Theories of
Tourism
What is tourism?
• Temporary travel for pleasure
• World’s largest industry
• Involves nearly everyone as either “host” or “guest”
• Involves movement across space and is concerned
with place
• Tourism presupposes its opposite: work
• A global social system?
Tourism and identity
• Tourism shapes our worldview
• We may make judgments based on a single experience
of a place, e.g.:
o India—“dirty and impoverished”
o California—“crowded and polluted”
o Italy—“romantic and stylish”
o Hawai’i—“tropical paradise”
