Dean MacCannell. The Tourist: A new Theory of the Leisure Class

A tourist is one of the best models for describing a modern person. In the 1970s, the understanding of tourism as a hospitality industry was supplemented by the desire to understand the «soul of a tourist», to comprehend the social and cultural changes that led to its spread. Russian analytics is just beginning this process. D. MacCannell's approach to the study of leisure is metacritical, the emphasis is on the differentiation of social structure as a set of differences between social classes, lifestyle, multiple social groups and the mythical representation of the past in the present. Institutional mechanism of tourism: the process of sacralization of spectacle and the corresponding ritual attitude towards it on the part of tourists. Stages of sacralization of spectacle: «naming» (one spectacle is selected from many similar ones and marked as worthy of preservation); «framing and exaltation» (putting the object on display, opening it to visitors and organizing its protection and security); «placing in an ark» (placing a sacred object at a distance inaccessible/unreachable for a tourist/ spectator); «mechanical reproduction» (creation of prints, photographs, models and three-dimensional images of the object); «social reproduction» (groups of people, cities and regions name themselves in honor of famous landmarks). In the book by D. MacCannell, attention is paid to the analysis of landmarks as relationships arising between the spectacle, the marker and the tourist. Often the marker dominates the spectacle, because tourist attractions are plastic: their final form and stability are socially conditioned, the choice is ensured by the quality and features of its marking. From a political point of view, it is important to record two different positions: pro-tourism (tourism as a new way of earning money within the framework of the hospitality economy); and anti-tourism (tourism irrevocably changes/distorts local traditions, and the capital generated by it is «pumped out» by large corporations). The contradiction between the mass character of tourism, the construction of the corresponding experience and the tourists' orientation towards authenticity is interesting: the demonstration of the backstage becomes part of the tourist experience, but the question of the authenticity of the offered content remains open. The most important conclusion of the author of the monograph “The Tourist. A New Theory of the Leisure Class” is an indication of the potential of human solidarity, because a spectacle, a landmark cannot be taken for oneself but can be shared with others. This feature is complementary to another important characteristic of tourism: the experience of getting to know other people forms tolerance and freedom.