Abstract
The tourist has become the symbol of a peculiarly modern type of inauthenticity. This paper explores the criticisms that have been directed at the “reality experiences” of the tourist. In so doing, the following inexhaustive typology of “touristic realities” is developed: 1) the first-order or “true tourist,” 2) the second-order or “Angst-ridden tourist,” 3( the third-order or “anthropological tourist,” and 4) the fourth-order or “spiritual tourist.” Each of these types represents a progressively more intense search for “reality” through travel. Each is, however, criticized for participating in its own form of inauthenticity.
After exploring the “reality experiences” and criticisms of each of these travellers, the paper turns the tables on the “cultured despisers” of tourism to argue that perhaps the lowly first-order tourist is not so inauthentic after all. True, this traveller may not be having a “real” heroic adventure, but such is not the goal. Rather, the reality experienced by the first-order tourist is a pleasurable liberation from the normal concerns of everyday life which simultaneously reaffirms commitment to that reality. Quite frequently the first-order tourist is less concerned about having a “real” experience in the visited place than in experiencing family and friendship relationships-relationships completely ignored by the “anti-touristic tourists” in their search for authenticity in someone else's “reality.”
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The author would like to thank Peter L. Berger, Harry C. Bredemeier, Warren I. Susman, and M. Kathy Kenyon for their comments and suggestions on earlier versions of this paper. This research was supported in part by NIMH grant no. 5 T32 NH14660.
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Redfoot, D.L. Touristic authenticity, touristic angst, and modern reality. Qual Sociol 7, 291–309 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00987097
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00987097