Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Cultural proximity and equality of wealth are two important dividing lines in the
construction of spatial interaction in tourism (see also Lea, 1988). To what extent do these
qualities make a difference to enclave-related behaviours? What is the relationship between
'ideal proximity' and situational context in tourism? In the case of Bondi Beach, shared
Anglo-American culture and relatively equal wealth of working travellers and the locals
produced
communitas
. In certain Third World situations, or in cases involving ethnicities in
confl ict, the results would almost certainly be completely different.
In backpacker studies, there has been a 'gap' between theory and practice, between back-
packing as an identity and phenomenon (Cohen, 2004; Wilson and Richards, 2008: 10-12).
There is good reason to suspect something similar in tourism studies more generally. Time-
budget studies with a focus on metaspaces and tourist behaviour could be one instrument to
unpack the realities of tourism, often hidden beneath its ideologies and the Otherings involved
(e.g. Welk, 2004; see also Shoval in
Chapter 22
on time budget methodologies). As an
example, do today's independent travellers actually spend less time in metaspatial retreats and
interact more with the local people than beach package tourists? A yet unpublished 2010
time-space budgeting survey among backpackers in South India, with a metaspatial twist, is
going to challenge these expectations (Hottola, forthcoming). The metaspatial behaviours
and temporalities of 'conventional' and 'alternative' tourisms may not be that dissimilar, after
all, as MacCannell (1992) also deducted; and therefore further empirical studies are required
to place these categorisations on fi rmer ground.
