Stereotypes and Professional Reflections on Mass Tourism: Focusing on Tour Operators, Mass Tourism Destinations and Mass Tourists
Mass tourism is a historically significant phenomenon. For decades, it has been a source for stereotypes within academic research and in public discussions. This study addresses stereotypes of mass tourism by giving voice to travel agents and tourist guides working for mass package tour operators. T...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Université des Antilles
2015-12-01
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| Series: | Études Caribéennes |
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| Online Access: | http://journals.openedition.org/etudescaribeennes/7609 |
| Summary: | Mass tourism is a historically significant phenomenon. For decades, it has been a source for stereotypes within academic research and in public discussions. This study addresses stereotypes of mass tourism by giving voice to travel agents and tourist guides working for mass package tour operators. They were asked to comment and reflect on the statements about phenomenon in which they are working. The Finnish socio-cultural context is discussed as well as the positionality and contextuality of the interviewees. In total, 20 interviews were conducted. The results show that there is no one way to understand these stereotypes: Both professional groups contextualized and scaled the universalist statements in multiple ways. In tourism research, more attention should be directed at how the categorization of mass tourism is done as a discursive practice and what kinds of effects it has to the theory and practice. |
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| ISSN: | 1779-0980 1961-859X |