Who is a Tourist?: A Conceptual Clarification

Who does not know a tourist? Tourism is so widespread and ubiquitous in our day that there are scarcely people left in the world who would not recognize a tourist immediately. Indeed, the stereotype of the tourist, as the slightly funny, quaintly dressed, camera-toting foreigner, ignorant, passive, shallow and gullible,is so deep-seated that it tends to dominate not only the popular imagery but also some serious writing on the subject.̂ The tourist in our day has become a cultural type with apparently clearly recognizable traits; hence few contemporary sociologists who deal with the subject have bothered to define the tourist role carefully, and some have not even attempted to define it at all.* But the unrefiective acceptance of the common-sensical stereotype of the tourist harbours some inherent dangers. The principal manifestations of contemporary tourism are indeed well-known and easily recognizable; but they do not comprise the whole range of touristic phenomena. Indeed, one of the more interesting features accompanying the contemporary tourist boom is the extraordinary proliferation of diverse forms of tourism, ranging from short excursions to round-theworld trips, from sea-side vacations to veritable expeditions into almost unknown parts of the world, for example Antarctica or Greenland,^ from organized and routinized mass-travel to leisurely, individualized exploration or drifting off-the-beaten-track.*^ In addition to fully-fiedged tourism, there exist many traveller roles which possess a 'touristic component' of varying strength; prominent examples are the Italian or Irish immigrant who pays a visit to the *old country', the young professional engaging in 'touristry', that is in a search for jobs which will give him an opportunity to see the world while working,̂ the pilgrim who combines devotion with some 'religious tourism',^ or the person who 'takes the waters' at a spa, ostensibly to improve his health but actually to enjoy himself.̂ Such a 'touristic component' is also present even in a short pleasure trip,^" an outing or a picnic. Instead of a clearly bounded phenomenon, tour-