1. Nicola Valentini
WHAT DOES ANTHROPOLOGY
CONTRIBUTE TO TOURISM?
Tourism is intrinsically multidisciplinary and draws elements from numerous academic fields.
Following the Tribe’s scheme about the creation of tourism knowledge, we can see that the
tourism field is made up of two sub-fields. If one field is readily identifiable as tourism business
studies, the other, which is more difficult to classify, consists in little more than just the rest of
tourism studies. Here we find anthropology of tourism.
The relationship between socio-cultural anthropology and tourism has been difficult.
Anthropologists tended to ignore tourists during their fieldwork and disregarded the seriousness
of tourism research. In Tristes Tropiques (1955), Claude Lévi-Strauss described travel and tourism
as the causes of the “shrinking” of the world and the consequent emergence of a form of
“monoculture”. If it is true that the approach has changed since then, the process has not been
without problems. The majority of anthropologists focused their attention on tourism in Third
World Countries. In particular, they studied processes of acculturation involving “more developed”
Western peoples and “less developed” Native peoples. Obviously, the unbalanced power
relationships between hosts and guests and the rapid change experienced by the communities
living in the destinations have, in many occasions, created inevitable social problems. This
situation has lead many anthropologists to view tourism as a form of imperialism and to assume
that all tourism involves a dominant-subordinate relationship. This approach does not take into
consideration that in the majority of international touristic contacts there is no dominant-
subordinate relationship.
Today, it does seem that the anthropological regard for tourism has moved beyond this initial
stage towards a holistic view of the phenomenon, where no “standard” moral responses are
present. Jafari (1990) defines this stage of tourism studies “knowledge based platform”, in which
the main goal is the formation of a scientific body of knowledge on tourism. Thanks to this new
approach anthropology can effectively contribute to tourism. By now, the research has tried to
understand two principal phenomena:
 the origins and motivations of tourism;
 the tourism’s impacts in the destinations.
The first point concerns the reasons why people do decide to travel for leisure. Anthropology
contributes to the understanding of the different (or same?) origins of tourism in different cultures
and societies. It can help destination managers and local governments develop an offer able to
satisfy the needs found in the most relevant generator markets. It could be especially important
having a deep knowledge about the motivations of tourists from a specific country before taking

2. the decision to invest a significant amount of money to diversify the offer and promote it to that
market.
Tourism’s impacts are the positive and negative consequences of the industry on the host
societies and the resulting changes in their cultures and ways of living. We have already seen as
for decades the negative consequences generated by tourism in developing countries have been
the major focus in tourism anthropology. Nowadays, almost all peoples and cultures of the world
have to face the change brought about by tourism. Anthropologists can contribute to the tourism
industry foreseeing the outcomes of different tourism development projects. It is not an easy task
since all cultures can show different levels of resilience against the impacts of a specific tourism
product. Moreover, the researcher has to isolate the consequences of the tourism industry by the
ones of other drivers of change (e.g. mass medias). It is necessary in order to better understand
the role played by tourism in the economic and social transition lived by that particular people.
The personal transition of tourists during their travels has been another interesting field of
research for many anthropologists.
In 2001 the anthropologist Amanda Stronza stressed that in such a situation “the problem is that
most studies aimed at understanding the origins of tourism tend to focus on tourists, and most
research concerning the impacts of tourism tend to focus on locals”. But during the course we
have seen as anthropology, thanks to ethnographic study in the field and other sources of
information, can contribute to the analysis of the relationships between the tourist and the service
provider, the host and the guest, the tourist and other tourists, etc.. Analysing the concept of
glocal ethnography, we have also seen how ethnography permits a better comprehension of the
relationships between the local and global (and national and regional) levels and the influences of
the latter on the former. Tourism is a multi-scaled reality and for this reason the focus of the
researcher has to be as broad as possible.
An example of how tourism is a complex field for ethnographic research is the “backpacker
phenomenon”, which is taking place in Australia. Thousands of young people from Europe and Asia
are travelling to that country looking for a working holiday experience. In many cases, the young
holidaymakers are in a subordinated position in respect of the wealthy hosts and this create an
awkward situation, far from the most traditional ones. People from different countries (cultures)
share the room and other facilities in low-cost hostels and work shoulder-to-shoulder in farms and
pubs. It creates an interesting set of relationships where the cultures of the guests have to live
together while adapting themselves to the Australian one. When the working period ends,
backpackers usually go on a proper holiday. It would be interesting to notice if their behaviours
are similar to the ones of “traditional” tourists or if the experience is able to change their
relationship with the destination. And also, are they perpetuating the imperialist model while
visiting the neighbouring Bali and Thailand?
Thanks to this and other trends ethnographers will have plenty of new opportunities in the future.
Tourism is continuously changing. Destination managers are trying to find brand-new solutions in
order to diversify their offer and gain advantage on the competitors. Another important driver of

3. change is the willingness to obtain more sustainable forms of tourism. Anthropology can play an
active role in planning sustainable development programmes and I think it is still the crucial role of
anthropology in tourism. In my opinion, its most important contribute to the field are the new
perspectives thanks to which it is now clear the importance of reaching sustainable economic
results through the empowerment of local communities, empowerment able to transform them
into development actors and beneficiaries.
Bibliography
 NASH D., 1996, Anthropology of tourism, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Bingley (UK)
 STRONZA A., 2001, Anthropology of tourism - forging new ground for ecotourism and other
alternatives
 SALAZAR N.B., 2010, From local to global (and back): Towards glocal ethnographies of
cultural tourism. In Cultural tourism research methods. G. Richards and W. Munsters, eds.
Pp. 188- 198. Wallingford: CABI;
 WILSON J., RICHARDS G., 2008, Suspending reality: an exploration of enclaves and the
backpacker experience