The Consumption of Tourism - Tourism and Development: Concepts and Issues - page 375

This highlights the fact that, frequently, tourism is a social experience,
an element of which is 'to be able to consume particular commodities in the
company of others. Part of what people buy is in effect a particular social com-
position of other consumers' (Urry, 1990a: 25). In this sense, tourism provides
the focus for people to socialise or to fulfil a more 'performative, reciprocal'
role in entertaining each other (Holt, 1995: 9). Thus, tourism in resorts such
as Agia Napa in Cyprus may be consumed not primarily for the attraction of
the clubs and bars in the town, but for the communal enjoyment of those
facilities and the contribution to the social atmosphere of the resort.
Equally, tourism may be a means of sharing unusual or extraordinary
experiences; the communal interaction with the consumption object allows
tourists to commune or experience communitas (Arnould & Price, 1993), the
sense of which may be heightened by the collective sharing of challenging or
dangerous experiences. In either case, however, the focus is on the communal,
social nature of the consumption experience rather than the object of
consumption. That is, the actual holiday or destination is of secondary impor-
tance to the shared experiences that such holidays or destinations provide.
Consuming as integration
According to Holt (1995: 2), consuming-as-integration is an instrumental
action through which consumers are able to 'integrate self and object, thereby
allowing themselves access to the object's symbolic properties'. The object
becomes a constituent element of their identity through a process of assimi-
lation, either by merging external objects into their self-concept, or by adapt-
ing their self-concept to match the socially or institutionally defined identity
of the object.
In the tourism context, integration is automatic given the inevitability,
as with all services, of tourists' participation in the production of tourism
experiences - the inseparability of the production/consumption of tourist
services means that the tourist-consumer must integrate into the object of
consumption. However, much depends upon the nature or direction of inte-
gration desired by the consumer. On the one hand, a tourist who wishes to
be identified with a particular destinational culture or type of tourism may
adapt his/her self-concept to 'fit' the identity of the destination or tourism-
type through a process of assimilation into the local/tourist culture or
through personalisation practices (Holt, 1995). This may be achieved by
utilising local services or travelling independently, or adopting modes of
behaviour that are deemed appropriate to particular forms of tourism or
travel. On the other hand, certain types of tourism or tourist experience may
be integrated into the individual's self-concept in a process of self-extension;
for example, Arnould and Price (1993) analyse white-water rafting as one
such form of touristic activity that enables personal absorption and integra-
tion, providing communitas and personal growth/renewal.