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CA N T H E ANTH R OP OL OGY O F T OU R I S M MAK E U S BE T T ER T R AVE LE R S ?
ERVE CHAMBERS
University of Maryland, College Park
Although the deliberate study of tourism is still relatively new in anthropology, we have over the past couple of decades managed to accumulate an impressive amount of research and experience. This article asks whether our inquiries can provide us with any practical knowledge regarding how tourism is conducted. While it has proven difficult to generalize the impacts of tourism upon particular communities, I argue here that our present knowledge can help us develop guidelines for responsible tourism that are more realistic than those that are usually offered. The danger for well-meaning travelers is that they are often encouraged to assume that their motives alone place them above those mass travelers who are so easily criticized for their lack of cultural interest or sensitivity. The anthropological approach to tourism described here suggests that we might be better off if we recognize that our intrusions into the places of others are not really all that different. This article provides some alternative travel tips aimed at creating more aware travelers. Key Words: responsible tourism, tourist behavior, international travel, culture, hospitality
The anthropological study of travel and tourism has progressed considerably over the past couple of decades. We have, for example, moved from a perspec- tive that tended to view tourism as a hugely negativeif not a colonialist intrusion on largely passive host communities to a more balanced perspective that has begun to acknowledge the complex and pervasive nature of touris- tic practices, the conventions and agency of hospitality, and the multiple and sometimes conflicting ways in which tourism is mediated by a variety of stake- holder interests. Anthropologists have also begun, as some of the chapters in this
NAPA Bulletin 23, pp. ????, ISBN ?-??????-??-?.© ???? by the American Anthropological Association. All rights reserved. Please direct all requests for permissions to photocopy or reproduce article content through the University of California Presss Rights and Permissions website, www.ucpress.edu/journals/rights.htm.
volume demonstrate, to explore ways in which they can apply their professional skills to the solution of problems and issues related to tourism development.
Over the past several years, my interest in the applied aspects of the an- thropology of tourism has focused on preparing graduate students in applied anthropology for employment related to tourism. Through the Resource Man- agement and Cultural Process track of the University of Marylands applied program, a handful of students are currently pursuing careers in such areas as heritage tourism development, recreation planning, study abroad programs, and tourism marketing. Together, we have at least begun to identify the skills that are likely to lead to rewarding professional opportunities. But skills alone do not prove the efficacy of anthropological training. How can we link our knowledge and our largely implicit theories of tourism to specific tourism prac- tices? Does anthropology itself teach us anything that is generally useful with regards to travel and tourism?
Unfortunately, applied anthropological training, whether applied to tourism development or to some other area of practical concern, does not always ad- dress questions that are so disarmingly simple and straightforward. We are too often derailed by an approach that emphasizes training practitioners to conduct original research, and to identify themselves primarily as researchers, rather than encouraging students to explore more innovative ways in which they might draw upon existing anthropological knowledge to entertain ca- reers that are more closely related to such activities as planning, training, advocacy, and directly facilitating change. This latter approach to applied training informs much of the work that we are doing with tourism at the University of Maryland. While some of the graduates of the program might well pursue research careers, many others will not, and their contributions will instead be founded on their ability to derive practical insights and guid- ance from our discipline in general, and from the anthropology of tourism in particular.
The more popular model of training applied students to be researchers (i.e., evaluation research, impact assessment, appraisal, etc.) emphasizes the acqui- sition of generic social science research skills. But there is very little pertaining to applied research, including ethnographic methods, that remains distinctly anthropological, and the struggle with this mode of applied training lies in retaining any viable sense of professional identity. On the other hand, the training model that I am suggesting depends upon a close identification with anthropological knowledge. It aims to produce individuals who are able to represent our knowledge in a variety of venuesprofessional anthropologists
