty are experienced on any particular tour depends
upon the individual tastes and preferences of the tourist as well
as upon the institutional setting of his trip. There is a continuum
of possible combinations of novelty and familiarity. This con-
tinuum is, to my mind, the basic underlying variable for the
sociological analysis of the phenomenon of modern tourism. The
division of the continuum into a number of typical combinations
of novelty and familiarity leads to a typology of tourist experiences
and roles. I will propose here a typology of four tourist roles.7

The organized mass tourist. The organized mass tourist is the

least adventurous and remains largely confined to his "environ-
mental bubble" throughout his trip. The guided tour, conducted
in an air-conditioned bus, traveling at high speed through a
steaming countryside, represents the prototype of the organized
mass tourist. This tourist type buys a package-tour as if it were
just another commodity in the modern mass market. The itin-
erary of his trip is fixed in advance, and all his stops are well-
prepared and guided; he makes almost no decisions for himself
and stays almost exclusively in the microenvironment of his home
country. Familiarity is at a maximum, novelty at a minimum.

The individual mass tourist. This type of tourist role is similar to

the previous one, except that the tour is not entirely preplanned,
the tourist has a certain amount of control over his time and itiner-
ary and is not bound to a group. However, all of his major arrange-
s Knebel speaks, following von Uexkull, of a " touristische Eigenwelt," from
which the modern tourist can no longer escape; op. cit., p. 137.
•For a similar approach to modern tourism, see Boorstin, op. cit., pp. 79-80.
7 For a different typology of tourist roles ("travelers"), see Kaplan, op. cit., p. 216.

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168 SOCIAL RESEARCH

ments are still made through a tou

not bring him much further afield
mass tourist. He, too, does his ex
"environmental bubble" of his hom
of it only occasionally - and even
territory. Familiarity is still domin
in the preceding type; the experi
greater, though it is often of the r

The explorer. This type of touris

tries to get off the beaten track as mu
less looks for comfortable accommodations and reliable means of

transportation. He tries to associate with the people he visits and

to speak their language. The explorer dares to leave his "environ-
mental bubble" much more than the previous two types, but he is
still careful to be able to step back into it when the going becomes
too rough. Though novelty dominates, the tourist does not
immerse himself completely in his host society, but retains some
of the basic routines and comforts of his native way of life.

The drifter. This type of tourist ventures furthest away from the
beaten track and from the accustomed ways of life of his home
country. He shuns any kind of connection with the tourist estab-
lishment, and considers the ordinary tourist experience phony.
He tends to make it wholly on his own, living with the people
and often taking odd-jobs to keep himself going. He tries to live
the way the people he visits live, and to share their shelter, foods,
and habits, keeping only the most basic and essential of his old
customs. The drifter has no fixed itinerary or timetable and no
well-defined goals of travel. He is almost wholly immersed in his
host culture. Novelty is here at its highest, familiarity disappears
almost completely.
The first two tourist types I will call institutionalized tourist
roles; they are dealt with in a routine way by the tourist estab-
lishment - the complex of travel agencies, travel companies, hotel

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 SOCIOLOGY OF TOURISM 169

chains, etc., which cater to the tourist t

I will call noninstitutionalized tourist rol
roles, at best only very loosely attached
ment.

The Institutionalized Forms of Tourism:

The Organized and the Individual Mass Tourist*

"Where were you last summer?"

"In Majorca."
"Where is that?"
"I don't know, I flew there."
(Conversation between two girls, reprinted in a German journal)

Contemporary institutionalized tourism is a mass industry. The

tour is sold as a package, standardized and mass-produced.9 All
transportation, places to be visited, sleeping and eating accommoda-
tions are fixed in advance. The tourist establishment takes com-

plete care of the tourist from beginning to end. Still, the package
tour sold by the tourist establishment purportedly offers the buyer
the experience of novelty and strangeness. The problem of the
system, then, is to enable the mass tourist to "take in" the novelty
of the host country without experiencing any physical discom-
fort or, more accurately, to observe without actually experiencing.
Since the tourist industry serves large numbers of people, these
have to be processed as efficiently, smoothly, and quickly as possi-
ble through all the phases of their tour. Hence, it is imperative
that the experience of the tourist, however novel it might seem
to him, be as ordered, predictable, and controllable as possible.
In short, he has to be given the illusion of adventure, while all the
risks and uncertainties of adventure are taken out of his tour. In

this respect, the quality of the mass tourist's experiences ap-

proaches that of vicarious participation in other people's lives,
8 For a general description of the trends characteristic of modern mass tourism,
see Knebel, op. cit., pp. 99ff.
» See Boorstin, op. cit., p. 85.

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170 SOCIAL RESEARCH

similar to the reading of fiction or

The tourist establishment achieves
related mechanisms that I will cal
tions and the standardization of fa
Every country, region, or localit
apart from all others, something f
visiting: scenic beauty, architectu
art, etc. In German there is a ver
features, SehenswiXrdigkeiten, or "t
call them "attractions." Some attractions are of world renown,
and become the trademark of a place; these attract tourists nat-
urally. In other cases, they are created artificially - they are con-
trived "tourist attractions." 10

The main purpose of mass tourism is the visiting of attractions,

whether genuine or contrived. However, even if they are genu-
ine, the tendency is to transform or manipulate them, to make
them "suitable" for mass tourist consumption. They are sup-
plied with facilities, reconstructed, landscaped, cleansed of un-
suitable elements, staged, managed, and otherwise organized. As
a result, they largely lose their original flavor and appearance
and become isolated from the ordinary flow of life and natural
texture of the host society.11 Hawaiian dancing girls have to be
dressed for public decency - but not too much, so that they re-
main attractive; natural sights have to be groomed and guarded
until they look like well-kept parks; traditional festivals have
to be made more colorful and more respectable so tourists will
be attracted but not offended. Festivals and ceremonies, in par-
ticular, cease being spontaneous expressions of popular feelings
and become well-staged spectacles.12 Even still-inhabited old
quarters of otherwise modern cities are often turned into "living

10 Ib id., p. 103.
ii In Boorstin's language, they become "pseudo-events."
12 "Not only in Mexico City and Montreal, but also in the remote Guatemalan
Tourist Mecca of Chichecastenango, out in far-off villages of Japan, earnest honest
natives embellish their ancient rites, change, enlarge and spectacularize their fes-
tivals, so that tourists will not be disappointed." Ibid., p. 103.

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 SOCIOLOGY OF TOURISM 171

museums" to attract tourists, like the old town of Acre in Israel,

Old San Juan, and Old Town in Chicago.
While the transformation of attractions provides controlled
novelty for the mass tourist, the standardization of facilities serves
to provide him with the necessary familiarity in his immediate
surroundings. The majority of tourists originate today from the
affluent Western countries, the U. S. and Western Europe, and
increasingly from Japan. Hence, whatever country aspires to
attract mass tourism is forced to provide facilities on a level com-
mensurate with the expectations of the tourists from those coun-
tries. A tourist infrastructure of facilities based on Western

standards has to be created even in the poorest host countries.

This tourist infrastructure provides the mass tourist with the
protective "ecological bubble" of his accustomed environmen
However, since the tourist also expects some local flavor or sign
of foreignness in his environment, there are local decorations in
his hotel room, local foods in the restaurants, local products in
the tourist shops. Still, even these are often standardized: th
decorations are made to resemble the standard image of tha
culture's art, the local foods are made more palatable to unac
customed tongues, the selection of native crafts is determined
by the demands of the tourist.13
The transformation of attractions and the standardization of

facilities, made necessary by the difficulties of managing and satis-

fying large numbers of tourists, have introduced a basic uniformity
or similarity into the tourist experience. Whole countries lose their
individuality to the mass tourist as the richness of their culture
and geography is reduced by the tourist industry to a few standard
elements, according to which they are classified and presented
to the mass tourist. Before he even begins his tour, he is con-
ditioned to pay attention primarily to the few basic attractions
and facilities advertised in the travel literature or suggested by

"Boorstin, talking of the Hilton chain of hotels, states: "Even the measured
admixture of carefully filtered local atmosphere [in these hotels] proves that you
are still in the U.S." Ibid., pp. 98-99.

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 172 SOCIAL RESEARCH

the travel agent, which are catalo

signed a level of "importance." u
of selective awareness: the tourist tends to become aware of his

environment only when he reaches spots of "interest," while he

is largely oblivious to it the rest of the time.15 As a result, coun-
tries become interchangeable in the tourist's mind. Whether he
is looking for good beaches, restful forests, or old cities, it becomes
relatively unimportant to him where these happen to be found.
Transportation by air, which brings him almost directly to his
destination without his having to pass through other parts of the
host country, contributes to the isolation of the attractions and
facilities from the rest of the country - as well as the isolation of
the tourist. And so mass tourism has created the following para-
dox: though the desire for variety, novelty, and strangeness are
the primary motives of tourism, these qualities have decreased
as tourism has become institutionalized.

In popular tourist countries, the tourist system or infrastructure

has become separated from the rest of the culture and the natural
flow of life. Attractions and facilities which were previously fre-
quented by the local population are gradually abandoned. As
Greenwich Village became a tourist attraction, many of the orig-
inal bohemians moved to the East Village. Even sites of high
symbolic value for the host society may suffer a similar fate:
houses of government, churches, and national monuments become
more and more the preserve of the mass tourist and are less and
less frequented by the native citizen.
I* For an analysis of the travel literature, see Knebel, op. cit., pp. 90-97. On
the development of the guidebook, particularly the Baedeker, see Boorstin, op.
cit., pp. 109ff., and Knebel, op cit., pp. 24-26.
is The tendency of the mass tourist to abide by the guidebook was noticed a
hundred years ago by "A Cynic" who wrote in 1869: "The ordinary tourist has
no judgment; he admires what the infallible Murray orders him to admire
.... The tourist never diverges one hair's breadth from the beaten track of
his predecessors, and within a few miles of the best known routes in Europe
leaves nooks and corners as unsophisticated as they were fifty years ago; which
proves that he has not sufficient interest in his route to exert his own freedom
of will." "A Cynic: Vacations," Cornhill Magazine, August 1869, reported in
Mass Leisure, E. Larrabee and K. Meyersohn (eds.), (Glencoe, 111.: Free Press,
1952), p. 285.

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 SOCIOLOGY OF TOURISM 173

The ecological differentiation of the t

rest of the country makes for social sep
travels in a world of his own, surrounde
in, the host society. He meets the repre
establishment - hotel managers, tourist
seldom the natives.16 The natives, in tu
as unreal. Neither has much of an op
individual to the other.

A development complementary to the ecological differentia-

tion of the tourist sphere is the gradual emergence of an inter-
national tourist system, reaching across political and cultural
boundaries. The system enjoys a certain independence and even
isolation from its immediate surroundings, and an internal homo-
geneity in spite of the wide variations between the countries with
which it intersects. The autonomy and isolation can be most
clearly seen in those cases where tourists enjoy some special
facilities that are out of bounds to the members of the host

society, such as spas and nightclubs in Eastern European countrie

serving exclusively foreigners or the Berionka (dollar shop) in the
Soviet Union, which caters only to tourists.
The isolation of the mass tourist from the host society is further
intensified by a general communication gap. Tourist publica-
tions and travel literature are ordinarily written in the spirit of
the tourist establishment - and often not by a native of the
country - whose prime motive is selling, not merely informing
Such literature colors the tourist's attitudes and expectations be
forehand. But probably more responsible than any other single
factor mentioned thus far in creating and maintaining the iso-
lation of the tourist is the fact that he seldom knows the languag
of the country he is traveling in. Not knowing the language
makes forming acquaintances with natives and traveling abou
on one's own so difficult that few tourists attempt it to any extent.
Even worse, it leaves the tourist without any real feel for the
culture or people of the country.
iflBoorstin, op. cit., pp. 91ff.; Knebel, op. cit., pp. 102-104; see also Knebel's
discussion of the primary tourist group, op. cit. pp., 104-106.

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174 SOCIAL RESEARCH

The sad irony of modern institut

stead of destroying myths between
The tourist comes home with the illusion that he has "been"
there and can speak with some authority about the country he
has visited. I would hypothesize that the larger the flow of mass
tourists becomes, the more institutionalized and standardized
tourism becomes and consequently the stronger the barriers be-
tween the tourist and the life of the host country become. What
were previously formal barriers between different countries be-
come informal barriers within countries.

The Noninstitutionalized Forms of Tourism:

The Exlorer and the Drifter

Boorstin's vivid description of the evolution of the aristocratic

traveler of yesterday into the tourist of modern times oversimpli-
fies the issue to make a point. For Boorstin, there exists either
the mass tourist or the adventurer, who contrives crazy feats and
fabricates risks in order to experience excitement.17 Even Kne-
bel's less tendentious analysis postulates little variety in the role
structure of the contemporary tourist. Both writers seem to have
overlooked the noninstitutionalized tourist roles of explorer and
drifter.

While the roles of both the explorer and the drifter are non-
institutionalized, they differ from each other chiefly in the extent
to which they venture out of their microenvironment and away
from the tourist system, and in their attitudes toward the people
and countries they visit.
The explorer tries to avoid the mass tourist route and the
traditional tourist attraction spots, but he nevertheless looks for
comfortable accommodations and reliable means of transporta-
tion. He ventures into areas relatively unknown to the mass
tourist and explores them for his own pleasure. The explorer's

17 Boorstin, op. cit.f pp. 116-117.

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 SOCIOLOGY OF TOURISM 175

experience of the host country, its peo

unquestionably much broader and deep
tourist. He tries to associate with th
speak their language, but he still does
self in the host society. He remains so
viewing his surroundings from an aesth
to understand the people on an inte
drifter, he does not identify with the
to become one of them during his stay
Through his mode of travel, the expl
and artificiality the tourist system im
Paradoxically, though, in his very atte
as a spearhead of mass tourism; as h
interest, he opens the way for more c
tourism, the managers of which are alwa
and unusual attractions. His experien
indicators to other, less adventurous tourists to move into the
area. As more and more of these move in, the tourist establish-
ment gradually takes over. Thus, partly through the unwitting
help of the explorer, the scope of the system expands.
As the tourist system expands, fewer and fewer areas are left
that have mass tourist potential in terms of the traditional kinds
of attractions. Recently, however, the ability of an area to offer
a degree of privacy and solitude has, in itself, become a com-
modity of high value. Indeed, much of the mass tourist business
today seems to be oriented to the provision of privacy per se.
Obviously, mass tourism here reaches a point at which success is
self-defeating.
While the explorer is the contemporary counterpart of the
traveler of former years, the drifter is more like the wanderer
of previous times. The correspondence is not complete, though.
In his attitude toward and mode of traveling, the drifter is a
genuine modern phenomenon. He is often a child of affluence,
who reacts against it. He is young, often a student or a graduate,
who has not yet started to work. He prolongs his moratorium

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 176 SOCIAL RESEARCH

by moving around the world in s

cally different from those he h
sheltered middle-class existence. After he has savored these ex-
periences for a time, he usually settles down to an orderly middle-
class career.

The drifter seeks the excitement of complete strangeness and

direct contact with new and different people. He looks for ex-
periences, happenings, and kicks. His mode of travel is adopted
to this purpose. In order to preserve the freshness and sponta-
neity of his experience, the drifter purposely travels without
either itinerary or timetable, without a destination or even well-
defined purpose. He often possesses only limited means for
traveling, but even when this is not true, he usually is concerned
with making his money last as long as possible so as to prolong his
travels. Since he is also typically unconcerned with bodily com-
fort and desires to live as simply as possible while traveling, he
will travel, eat, and sleep in the most inexpensive way possible.
He moves about on bicycle or motorcycle or hitchhikes rides in
autos, private planes, freighters, and fishing boats. He shares
rooms with fellow travelers he has met along the way or stays
with a native of the area who has befriended him. When neces-
sary, and often when not, he will sleep outdoors. And he will
cook his own meals outdoors or buy food on the street more
often than eat in a restaurant. If, in spite of such frugality, his
money runs out before his desire to travel does, he will work at
almost any odd-job he can get until he has enough to move on.
The particular way of life and travel of the drifter brings him
into contact with a wide variety of people; these usually belong
to the lower social groups in the host society. Often the drifter
associates with kindred souls in the host society. In my study of
a mixed Jewish-Arab town in Israel, I encountered a great deal
of association between drifters and local Arab boys who also
wanted to travel.18

is E. Cohen, "Arab Boys and Tourist Girls in a Mixed Jewish-Arab Community."

International Journal of Comparative Sociology, Vol. 12, No. 4 (1971), pp. 217-233.

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 SOCIOLOGY OF TOURISM 177

An international subculture of drifters

In some places drifters congregate and
of their own. On the shore of the Red Sea in Eilat, Israel's
southernmost port, there is a "permanently temporary" colony of
squatters locally called "beatniks," who drifted there from many
parts of the world. Similarly, the National Monument on the
Dam, in the very center of Amsterdam, serves as a mass meeting
place for young people who flock there from all over Europe and
the U.S.

The drifter discards almost completely the familiar environ-

ment of his home country and immerses himself in the life of the
host society. Moreover, as explained above, the drifter differs
significantly from the explorer in the manner in which he relates
to the host society. The drifter is, then, the true rebel of the
tourist establishment and the complete opposite of the mass
tourist.

Discussion

So far I have formulated a general approach to the sociology

of tourism based on a typology of tourist roles. Here I will de-
velop some implications of this approach and propose several
problems for further research.
The fundamental variable that forms the basis for the fourfold

typology of tourist roles proposed here is strangeness versus

familiarity. Each of the four tourist roles discussed represents
a characteristic form of tourist behavior and a typical position on
the strangeness /familiarity continuum. The degree to which
strangeness or familiarity prevail in the tourist role determines
the nature of the tourist's experiences as well as the effect he has
on the host society.
Initially, all tourists are strangers in the host society. The de-
gree to which and the way they affect each other depends largely
on the extent and variety of social contacts the tourist has during
his trip. The social contacts of the mass tourist, particularly of

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178 SOCIAL RESEARCH

the organized mass tourist, are ex

mass tourist, being somewhat mor
social contacts, but his conventional mode of travel tends to
restrict them to the close periphery of the tourist establishment,
thus limiting their number and their nature. The social contacts
of the explorer are broader and more varied, while those of the
drifter are the most intensive in quality and the most extensive
in quantity.
The extent to which the tourist role is predefined and the
social expectations of it spelled out determines to a large degree
the manner in which tourists interact with members of the host

society, as well as the images they develop of one another. The

mass tourist generally does not interact at all, but merely ob-
serves, and even that from within his own microenvironment.
The explorer mixes but does not become involved. The drifter,
however, often becomes both physically and emotionally involved
in the lives of members of the host society. Here the length
of time spent in one place is as important a determinant of
social involvement as attitude. The drifter, unlike the mass
tourist, does not set a limit beforehand on the length of time he
will spend in any one place; if he finds an area that particularly
pleases him, he may stop there long enough for social involvement
to occur.

Tourism has some important aggregate effects on the ho

ciety, in terms of its impact on the division of labor and o
ecology or the land-use patterns of that society. As the t
role becomes institutionalized, a whole set of other roles and
institutions develop in the host country to cater to his needs -
what we have called the tourist establishment. This development
gradually introduces a new dimension into the ecology of the
host society, as attractions and facilities are created, improved,
and set aside for tourist use. This primary impact of tourism has
important secondary and tertiary consequences.19 Predominantly

is For some of these see J. Forster, "The Sociological Consequences of Tourism/'

International Journal of Comparative Sociology, Vol. 5, No. 2 (1964), pp. 217-227.

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 SOCIOLOGY OF TOURISM 179

agricultural regions may become primaril

culture is driven out by tourist faciliti
turn to tourist services for their living. T
the Austrian Alps are an example. Conv
cultural areas may receive a boost from
agricultural products in nearby tourist re
cultural boom that has occurred in the hi
Costa Brava. Without doubt, the impact
on the culture, style of life, and world-v
tourist regions must be enormous. To my
the problem has not yet been systematically
The explorer and the drifter do not affe
of labor in the host society to the same d
does, and consequently do not have the sa
that society. Their effect on the host soc
sometimes considerable, as I found in my
of drifting tourist girls on Arab boys in a m
It is understood that foreign travel ca
impact upon the traveler himself and, th
country. In premodern times, travelers
means through which knowledge and inn
and information about other countries obtained. How does
the impact vary with the different kinds of experiences yielded
by each type of tourist role, on the tourist himself, and, through
him, on his own society? Is his image of and attitude toward
the host country changed? Is his attitude toward his own society
and his own style of life changed? In what ways? These are
some of the questions that future studies of tourism might be
organized around.
We also know very little about the way preferences for coun-
tries and localities are formulated in the mind of the tourist and
later translated into the ways the tourist system expands or con-
20 A study of this problem is in progress now in the region of Faro in southern
Portugal; this is a backward region in which the sudden influx of mass tourism
seems to have had some serious disruptive effects.

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 180 SOCIAL RESEARCH

tracts geographically.21 I have dealt

in the dynamics of growth of the tou
anisms are undoubtedly at work, su
new attractions to foster mass tourism
land. It might be worthwhile to di
ganic and the induced growth of th
the differential effect of the two mo
ings of the tourist system and the ho
The problems raised in this pape
most general form; any attempt to
have to make use of a comparativ
could be studied comparatively fr
important variables of comparison
between the cultural characteristics of the tourist and the host 22
and the manner in which tourism is embedded in the institutional
structure of the host country.23

Conclusion

Growing interaction and interpenetration between hitherto

relatively independent social systems is one of the most salient
characteristics of the contemporary world. In K. Deutsch's phrase,
the world is rapidly becoming a "global village." No far-off
island or obscure primitive tribe manages to preserve its isolation.
Tourism is both a consequence of this process of interpenetration
and one of several mechanisms through which this process is
being realized. Its relative contribution to the process - in com-
parison to that of the major transforming forces of our time - is
21 This problem is discussed, with reference to the rather special conditions
of Hawaii and other Pacific islands, by Forster, op. cit.
22 w. A. Sutton, "Travel and Understanding: Notes on the Social Structure of
Touring," International Journal of Comparative Sociology, Vol. 8, No. 2 (1967),
pp. 218-223, touches upon this point in a discussion of factors which make for
harmony and tension in the tourist-host encounter.
23 Forster's argument about the differential impact of tourism on a society with
an underdeveloped as against an advanced economy is one example of such an
approach. Another would be to compare the effects of tourism on closed (totali-
tarian) as against open (democratic) societies.

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 SOCIOLOGY OF TOURISM 181

probably minor, though it seems to be i

ism already serves as the chief source of
eral countries, and its scope is growing a
It is interesting to speculate, then, abo
sociological consequences of the increase
for the society of the future. The pic
complex. On the one hand, as the num
grows, the tourist industry will become
nized and standardized. This, in turn, will tend to make the
interaction between tourist and host ever more routinized. The
effect of the host country on the mass tourist will therefore re-
main limited, whereas his effect on the ecology, division of labor,
and wealth of the country will grow as his numbers do. On the
other hand, as host societies become permeated by a wide variety
of individually traveling tourists belonging to different classes
and ways of life, increased and more varied social contacts will
take place, with mixed results for international understanding.24
Like-minded persons of different countries will find it easier to
communicate with each other and some kind of new international
social groupings might appear. Among the very rich such groups
always existed; the fashionable contemporary prototype is the in-
ternational "jet-set." And only recently drifter communities have
emerged in many parts of the world, comprised of an entirely
different kind of social category. The effect of such developments
may well be to diminish the significance of national boundaries,
though they may also create new and sometimes serious divisions
within the countries in which such international groups congre-
gate. Some indication of the emergence of new foci of conflict
can already be seen in the recent riots between drifters and sea-
men in Amsterdam, the hub of the European "drifter commu-
nity."
Finally, the differential impact of tourism on various types of
societies should be noted. As Forster pointed out,25 the impact
24 See Sutton, op. cit.
25 See Forster, op. cit.

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182 SOCIAL RESEARCH

of tourism on a society with an un

might be much more serious than
developed society. As tourism is eag
veloping nations as an important so
voke serious disruptions and cause u
in these societies. The consequenc
seen, but from what we already
tourism it can safely be predicted
ing countries, if not controlled and
stroy whatever there is still left of
ditional ways of life. In this respec
our era might well complete the w
travelers from the West - the conqu

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