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Tourism culture is a new term emerged not long ago with the quick development of the tourism industry around the world at the turn of the century. Although cultures clash and diffuse all the time, peoples of tourism destinations in today's world have been trying to make their own cultures welcome to alien tourists out of economic considerations. Some adjustments in values or behaviors may be found in those cultures towards better serving the visitors, preserving the local traditions, cooperating with others, or conserving the environment for a sustainable tourism economy. Such clearly defined efforts advance those cultures based on plans, making their courses unavoidably different from that identified as natural by anthropologists. This type of designed culture may be called tourism culture.
Culture is a buzz word in our life, though few of us can state clearly what it is with a few words. There must be some connection and difference between culture and tourism culture. In order to establish a clear understanding of tourism culture, we must first digest the concept of culture.
Culture
The term CULTURE was derived from the Latin word for cultivation, as in the practice of nurturing domesticated plants. Thus, it originally referred to people's role in controlling nature. Its tangible elements are often recognized first, such as language, clothing, food and drink, social structures, behavioral routines, religious traditions, arts, technologies, and geography that circumstances what people can have from the nature.
Culture is also abstract. Philosophically, culture is a basic belief system from which "rational" conclusions spring to orient behavior. This belief system is extremely powerful because it can regulate human endeavors and change a society. We dress ourselves based on our aesthetic ideas. We handle human relations oriented by what we believe is right, ethical, or the most appropriate, which are called values. Any society has some sort of political, economic, and educational systems that are tangible products of the belief system dominating the culture of that society.
In anthropology, culture means the patterns of behavior and thinking that people living in social groups learn, create, and share. It distinguishes one human group from the others. It also distinguishes humans from other animals because only human beings can create and possess culture. Any group of people who share a common culture, particularly common rules of behavior and a basic form of social organization, constitutes a human society.
Cultures take diverse forms across time and space. This diversity is embodied in the uniqueness and plurality of group-society identities of humankind which are conditioned by environments. As a source of curiosity, exchange, innovation, and creativity, cultural diversity is as necessary for humankind as biodiversity is for nature. At the same time, it is a source of misunderstanding and collision between peoples of different cultural backgrounds. Nevertheless, the common heritage of humanity across racial and ethnic groups makes it possible for human beings to communicate across cultural boundaries.
Peoples from different cultures have been seeking communication and exchange of goods and technologies with each other, which has caused cultural diffusion and culture change. Tourism is one of the most popular activities human beings like to do in order to have novel, joyful, comforting, or insightful experiences in other cultures that are distant away. As a consequence, it has long become a profit-making business to attract, entertain, and accommodate strangers from afar. It entails studies on not only leisure and entertainment but also tourism management and tourism culture with hope that a sustainable tourism economy will be maintained.
Tourism and Tourism Culture
Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization (WTO) defines tourists as people who travel to and stay in places outside their usual environment for longer than one day but shorter than one year for any activity. They spend instead of being remunerated from within the place visited, and thus contribute to the local economy.
Tourism business has become vital for the economy in many countries, such as Egypt, Greece, Lebanon, Spain, Thailand, and many island nations, including the Bahamas, Fiji, Maldives, the Philippines, and the Seychelles. The highly developed Western countries, such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Japan, and Austria, and the newly industrialized or rapidly developing countries such as Singapore, South Korea, and China are working hard to develop their tourism industry as an indispensable part of their economies.
Because much of the revenue is from businesses associated with tourism, many countries adjust, even reconstruct, their service industries, such as transportation services, hospitality services, and entertainment venues, to meet a variety of needs. The governments and the communities design and adjust their ways of working and living accordingly. Such effort results in planned changes in the local cultures of tourism destinations. Such changes become societal routines in a long run, bilaterally beneficial for the tourists and the host communities. Thus comes the shaping of tourism culture.
Cultures like the Chinese, the Japanese, the British, and the Mexican ones are shaped long ago. Their developments are gradual and liberal under the influences of environmental factors and various socio-economic and technological dynamics in different times. Considering the full aspects of such cultures, they are not planned, designed, or arranged by people. Their natural courses of development are very long, usually taking thousands of years.
In comparison, tourism culture is a product of careful planning and cultivation in a short period of time. The whole society, including the people and the government, are conscientiously engaged in the endeavor. Tourism culture may be viewed as a more advanced one that is designed and carefully developed with a sole purpose to entertain tourists for the sake of tourism economy. A tourism economy takes advantage of the unique natural and cultural resources of a given country or community for tourist recreation and entertainment for economic benefits.
There are four major characteristics associated with a tourism culture. First, the economic activities in the tourist destination are all oriented to support the tourism industry, and so are the local government and social activities. Second, the natural sceneries or attractions and places of historic figures and cultural heritages are presented in a way to meet tourists' needs for curiosity, beauty, heroism, adventure, religious worship, etc. Accordingly, all recreation and entertainment activities are organized toward that end. Third, people of the host community view tourism businesses and activities as the most important part in their socio-economic life and treat them as such. Fourth, tourists follow local tourism regulations conscientiously and participate in tourist activities that content them spiritually and physically.
Explanations of Possible Difficult Points
1．anthropology：人类学（对人类的研究，尤指研究其起源、发展、风俗、信仰）
2．recreation：娱乐，游憩，玩耍
3．natural scenery or attraction：自然景观
4．places of historic figures and cultural heritage：历史人文景观
5．host communities：接待游客的社区
Questions for Class Discussion
1．What is your understanding of culture?
2．What does tourism mean to you?
3．What are the major things that comprise the tourism industry?
4．What do you know about transportation services, hospitality services, and entertainment venues?
5．Have you ever traveled afar (e.g. 1,000 miles from home)? How do you feel about the culture there?
6．What are the activities to entertain tourists that you know and like?
7．What are your considerations about tourism culture? Do you agree or disagree with the author of this Unit? Why?
8．Have you found, or heard about, any place that possesses a tourism culture? If yes, describe it.
9．What is the major difference between culture and tourism culture?
Homework
1．From above Questions 3, 4, 6, 8, or 9, choose one and write a one-page report on it. You are encouraged to write in English.
2．Read the four articles in the Supplementary Readings of this Unit. Have one question for each, and get ready to lead a discussion on it.
Supplementary Readings
In 1994, the United Nations classified three forms of tourism in its Recommendations on Tourism Statistics:
● Domestic tourism, involving residents of the given country travelling only within this country.
● Inbound tourism, involving non-residents travelling in the given country.
● Outbound tourism, involving residents travelling in another country.
In 2008, there were over 922 million international tourist arrivals, with a growth of 1.9％ as compared to 2007. In 2009, international tourist arrivals fell to 880 million, representing a worldwide decline of 4％ as compared to 2008. The region most affected was Europe with a 6％ decline.
The World Tourism Organization reports the following ten countries as the most visited from 2006 to 2009 by the number of international travelers. When compared to 2006, Ukraine entered the top-ten list, surpassing Russia, Austria and Mexico, and in 2008, surpassed Germany. In 2008, the U.S. displaced Spain from the second place. Most of the top visited countries continue to be on the European continent, followed by a growing number of Asian countries.
In 2009, Malaysia made it into the top 10 most visited countries' list. Malaysia secured the ninth position, just below Turkey and Germany. In 2008, Malaysia was in 11th position. Both Turkey and Germany climbed one rank in arrivals, occupying seventh and eighth positions respectively, while France continued to lead the ranks in terms of tourist arrivals.
Top Ten Countries by Foreign Tourst Receipts, 2007 ©2009 "Ranking America" (http://rankingamerica.wordpress.com)
International tourism receipts grew to US$944 billion (€642 billion) in 2008, corresponding to an increase in real terms of 1.8％ from 2007. When the export value of international passenger transport receipts is accounted for, total receipts in 2008 reached a record of US$1.1 trillion, or over US$3 billion a day.
The World Tourism Organization reports the following countries as the top ten tourism earners for the year 2009. It is noticeable that most of them are on the European continent, but the United States continues to be the top earner.
Leisure Travel. Leisure travel was associated with the Industrial Revolution in the United Kingdom—the first European country to promote leisure time to the increasing industrial population. Initially, this applied to the owners of the machinery of production, the economic oligarchy, the factory owners and the traders. These comprised the new middle class. Cox & Kings was the first official travel company to be formed in 1758.
The British origin of this new industry is reflected in many place names. In Nice, France, one of the first and best-established holiday resorts on the French Riviera, the long esplanade along the seafront is known to this day as the Promenade des Anglais; in many other historic resorts in continental Europe, old, well-established palace hotels have names like the Hotel Bristol, the Hotel Carlton or the Hotel Majestic—reflecting the dominance of English customers.
Many leisure-oriented tourists travel to the tropics, both in the summer and winter. Places of such nature often visited are: Bali in Indonesia, Brazil, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Malaysia, Mexico, the various Polynesian tropical islands, Queensland in Australia, Thailand, and Florida, Hawaii and Puerto Rico in the United States.
Winter Tourism. Major ski resorts are located mostly in the various European countries (e.g. Andorra, Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland), Canada, the United States, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Chile, Argentina, Kenya, and Tanzania.
Mass Tourism. High rise hotels were built across Southern Europe in the 1960s and 1970s to accommodate mass tourism from Northern Europe. It becomes a world-wide phenomenon as is seen in Asia and South America today.
Mass tourism could only have developed with the improvements in technology, allowing the transport of large numbers of people in a short space of time to places of leisure interest, so that greater numbers of people could begin to enjoy the benefits of leisure time.
In the United States, the first seaside resorts in the European style were at Atlantic City, New Jersey and Long Island, New York.
In Continental Europe, early resorts included: Ostend, popularized by the people of Brussels; Boulogne-sur-Mer (Pas-de-Calais) and Deauville (Calvados) for the Parisians; and Heiligendamm, founded in 1793, as the first seaside resort on the Baltic Sea.
Sustainable Tourism. Sustainable tourism is envisaged as leading to management of all resources in such a way that economic, social and aesthetic needs can be fulfilled while maintaining cultural integrity, essential ecological processes, biological diversity and life support systems.
Sustainable development implies "meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs" (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987).
Ecotourism. Ecotourism, also known as ecological tourism, is responsible travel to fragile, pristine, and usually protected areas that strives to be low impact and (often) small scale. It helps educate the traveler; provides funds for conservation; directly benefits the economic development and political empowerment of local communities; and fosters respect for different cultures and for human rights.
Pro-Poor Tourism. The pro-poor tourism to help the very poorest in developing countries has been receiving increasing attention by those involved in development, and the issue has been addressed through either small scale projects in local communities or Ministries of Tourism attempting to attract huge numbers of tourists. Research by the Overseas Development Institute suggests that neither is the best way to encourage tourists' money to reach the poorest as only 25％ or less (far less in some cases) ever reaches the poor; successful examples of money reaching the poor include mountain climbing in Tanzania or cultural tourism in Luang Prabang, Laos.
Recession Tourism. Recession tourism is a travel trend, which evolved by way of the world economic crisis. Identified by American entrepreneur Matt Landau, recession tourism is defined by lowcost, high-value experiences taking place of once-popular generic retreats. Various recession tourism hotspots have seen business boom during the recession thanks to comparatively low costs of living and a slow world job market suggesting travelers are elongating trips where their money travels further.
Medical Tourism. When there is a significant price difference between countries for a given medical procedure, particularly in Southeast Asia, India, Eastern Europe and where there are different regulatory regimes, in relation to particular medical procedures (e.g. dentistry), traveling to take advantage of the price or regulatory differences is often referred to as "medical tourism."
Educational Tourism. Educational tourism developed, because of the growing popularity of teaching and learning of knowledge and the enhancing of technical competency outside of the classroom environment. In educational tourism, the main focus of the tour or leisure activity includes visiting another country to learn about the culture, such as in Student Exchange Programs and Study Tours, or to work and apply skills learned inside the classroom in a different environment, such as in the International Practicum Training Program.
Creative Tourism. Creative tourism has existed as a form of cultural tourism, since the early beginnings of tourism itself. Its European roots date back to the time of the Grand Tour, which saw the sons of aristocratic families traveling for the purpose of mostly interactive, educational experiences. More recently, creative tourism has been given its own name by Crispin Raymond and Greg Richards, who as members of the Association for Tourism and Leisure Education (ATLAS), have directed a number of projects for the European Commission, including cultural and crafts tourism, known as sustainable tourism. They have defined "creative tourism" as tourism related to the active participation of travelers in the culture of the host community, through interactive workshops and informal learning experiences.
Meanwhile, the concept of creative tourism has been picked up by high-profile organizations such as UNESCO, who through the Creative Cities Network, have endorsed creative tourism as an engaged, authentic experience that promotes an active understanding of the specific cultural features of a place.
More recently, creative tourism has gained popularity as a form of cultural tourism, drawing on active participation by travelers in the culture of the host communities they visit. Several countries offer examples of this type of tourism development, including the United Kingdom, the Bahamas, Jamaica, Spain, Italy, and New Zealand.
Red and Dark Tourism. There are many travel destinations around the world which may be called "red" favorites. Among them are the Memorial Wall of Paris Commune in Paris, the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg, Yan-an and Mount Jinggangshan of China, and the Easter Rising Dublin.
One emerging area of special tourism has been identified as "dark" tourism. This type of tourism involves visits to "dark" sites such as battlegrounds and scenes of horrific crimes or genocide. Auschwitz Concentration Camp and the Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre are two of this kind. Dark tourism remains a small niche market, driven by varied motivations, such as mourning, remembrance, education, macabre curiosity, or even creative entertainment. Its early origins are rooted in fairgrounds and medieval fairs.
Agritourism. Agritourism, as defined broadly, involves any agriculturally based operation or activity that brings visitors to a farm or ranch. Agritourism has different definitions in different parts of the world, and sometimes refers specifically to farm stays, as in Italy. Elsewhere, Agritourism includes a wide variety of activities, including buying produce direct from a farm stand, navigating a corn maze, picking fruit, feeding animals, or staying at a bed-breakfast lodge on a farm.
Agritourism is a form of niche tourism that is considered a growth industry in many parts of the world, including Australia, Canada, the United States, and the Philippines. Agritourism overlaps with geotourism, ecotourism, and culinary tourism. Other terms associated with Agritourism are "agritainment," "value added products," "farm direct marketing," and "sustainable agriculture."
Food Tourism. Some people are now heading to distant lands in order to eat historic food or have a culinary adventure. Thus, food tourism comes into being. But how would someone decide where to go, and what to see? It's fairly simple, actually. Tourists should first decide which type of cuisine they would like to try. Start by figuring out which food they love the best and by doing a little research. Then, after the tourist arrives in the city, they should seek the advice of others. Ask the local cab driver or the hotel clerk where the best places are to eat. Don't think that you have to stick to gourmet restaurants. Sometimes the smaller restaurants that are on the side streets are the best places to try traditional cuisine.
To feed the world's gourmet lovers, food festivals are mushrooming from east to west. Beijing duck has long become a must on the tables to feed Western tourists to China, while French bakery is the favorite of many Asians to Paris. Salty mouldy beancurd is a specialty for some vegetarians. Raw, vinegar-and mustard-treated fish is considered healthful. People go to food festivals with friends and family members, enjoying it as part of life's essential.