defining tourists

8/12/2019 Defining Tourists

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Back of repor t

Defining tourists

Rong Huang

The HELP CETL was part of a national network of 74 CETLs funded by HEFCE to reward

excellence in learning and teaching and to promote educational research. The HELP CETL was

funded [2005-2010] to support higher education (HE) in further education (FE) development. It

built on the existing excellence of the UPC partnership within the South West region and

sought to work with individuals, groups and institutions in the development of HE in FE

practice.

The UPC Faculty was established in 2003 and supports a network of 19 partner institutions

delivering higher education to students in their local area. Provision has grown to more than

9,500 students in 2008. Those studying on Foundation Degrees also have the opportunity to

progress to the University of Plymouth where they can progress to an Honours Degree.

Development Activities within the HELP CETL

The Development Activity strand was introduced to take forward the strategic priorities of

UPC, funding projects ranging from short studies with a small number of participants to large

scale work stretching over more than one academic year. This resource was developed for this

strand.

The University of Plymouth Colleges (UPC)

Higher Education Learning Partnerships (HELP)

Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL)


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Defining Tourists

Dr. Rong Huang

These learning materials have been prepared with the following in mind:

1 Links to Subject Benchmarks

The nature and characteristics of tourists

Explain and challenge theories and concepts which are used to understand

tourism

Explain and challenge the definitions, nature and operations of tourism

2 Links to modules

Level 1 Introduction to Tourism;

Level 2 Regional Tourism

LEARNING OUTCOMES

After reading these learning materials and answering the questions, students should

be able to:

Understand the domestic and international nature of tourists

Explain and challenge typologies which are used to understand tourists.
http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/pages/dynamic.asp?page=staffdetails&id=rhuanghttp://www.plymouth.ac.uk/pages/dynamic.asp?page=staffdetails&id=rhuanghttp://www.plymouth.ac.uk/pages/dynamic.asp?page=staffdetails&id=rhuang


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OVERVIEW

These materials attempt to define tourists. However, the task of defining tourists is not as

easy as it may appear. Within most tourism books, articles now assume either a standard

definition or interpretation of the concept of tourism, which is usually influenced by the

social scientists perspective (i.e. geographical, anthropological, sociological approach orother disciplines). They are not only from the micro approach which concentrates on the

tourist as an individual, but also from the macro approach which considers the extent which

tourist types are socially constructed.

These materials firstly define tourists from both technical and also conceptual aspects. Then

they summarise some of the main contributions about defining tourists from the social

scientists perspective. A summary for these materials is also followed.

TOURISTS DEFINED:

Many authors (Cooper, et al., 2005; Ritchie et al., 2003; etc) have pointed out that one of the

problems that students of tourism studies face is that there is no commonly accepted

definition of the tourist and tourism. Van Harssel sets a useful context with the following:

It is difficult, and perhaps misleading, to generalise about tourism and tourists. We

lack a commonly accepted definition of tourism partially because of the complexity

of tourist activity and partially because different interests are concerned with

different aspects of tourist activity. (1994:3)

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first appearance of the term tourist in the

English language was in the late eighteenth century, and it was used as a synonym for

traveller. Thus, the meaning of tourist during this early period of time was neutral. Yet

while this neutral meaning is still current, by the middle of the nineteenth century, tourist

had acquired a negative connotation, as against the term traveller that contains the

positive meaning. The tourist, as opposed to the traveller, not only became associated with

mass forms of travel but also with a particular mentality or approach to the travel

experience. In effect, high culture, the culture of the traveller, saw itself as the polar

opposite of low culture, the culture attributed to the tourist (Rojek, 1993), a distinction

immortalised, perhaps, by Henry James description of tourists as vulgar, vulgar, vulgar (cited

from Sharply, 2003). While he may have despised tourists and the tourist industry in general,

this aversion never stopped James from visiting foreign countries. In fact, by the time of his

death in 1916, he had published numerous travel books--Portrait of Places(1883),A Little

Tour in France(1884), English Hours(1905), Italian Hours(1909)--which chronicled his trips

throughout Europe and America. James's disgust with "vulgar" tourists, combined with his

own touristic forays, suggests a seemingly contradictory position. That is, James often tookon the identity of the tourist which he so despised, while concurrently attempting to

distinguish himself from the mob of his fellow travellers. The boundary that James


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attempted to construct separating himself (as travel writer) from other tourists was

employed by numerous authors.

However, such distinctions are normally self-imposed labels (Sharpley, 2003); nevertheless,

the discussion of the definition of the tourist below will take a neutral meaning. That is, it is

used in a totally neutral sense to describe a person who was touring for the purpose ofpleasure or leisure.

While an all-embracing definition of a tourist is desirable, in practice tourists present a

heterogeneous, not a homogeneous, group with different personalities, demographics and

experiences. In an historical context, Medlik (2003) identified the historical development of

the term tourism, noting the distinction between the endeavours of researchers to

differentiate between the technical and conceptual definitions of a tourist. So the following

section critically discusses tourists from both aspects of definitions.

Technical Definitions of Tourists

From a technical pointof view, attempts to define tourist have been led by the need to

isolate tourism trips from other forms of travel. They have evolved through time as

researchers modify and develop appropriate measures for statistical, legislative and

operational reasons implying that there may be various technical definitions to meet

particular purposes. The following is a typical example of the World Tourism Organisation

(WTO) definition as amended in 1993 which is now widely accepted:

The temporary visitors staying in a place outside their usual place of residence,for a continuous period of at least 24 hours but less than one year, for leisure,

business or other purposes

(World Tourism Organisation, 1993)


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International

tourist

A visitor who travels to a country other than that in which

he/she has his/her usual residence for at least one night

but not more than one year, and whose main purpose of

visit is other than the exercise of activity remunerated

from within the country visited

International

excursionist

A visitor residing in a country who travels the same day to

a country other than that in which he/she has his/her

usual environment for less than 24 hours without

spending the night in the country visited and whose main

purpose of visit is other than the exercise of an activity

remunerated from within the country visited

Domestic tourist Any person, regardless of nationality, resident in a country

and who travels to a place in the same country for not

more than one year and whose main purpose of visit is

other than following an occupation remunerated from

within the place visited. Such a definition includes

domestic tourists where an overnight stay is involved and

domestic excursionists who visit an area for less than 24

hours and do not stay overnight

Table 1: Based on the above definition of tourists, the WTO develops a series of relevant

definitions Source:WTO, 1991

These technical definitions demand a person has to pass certain tests before they count as

tourists. Such tests include the following:

Minimum length of stayone night (visitors who do not stay overnight are

termed day visitors or excursionists)

Maximum length of stayone year

Purpose of visit categories


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A distance consideration is sometimes included on the grounds of delineating

the term usual environment

However, such technical definitions are all-encompassing, more or less counting everyone

who travels (with the exception of paid workers, migrants etc.), and often dismissed by some

academics of tourism studies as not catching the essential features of the tourist.

As Rojek and Urry (1997) say:

One response to those who point to the problematic nature of tourism as a theoretical

category is to seek to operationalise it but the problem with this is that it ignores whether

these stays have in any sense the same significance to visitors. Another response to the

problematic character of tourism is deliberately to abstract most of the important issues of

social and cultural practice and only considers tourism as a set of economic activities.(Rojek and Urry, 1997: 2)

Conceptual Definitions of Tourists

According Medlik (2003), the conceptual definition of tourism refers to the broad notional

framework, which identifies the essential characteristics, and which distinguishes tourism

from similar, often related, but different phenomena. As this kind of definitions is usually

influenced by the social scientists perspective, therefore next, these materials critically

summarise some of the main contributions about defining tourists from the social scientists

perspective.

KEY LITERATURE FOR UNDERSTANDING TOURISTS

John Urry (2002) argues that making theoretical sense of fun, pleasure and entertainment

has proved a difficult task for social scientists. But many scholars have made contributions to

the understanding of tourists not only from the micro approach (Cohen, 1974, 1979a,

1979b; Plog, 1977; Urry, 1995, 2002; Coleman and Crang, 2002; Crouch, 1999, 2002), but

also from the macro approach (MacCannell, 1999, 2001; Poon, 1993; Urry, 1995, 2002). This

section summarises some of the main contributions to the understanding of tourists.

One of the earliest attempts to distinguish between different types of tourists was made by

Gray (1970) who coined the terms sunlustand wanderlusttourists. Sunlust tourists are

resort based and motivated by the desire for rest, relaxation and the 3Ss, whereas

wanderlust tourists are based on a desire to travel and to experience different peoples and

cultures. As the two terms imply, sunlust and wanderlust are essentially categorisations

based upon the purpose of the trip. Since then a number of typologies, concentrating on the

tourists themselves, have been developed. Some of these concentrate on tourists behaviour

whilst others adopt a more socio-psychological approach.


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Cohens typology of tourists (1974, 1979)One of the earliest and best known is Erik Cohens (1974) tourist typology which was the first

to propose a typology of tourists based upon sociological theory (Sharpley, 2003). This is

showed in Table 2.

Organise

d mass

tourist

Highly dependent on an environmental bubble created, supplied and

maintained by the international tourism industry. Characterised by all-

inclusive, fully package holidays. Familiarity dominates; novelty non-existent

or highly controlled.

Individual

mass

tourist

These will use the institutional facilities of the tourism system (scheduled

flights, centralised bookings, transfers) to arrange as much as possible before

leaving home; perhaps visiting the same sights as mass tourists but going

under their own steam

Explorer The key phrase here is off the beaten track perhaps following a destination

lead given by a travel article rather than simply choosing from a brochure.

They will move into the bubble of comfort and familiarity if the going gets too

tough

Drifter This type of tourist will seek novelty at all costs; even discomfort and danger.

They will try to avoid all contact with tourists. Novelty will be their total

goal; spending patterns tend to benefit immediate locale rather than large

companies

Table 2: Cohens tourist typology (1974) Source: adapted from Sharpley (2003)

Cohen develops his typology of tourists on the basis of their relationship to both the tourist

business establishment and the host country. All tourists can be located along a familiarity-

strangerhood continuum, they travel in an environmental bubble; importantly, however not

all tourists are equally constrained by this bubble (Sharpley, 2003; Urry, 2002). Progressing

from the familiarity to the strangerhood position, four different types of tourist are

identified.


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Image 1: These tourists are on an excursion on the Amazon River. Source: photo by Howdy

Howard, published in Saved by Bedbugs (2004

What type of tourist are they, using Cohens classification?

However, Cohens typology does not allow for variable tourist behaviour over time; the

implication is once an explorer, always an explorer; whereas tourists frequently take

different types of holiday from one year to the next or even within a year (see coming

learning materials on factor affecting tourism demand). Also, his categorisation is based on

observable tourist behaviour but gives no indication of the reason for that behaviour.

Building upon his earlier work in distinguishing between different types of tourist, Cohen

addresses some of the inherent weaknesses of his typology in his phenomenology of tourist

experiences (Cohen, 1979). Recognising that tourism is a multi-dimensional phenomenon,

Cohen proposed that a micro approach is equally valid in developing an understanding of

different tourist types and roles (see Table 3 below), concentrating not on observed

behaviour but on different desired tourist experiences.

Recreational Whose centre is located in the home society seeks recreational experiences

and has little or no interest in learning about or experiencing the society and

culture in which the recreational experience is taking place

Diversionary Although alienated to an extent from his or her own society, the individual

does not seek authentic experiences elsewhere. In a sense, the purpose of a

holiday or trip is to temporarily forget about home

Experiential The modern, alienated individual who seeks authentic experiences

elsewhere. Although seeking to experience alternative cultures and societies,

they neither identify with them nor reject his or her own society. The trip


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thus compensates for the lack of authenticity in the home life to which the

tourist inevitably returns.

Experimental Seeking to relocate his or her centre but lies midway between the centre at

home and an identified centre elsewhere. Authenticity is essential but they

does not become totally immersed in any one culture

Existential Alienated from their home society, their centre is firmly located elsewhere,

and becomes fully immersed in the local, foreign culture and society, finding

meaning and belonging in the new chosen centre

Table 3; Cohens typology of tourist (1979)

His starting point is to ascertain where the spiritual centre of the individual tourist is

located; different individuals identify with and accept (to a greater or lesser extent) their

home culture and society. Based upon this, Cohen identifies the above five categories of

tourist experience. But Cohens typology still does not allow for the different needs or

requirements of an individual tourist. Nor is it based on any empirical research. It is a

theoretical categorisation within which different tourists may be located but, as with other

typologies, it considers tourists per se rather than in their broader social context.

Plogs psychocentrics and allocentrics

Stanley Plog (1977) coins the terms allocentric travellers (referring to those who actively

seek out the exotic or untouched destinations) and psychocentric types (who are not risk-takers and tend to go to well-established tourist destinations). In between the two extremes

lie the categories of near-psychocentric, mid-centric and near-allocentric. Mid-centrics, the

most used category, take their holidays in places, which offer the experience of a new yet

sufficiently similar culture. This whole approach comes under the framework of

psychographics, where people are categorised according to life-style, self-image, attitudes

towards life and social institutions etc. However the problem with attempting to link tourist

type with destination in this way is that it is a static model.


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Image 2: : This image contains a "Field Guide" for New Yorkers to spot the different

types of tourists they're likely to spot roaming the streets of Manhattan thissummer.From left to right: The German Free Spirit, The Midwestern Dad, The

Upscale Italian Tourist, The Japanese Hipster Chick, and the Lesbian Thrill seeker. So

what kind of categories does New York belong to according to Plogs typology?

Source: Time Out New Yorks Tourist Issue

On the other hand, the parameters of each category of tourist may also change or become

vague. For instance, as technology develops rapidly, and long haul flights become more

available and more destinations are packaged, then psychocentrics

might be found travelling to destinations that, according to Plogsmodel, would normally

attract allocentrics. Thus, there is a real problem for Plogs model in practice (Sharpley,

2003). Indeed, Smith (1990) tests the model against a number of different countries and

finds that the results do not support Plogs contention that destination choice could be

predicted according to personality types.

Urrys tourist gaze (1990, 2002)

In the history of Western societies, sight has long been regarded as the noblest of the

senses. According to Jay (1993) sight has been viewed as the most discriminating and

reliable of the sensual mediators between people and their physical environment. There can

be little doubt that the visual component of tourism, sightseeing, is a major element in

tourist consumption. In 1976, MacCannell wrote: sightseeing is a ritual performed to the

differentiations of society (1976:3); a formulation which was later developed in Urrys

(1990) metaphor of the tourist gaze. In Urrys The Tourist Gaze,the fundamentally visual

nature of the tourism experience was analysed (Urry, 1990). Gazes organise the encounters

of visitors with the other, providing some sense of competence, pleasure and structure to

those experiences. The gaze demarcates an array of pleasurable qualities to be generated

within particular times and spaces. In The Tourist Gaze, Urry (1990) draws out the

distinctions between tourists in terms of desired experiences as romantic and collective,

and generates the forms shown in the following Table 4


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perspectives address tourism as engaged through discussions emerging from notions of

performance (Coleman and Crang, 2002). Being a tourist is to practice, as Crouch (2002)

argues that the tourist is considered in terms of mental and physical reflexive practices,

where the individual participates as a multi-dimensional human being, the individual

emerges as a subject, as an active (but not free) agent doing tourism. He goes further to

emphasise that tourism is considered in terms of the tensions between holding on andgoing further in terms of the self. For a start, it does not reduce tourism to images that

cover or obscure, but allows us to be sensitive to the practices through which tourism

occurs.

According to Crouch (2002) tourism as an embodied practice emphasises a collective,

combined way in which space is practised: touching, smelling, hearing, tasting and seeing.

This is a very informative and a welcome enlargement of analysis beyond the familiar two-

dimensional detachment of the gaze onto scripted surfaces by a non-involved bystander.

Vision is not sensed and made sense of separately from other senses but in interrelation and

tension with them. Even vision becomes more complex than the gaze would suggest. Gazing

at particular sights is inflected by all sorts of other visual as well as multi-sensual

awareness. However, although tourism as an embodied practice has a profound influence

in the tourism field, and is very informative and a welcome enlargement of analysis, it also

seems to make less clear who tourists are.

The above tourist typologies or arguments are from the micro approach. But from a

sociological point of view, a typology of tourists should be based upon both a microanalysis

of tourists themselves, and a macro structural approach which locates actual tourist

behaviour and experiences with a broader social context. Therefore, it is necessary to

consider some socially determined tourist typologies.

Sharpley (2003) argued that when a structural perspective is applied to the analysis of

tourists, it becomes evident that categories of tourists emerged which have more to do with

the values of society as a whole towards to tourists, rather than with the behaviour or

lifestyle of individual tourists. There are several following contributions:

MacCannells authentic experience searching tourists

The first comprehensive attempt to approach tourism from the perspective of the social

sciences was provided by Dean MacCannells book The Tourist(1976). This book effectively

opened up tourism to a more generalised and theoretically informed analysis than had

previously been the case. He disagrees with Boorstinsaccount who describes tourists have

become passive onlookers who travel in organised groups, enjoy contrived, pseudo-events.

He regards Boorstins arguments as reflecting a characteristically upper-class view that

other people are tourists, while I am a traveller (MacCannell, 1999).


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All tourists for MacCannell embody a quest for authenticity, and this quest is a modern

version of the universal human concern with sacred places. The tourist is a kind of

contemporary pilgrim, seeking authenticity in other times and other places away from the

persons everyday life. Of central importance to the consideration of the authenticity of

tourist experiences is the notion of staged authenticity (MacCannell, 1999). In other words,

he argues that although tourists may believe they are witnessing authenticity, in fact,tourists experiencing only what local people or the tourism industry are allowing him to see.

MacCannells concept of staged authenticity is based upon the work of Goffman (1959) who

divides the structure of social establishments into what he terms as the front region (where

the social interaction takes place, where hosts meet guests or where servers attend to

customers) and back region (where members of the home team retire between

performances to relax and to prepare).

In adapting Goffmans work to tourist setting, MacCannell (1989:101) proposes that there

are six different stages on from the front to the end as follows:

Stage one (Goffmans front region): the setting which tourists attempt to penetrate or get

behind; Stage two: although it is still in a front region, this stage has been given the

superficial appearance of the back region by, for example, having wine racks on display in a

restaurant; Stage three: this stage is still firmly embedded in the front region but it is totally

organised to resemble a back region; Stage four: moving into the back region, tourists are

permitted to see this stage. For example, tourists may be taken into the workshops to see

the production process of local goods; Stage five: this is a back region to which tourists are

occasionally permitted entry such as the flight deck on an aeroplane; Stage six: this isGoffmans back region, the ultimate goal of the tourist but one which is rarely, if ever,

reached.


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Image 3; What characterises this image as an example of staged authenticity?

Source:www.northamptonshire.co.uk

As far as MacCannells tourist is concerned, he/she embodies a quest for authenticity, and

this quest is a modern version of the universal human concern with the sacred. The tourist is

a kind of contemporary pilgrim, seeking authenticity in other times and other places away

from the persons everyday life.

But the logic of MacCannells argument is that, increasingly, the back regions are put on

show and staged. In this sense, tourism is a genre error where one group is staged for the

entertainment of another (Coleman and Crang, 2002). Such transformation from the back to

the front may change and perhaps threaten the very authenticity sought in the first place. So

we might say that MacCannells idea of the tourist as a modern figure questing for authentic

knowledge fits academic opinion rather better than empirical evidence of tourists

behaviour, including examples from international student life experience.

Old tourists & new tourists

There is a type of tourist that has emerged from the present concern for the five key forces

of change which created mass tourism in the first place: this is the so-called new tourist

(Poon, 1993). He summarised the differences between old and new tourists as shown below

in Table 5:

Old tourists New tourists

Search for the sun Experience something different

Follow the masses Want to be in charge

Here today, gone tomorrow See and enjoy but do not destroy

Just to show that you had been Just for the fun of it

Having Being

Superiority Understanding

Like attractions Like sports

Precautious Adventurous

Eat in hotel dining room Try out local fare

Homogeneous Hybrid

Table 5: Old and new tourists compared

This kind of new tourists recognises that the solution to the undoubted problems caused by

tourism lies not only in new approaches in the development, planning and management of

tourism, but also in the adoption of more appropriate behaviour on the part of tourists

themselves. These new tourists are conversely asked to work at tourism: and thus to adopt
http://www.northamptonshire.co.uk/http://www.northamptonshire.co.uk/http://www.northamptonshire.co.uk/http://www.northamptonshire.co.uk/


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fundamentally different approaches and interpretations of the tourism experiences as mass

tourists.

However, this typology still does not allow variable tourist behaviour over time. Possibly,

over a short period of time, tourists can change between old tourists and new tourists. So it

is not surprising Wheeler (1992) argued old and new tourist differentiation is nothing but anattempt to attach an explorer/drifter image to certain tourism products and to develop a

niche market for aware tourists. It is no more than a marketing ploy, a green mantle

(Wheeler, 1992).

The Post Tourists

Lash and Urry (1994) argue that capitalism moved through a series of historical stages:

liberal, organised and disorganised. Each of these appears to be associated with a particular

dominant configuration of travel and tourism. These are set out below, together with the

patterns identifiable in pre-capitalist to disorganised capitalist societies, in Table 6.

Stage Configuration

Pre-capitalism Organised exploration

Liberal capitalism Individual travel be the rich

Organised capitalism Organised mass tourism

Disorganised capitalism The end of tourism

Table 6: Capitalism, tourism and travel

According to the above connection, it may be argued that tourism and tourists have come of

age. In other words, the distinction between the traveller and the tourist is, in fact, no more

than a manifestation of the first two stages in the evolution of travel and we have now

reached the third stage, the era of the post tourist (Feifer, 1985). Firstly, the post-tourist

finds it less and less necessary to leave home; technologies now allow people to gaze on

tourist sites without leaving home. Secondly, tourism has become highly eclectic; a pasticheof different interestsvisiting sacred, informative, broadening, beautiful, uplifting, or simply

different sites. The post-tourist simply has a lot more choices. Thirdly, the post-tourist

recognises and understands the fundamental change that has occurred in the nature of

tourism. Armed with a mass of information and images, the post-tourist knows that it is no

longer possible to experience authenticity because nothing is new. Tourism has become a

kind of game, or rather a whole series of games with multiple texts and no single, authentic

tourist experience (Urry, 1990) and the post-tourist understands the role he or she plays in

that game. Sometimes they choose to be a mass tourist, sometimes an independent

traveller and sometimes not to be a tourist at all; and accept the conditions and constraints

of each role. Above all, the post-tourist is aware of being a tourist, of being an outsider, not

a time traveller when he goes somewhere historic; not an instant noble savage when he


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stays on a tropical beach; not an invisible observer when he visits a native compound (Feifer,

1985).

For the post-tourist then, the traveller/tourist dichotomy is irrelevant. The traveller has

matured and evolved into an individual who experiences and enjoys all kinds of tourism,

who takes each at face value and who is in control at all times. In effect, the post-touristrenders tourist typologies meaningless.

SUMMARY

These learning materials have introduced the conceptual issues associated with the study of

tourists, highlighting some of difficulties which students and researchers need to be aware

of when attempting to define tourists. Different attempts which have been made by tourism

scholars to create typologies of tourists from both micro and macro approaches. From thediscussion above, it appears that developing a tourist typology that incorporates a multi-

dimensional approach might be proved to be impossible. However, given the limitations of

existing typologies, locating tourists in a social context seems to provide a clearer picture

and better explanation of tourist roles, contributing to a better understanding of the

demand for tourism. It also provides the foundation for a more detailed analysis of tourist

behaviour.


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MULTIPLE CHOICE:

1. According to Medlik (2003) observation, definitions of tourists provided by different

researchers can be differentiate between:

(A)technical and conceptual definitions

(B) theoretical and practical definitions

(C) scientific and non-scientific definitions

(D)eastern and western definitions

2. According to the WTO (1993), the following requirement does not need to be

considered for a person to be called a tourist:

(A)Minimum length of stayone night

(B) Maximum length of stayone year

(C) Purpose of visit categories

(D)A distance consideration

3. According to Erik Cohens (1974) tourist typology based upon sociologicaltheory,

which choice does not belong to his typology?

(A)Organised mass tourists

(B) Individual mass tourists

(C) Explorer

(D)New tourists

4. According to Plog (1977), allocentric travellers refer to

(A)Those who actively seek out untouched destinations

(B) Those who go to well-established tourist destinations

(C) Those who go to Las Vegas(D)Those who enjoy man-made parks such as Disneyland


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5. According to John Urry (1990), what characteristics does romantic gaze have?

(A)Communal activity; series of brief encounters; glancing at and collecting of

different signs

(B) Solitary; sustained immersion; gaze involving vision, awe, aura

(C) Solitary; sustained immersion; scanning and active interpretation

(D)Communal activity; series of shared encounters; gazing at the familiar

6. In adapting Goffmans work to tourist setting, MacCannell (1989) proposes that there

are different stages from the front to the end. How many stages did he propose?

(A)4

(B) 6

(C) 7

(D)8

7. According to Poon (1993), tourists can be differentiated as

(A)Mass tourists and independent tourists

(B) Explorers and backpackers

(C) Old tourists and new tourists

(D)International tourists and domestic tourists

8. In the following statements, which statement does not relate to new tourists?

(A)Experience something different

(B) Want to be in charge

(C) See and enjoy but do not destroy

(D)Search for the sun

9. According to Lash and Urry (1994), which type of tourists does fit in organised

capitalistic societies?

(A)Organised explorers


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(B) Individual travellers

(C) Organised mass tourists

(D)Post-tourists

10.Whose tourist typology is from a macro approach to defining tourists?

(A)Plog

(B) Cohen

(C) Poon

(D)World Tourism Organisation


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Answers: (1) A (2) D (3) D (4) A (5) B (6) B (7) C (8) D (9) C (10) C

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Demonstrate your understanding of the domestic and international nature of tourists

with examples

2. What are drawbacks to use technical definitions of tourists?

3. What are advantages and disadvantages of using tourist typologies?

4. What are key researchers and research which contribute to the understanding of

tourists?

5. Present your understanding of post-tourists with examples from your own country

FURTHER READING

Sharpley, R (2003) Tourism, Tourists & Society, 3rd

edition, Huntingdon: ELM Publications


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REFERENCES

Cloke, P. and Perkins, H (1998) Cracking the Canyon with the Awesome Foursome:

representations of adventure in New Zealand, Environment and Planning D: Society and

Space16

Cohen, E. (1974) Who is a tourist? A Conceptual Clarification, Social Research, Vol. 39(1),

pp164-182.

Cohen, E. (1979a) A Phenomenology of Tourism Experience, Sociology, Vol. 13, pp179-201.

Cohen, E. (1979b) Rethinking the Sociology of Tourism,Annals of Tourism Research, Vol.

6(1), pp18-35

Coleman, S and Crang, M (eds.) (2002) Tourism: between place and performance, Oxford:

Berghahn Books

Crawshaw, C and Urry, J (1997) Tourism and the photographic eye, in Rojek, C and Urry, J

(eds.) Touring Cultures, London: Routledge, pp. 238256

Crouch, D (1999) (ed.) Leisure/Tourism Geographies: Leisure Practices and Geographic

Knowledge, Routledge, London

Crouch, D (2002) Surrounded by place: embodied encounters, in Coleman, S and Crang, M

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Target Audience

This resource was developed for HE and HE in FE professionals and students engaged in

tourism and hospitality.

The content has four key audiences:

HE and HE in FE academic and support service practitioners engaged in level 1 and 2

modules in tourism and hospitality; HE and HE in FE academic staff involved in curriculum design;

Students and staff looking for learning materials linked to QAA subject benchmarks for

hospitality and tourism.

Contact

University of Plymouth Colleges

University of Plymouth

Drake CircusPlymouth

PL4 8AA

tel: +44 (0) 1752 587500

email:[email protected]

web:www.plymouth.ac.uk/upc

If you require any part of this report in larger print please contact:Disability ASSISTTel: +44 (0) 1752 587656Email:[email protected]
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.plymouth.ac.uk/upchttp://www.plymouth.ac.uk/upchttp://www.plymouth.ac.uk/upcmailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.plymouth.ac.uk/upcmailto:[email protected]

defining tourists

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