Tourist culture

A pronounced diasporic identity became clear only from the 1960s, in a New Order environment which made it not only acceptable but essential for each suku to proclaim a simplified short list of ethnic markers. Museums and theme parks have exhibited ethnic culture, the latter in particularly essentialised forms, while the push for tourist dollars has legitimated rituals, dress, music and house styles once denounced as primitive , un-Muslim, un-Christian and anti-national. Meanwhile the destruction of the Left removed the main pragmatic enemy of aristocratic and conservative culture, and the depoliticisation of national life shifted ethnic competition to cultural and economic domains (Kipp 1993 109-14 Pemberton 1994 152-81). 

In the depoliticised atmosphere of Suharto s Indonesia, cultural competition occupied some of the space which the robust politics of the 1950s and 1960s had left vacant. For urban Bataks seeking their place in the Indonesian sun, this could not be represented by the village cultures from which they had escaped. New cultural simplifications had to be devised, sanitised and rendered attractive to serve their competition for a place in urban and national life. The tourist gaze sometimes helped clarify and justify the package of new identity-markers, but it was the Indonesian competition that defined them. 

While it is appropriate to record the special efforts of local colleagues there are also wider influences contributing to the enthusiasm for writing about this area. Colleagues in the Unites States, notably Joe O Leary and Alastair Morrison, have been good friends, interested observers and at times partners in the author s work. A set of colleagues in Asia, the United Kingdom, Europe and Africa have helped the author maintain an interest in the usefulness and diverse applicability of tourist behaviour across cultures. 

The topic of tourist behaviour depends upon, interacts with, and occasionally determines other components of tourism. Tourist behaviour is powerfully connected to and often contingent upon marketing activities it strongly shapes the wellbeing of many small businesses, and it can generate considerable socio-cultural and environmental impacts. These influences should not, however, be extended too far. Tourist behaviour is indirectly connected to tourism issues such as globalisation and localisation it influences only peripherally major financial decisions on infrastructure investment and as a specific topic it attracts relatively little attention in governmental policies. 

Home (1992) has argued for the development of the tourist role in terms of there being a new style of intelligent tourist - one who appreciates the culture and history of the places visited. Similarly, and working within the tradition of sustainable tourism studies, Swarbrooke (1999a) has outlined the basic role responsibilities of the tourist and the extra role responsibilities of the sustainable tourist. The role prescriptions are presented in Table 2.1. 

This conceptual scheme, rooted in the works of anthropologists, has particularly strong appeal when tourist behaviour involves cross-cultural encounters which are challenging and which occur in novel settings. The threshold approach appears to be less applicable (but is potentially still of... 

Age Gender Nationality Additional demographic factors expenditure occupation education Accommodation used Activity participation Destination patterns Length of stay Trip purpose Distance travelled Travel party composition Seasonality/ travel time Travel arrangements independent package mixed Transport mode Cultural tourists heritage tourists ethnic tourists Nature oriented tourists wildlife tourists ecotourists Adventure tourists Educational tourists science tourists volunteers Theme park tourists Casino tourists Urban tourists Agricultural tourists wine tourists farm tourists Sex tourists romance tourists companionship tourists Business tourists conference tourists events tourists... 

Nationality is a widely used demographic descriptor in tourism studies. It is sometimes an observable characteristic with physical appearance, clothing styles, and tour party characteristics providing identifiable markers of nationality. Like age, nationality is often used by tourism researchers as a proxy or substitute variable. In particular, it is often used as an indicator of the cultural allegiance or roots of the tourist. Nationality is sometimes measured, although not very accurately, by establishing the tourists country of residence. 

For many researchers, including tourist researchers, nationality acts as a proxy or substitute construct for other fundamental concepts. In particular cultural differences interest a vast array of researchers (Ward et ah, 2001). The traditions of interest here include work by sociologists, anthropologists, linguists and cross-cultural psychologists (Gudykunst et ah, 1992 ... 

This chapter will also develop and extend the analysis of tourists behaviours within the dynamics of social situations. The influence of cultural factors that shape social responses will also be considered. 

One subdivision within the general theme of tourists social contacts is that of contacts that involve contrasting cultures. Many of the general concerns and relationships already outlined in this chapter prevail in situations involving culture contact but there are some additional processes, outcomes and conceptual schemes for elucidating culture contact. 

The diverse contributions to what is now simply referred to as culture shock highlight the complexities of the concept. For the traveller, particularly the traveller moving across time zones into altered daylight and weather conditions, there are assaults on the body s immune system and functioning. A rich travel medicine literature has now developed and is replete with dramatic example of the difficulties faced by some tourists. 

By introducing the notion of sincerity, experiences in culture may be stripped of the temporal connotations implied by the concept of authenticity. Instead they become tied to selves in the present, both local and tourist. (Taylor, 2001)... 

The tourist and resident collaborate in forging identities, assembled from bits and pieces of real and imagined cultural heritages. .. emphasis is on the creative and negotiated nature of culture as opposed to a given and static conception of it. (Salamone, 1997 313)... 

The central theme of authenticity and its social negotiation has been pursued in this chapter mainly in relation to cultural settings. In this natural-environment example the quest for authenticity is transmuted into the experience and appreciation of naturalness. Wildlife in their natural environment, behaving naturally, were key responses of all post-visit tourists. The ability to observe wildlife at close quarters reiterates the theme that quality encounters matter. This line of thinking is consistent with the view expressed earlier in this chapter that authenticity is devolving into more specific and localised concepts in accounting for tourists on-site experiences. 

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