Tourism as a Cultural Phenomenon

Tourism is global phenomenon that has evolved tremendously in the past century. These transformations have depended on and benefited from the emergence of Western Capitalism and capitalist economies (Chambers 2010: 15). Initially restricted to the tourism of the “preserve of elites” (Urry 1991: 4) the “Grand Tour” has over time become an easily accessible universal experience, defining the characteristics of the modern man and consequently is the “largest industry in the world” (Urry 1991: 5). Although the prevalence of tourism in modern society is obvious, the motivation of modern tourists from a cultural and social phenomenon is not. Apart from its accessibility, what motivates the modern mass tourist to leave its area of familiarity? The study of modern mass tourism from this cultural and social perspective has been studied and analyzed on economical, behavioural and social structuralist perspectives, by multiple social and anthropological actors. this essay will examine the multiple reasons and perspectives that certain actors have taken regarding the emergence of tourism as a modern phenomenon. Using the insight of Urry, the overlapping feature of each perspective will ultimately present the “key feature” underlining the mass tourist industry. The modern ‘mass society tourist’ emerged partly from mans increased facility of travel brought by the emergence of the middle class and “increased awareness of the outer world” (Cohen 1972: 165) brought by better means of communication and air travel. This does not imply that before the emergence of mass tourism no one traveled out of his or her area of familiarity. Travel shifted from simply expeditions of trade and exploration to tourism with the “closer association to the ideals of leisure and recreation” (Chambers 2010: 10) in the eighteenth century phenomena of the European Grand Tour which continued to develop until it became a popular for mass groups This historical shift from ‘individual traveler’ to the

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