The Consumption of Tourism - Tourism and Development: Concepts and Issues - page 371

the more recent trend towards adventurous, individualistic forms of tourism
all reflect broader cultural change in society as a whole.
However, the nature of the tourism-culture relationship has changed over
time. During the 19th century, tourism and culture were largely in opposi-
tion. That is, contrasting with 'the bourgeois culture with its concerts, muse-
ums, galleries, and so on' (Urry, 1994), tourism for the masses was centred
upon the rapid development of seaside resorts as places - separated in time
and space from the tourist's 'normal' existence - of 'ritualised pleasure'
(Shields, 1991). Conversely, throughout the 20th century, up to the 1970s,
tourism practices came to reflect cultural change more closely. In particular,
the emergence of a modernist culture based upon Fordist mass production/
consumption (i.e. where consumption was production-led) was manifested
in the development of mass forms of tourism and the ubiquitous mass pack-
age holiday. Nevertheless, tourism as a social activity remained separate or
differentiated from other social activities and institutions, with specific
times and places (the holiday, the resort) distinct from 'normal' time and
place. More recently, however, this differentiation between tourism and
other practices has, arguably, become less apparent. 'Tourism is no longer a
differentiated set of social practices with its own and distinct rules, times
and spaces' (Urry, 1994); rather, it has merged into other places (e.g. urban
tourism) and other social activities, such as shopping or watching television,
that were previously considered separate from tourist places and behaviour.
Indeed, it has been suggested that people are tourists most of the time and
that tourism has simply become cultural.
Thus, the tourism-culture relationship has evolved through two dis-
tinct stages. First, throughout most of its development, tourism has been
separated from other social activities and institutions, reflecting broader
distinctions in social class, employment, gender roles and so on. Even
tourism itself has been subject to differentiation with, for example,
different resorts or activities becoming associated with different social
groups. However, more recently, tourism has now entered a second, 'de-
differentiated' (Lash, 1990: 11) stage of development, reflecting the emer-
gence of similarly de-differentiated economic, political, social and cultural
processes that have been collectively referred to as the condition of postmo-
dernity (Harvey, 1990). As a result, it is suggested by some that tourism
practices in particular have also become postmodern. Not only has tourism
fused with other social activities, representing the 'marriage of different,
often intellectual, spheres of activity with tourism' (Munt, 1994: 104), but
also a variety of 'postmodern tourisms' have also emerged - though no
causal relationship between postmodern culture and tourism practices has
been established. Nevertheless, such 'postmodern tourisms' include theme
parks, heritage tourism and inland-resort/holiday village tourism whilst,
in the extreme, it is claimed that tourists themselves have become
postmodern - the 'post-tourist' (Urry, 1990b).