You there! With hash-tags on all your travel posts, sharing pictures of your huge ass backpack and other travel kits / gadgets, continuously to pride yourself as an adventurous backpacker.. hmm.. really? are you sure you are one? What kind of a tourist are you? Leiper (1997) suggested that a tourist’s behaviour involves a search for leisure experiences from interactions with features or characteristics of places they choose to visit. Key literature in understanding tourists are of Urry’s, Cohen’s, Plog’s, Coleman and Crang’s, Crouch’s, MacCannell’s and Poon’s and the earliest attempt was made by Gray (1970) where the terms sunlust for resort based tourists and motivated by the desire for rest, relaxation and the 3S’s and wanderlust for tourists with the desire to travel and to experience different people and cultures were coined (Huang). However, Cohen believed that ‘the tourist’ does not exist as a type because different kinds of people may desire different modes of touristic experiences. You are an organized mass tourist when you go for an arranged trip which everything is booked and arranged prior the trip and that all you have to do then is just to participate in the group trip and to be guided by a specific itinerary to be followed. This typology of tourists proposed by Cohen is based upon sociological theory because an organized mass tourist would be highly dependent on an ‘environmental bubble’ created, supplied and maintained by the international tourism industry, novelty non-existent or highly controlled familiarity domination and characterized by all-inclusive or fully package holidays. So no, if you find yourself in this category, you are definitely not a backpacker. Another early typology by Cohen which I must emphasize on is the individual mass tourist. It was said that individual mass tourists will use the institutional facilities of the tourism system (scheduled flights, centralized bookings, transfers) to arrange as much as possible before leaving home; perhaps visiting the same sites as mass tourists but going under their own steam. Hence, although that you conducted the trip on your own, or even few friends, planned everything by yourself, went to places / destinations and used the services which are developed and ran specifically for the mass tourists, you are no more than an individual mass tourists. So no, you are still not an adventurous backpacker hehe. Boorstins theory on the tourist is quite interesting as it is stated that tourists only experience pseudo-events (Cohen, 1988). With the rise of online population and social media junkies, I personally feel that the hash-tags (#) of being #backpackers #adventurous and #travel are somewhat abused... Boorstins theory on tourists and pseudo-events is that, tourists are actually experiencing nothing but fake representations of the real world by the tourism industry. These pseudo-events are constructed to enhance ones travel experience and truly that was what the tourists seek for. The irony is that most of these self proclaimed backpackers truly believe that they are that adventurous and daring to be traveling with just a bag pack while the reality is that they are going to highly promoted destinations, by commercial transportation and just purchasing cheaper lodging services which all are used to accommodate mass tourists too. Nothing against the said group, but one must remember that the tourism industry is more of a social phenomenon and not just a money-making industry. And the fine line between tourism and authenticity which MacCannell has discussed is the biggest question after all. Although Cohen has argued that authenticity does not matter to the post modern tourists, still, a question to ponder on is; how genuine is our travel experience? And as for me, as a tourist I am more of the near-psychocentric or even a psychocentric, which the two are of Plog (1977) coined terms on tourist typologies (Choibamroong, 2006). I am not really a risk-taker and I tend to go to well-established tourist destinations as I somehow value my comfort and I usually will always go to places which share almost the same characteristics as mine (culture, environment, et cetera). Also, financial constraints have a huge influence in my decision-making hence I would choose highly promoted places where I know I would be able to purchase the experience easily with a smaller cost. There are many more types of tourists however, as mentioned are the main ones that I would like to point out and relate to. Also, another fact that must not be missed is, being a human where our beliefs and attitudes would inevitably change, I believe that we would definitely move from a typology to another typology of tourists over time. But yes, remember to not be so perasan.. :D So yeah, really? What kind of a tourist are you? :p
Posted on: Fri, 11 Jul 2014 09:37:43 +0000
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