Anthropological contributions to tourism studies

What have we learned since anthropologists first realized that tourists alter the societies they study? Intended for non-anthropologists, this paper explores this question and critiques the hegemony of business perspectives in tourism studies. It discusses tourism as a complex and fluid set of phenomena that cannot be reduced to one dimension, highlighting five points: (1) Tourism is one of the names of power. (2) The complex nature of tourism cannot be understood without studying socio-cultural processes. (3) The socio-ecological processes that construct territory determine and are determined by social space. (4) The industries of seduction create a corpus of desires through which socio-cultural groups forge their own identity. (5) Anthropological studies allow researchers to propose alternative forms of tourism development.