RPTS 601

Tourism-- Objectives & Discussion Questions

Readings

  1. Sears, J. F. (1989). Sacred places: American tourist attractions in the nineteenth century. New York: OxfordUniversity Press.
  2. MacCannell, D. (1999). The tourist: A new theory of the leisure class (3rd edition). Berkeley: University of California Press. [Chapter 1, “Introduction,” pp. 1-16]
  3. MacCannell, D. (1999). The tourist: A new theory of the leisure class (3rd edition). Berkeley: University of California Press. [Chapter 2, “Sightseeing and social structure,” pp. 39-56]
  4. MacCannell, D. (1999). The tourist: A new theory of the leisure class (3rd edition). Berkeley: University of California Press. [Chapter 5, “Staged authenticity,” pp. 91-107]

Objectives

  1. We will understand the stages of sight sacrilization and MacCannell’snotion of authenticity.
  2. We will understand how tourism destinations in the 19th century came to be seen as sacred places.

Discussion Questions

  1. According to James Sears, what factors were necessary for the rise of tourism in the United States?
  2. On page 4, Sears agued, “Tourism played a powerful role in America’s invention of itself as a culture.” What does he means by this? Another author we read this semester made a similar point. Who was it?
  3. On page 5, Sears agued, “Nineteenth-century American tourist attractions assumed some of the functions of sacred places in traditional societies.” What point is Sears trying to make here? That is, in what ways does he suggest early American tourists were like “pilgrims?”
  4. What does MacCannell mean when he says that the tourist “is one of the best models available for modern-man-in-general”? (p. 1).
  5. According to MacCannell, what is the function of tourism today? If you can explain this, you will be in a good position to understand a major premise of his work.
  6. What does it mean that people in post-industrial societies are all tourists?
  7. According to MacCannell, how do sights become authentic attractions? That is, what institutional mechanisms work to create consensus that some attractions are worth seeing?
  8. What are the different stages of sight sacrilization?
  9. How, according to MacCannell, is the tourist world differentiated? What sights or social establishments are potentially tourist attractions?
  10. What is the difference between a front region and a back region?
  11. MacCannell tends to believe that the term, tourist, is a derisive one. Why does he believe this? Do you agree or disagree with him?
  12. What does MacCannell mean by staged authenticity? What are the different stages of authenticity in tourism settings?
  13. How relevant are MacCannell’s ideas to our understanding of tourism and leisure in contemporary life?