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things/events/places/narratives become goods or
services, predominantly known for their exchange
value. Under commercialisation in tourism, folk
art, rituals, ceremonies and sites lose original
cultural meaning as they are commoditised �see
commoditisation) and rendered for commercial
consumption.
commissary
KEITH HOLLINSHEAD, UK
A commissary is a centralised kitchen or food
production unit serving a number of food service
outlets. Such centralisation achieves economies
of scale and lowers unit costs. Originally food was
transported hot, but increasingly cooked items are
chilled, frozen or vacuum-packed to ensure safe
handling �see ready prepared system). This
system is found in airline catering, social catering
and other settings in tourism.
See also: food service, contract
commoditisation
PETER JONES, UK
Commoditisation is the process of making available
for purchase or barter cultural productions which
include material objects, events and performances,
or even people and ways of life. In the context of
tourism analyses, this term has usually been used
not just for items which are ordinarily for sale �such
as airline tickets or camera film), but particularly
for the sale of items which are not normally or
originally designed for trade. Thus, commoditisation
has a pejorative connotation, especially when
applied to cultural patrimony, sacred performances,
child labour, sexual services, or rare and
endangered species. When such items are reproduced
endlessly for money and are sold cheaply,
the process may be called trinketisation, Disneyfication
or McDonaldisation �see commercialisation).
Appadurai �1986) shows how objects and
performances embedded in traditional societies
are usually only available for consumption through
commoditisation 91
inherited rights, kinship or religious relations, or
caste or ethnic status. They may be acquired or
enjoyed through gifts or hospitality, mutual
exchange, noblesse oblige or sumptuary laws. He
shows that in some cases, and increasingly through
economic acculturation, they may move into
`commodity status' �that is, they become available
for sale to anyone who has the money, regardless of
status and prior relationships). Thus the social
fabric is strained by commercial transactions
superseding prior arrangements. Appadurai also
shows that commodities can also move back from
this to other status; for instance, the Elgin Marbles
from the Parthenon, which were purchased in the
early nineteenth century by the British from the
Turkish rulers of Greece, are now treated as objects
of world heritage which Greece cannot
repurchase at any price.
The most celebrated case of the corruption
brought about by commoditisation is Greenwood's
�1989) account of the Spanish government's
attempt to rearrange for mass tourism the
annual performance of the Basque nationalistic
celebration, the alarde. The proposal that the
ritual be performed twice, in front of paying
tourists sitting in specially erected stands or
bleachers, so upset the Basque townspeople that
they nearly refused to go through with it. Some
thought they should, as actors, be paid. A contrary
case occurred when an impresario suggested to the
authorities in Sienna that they perform their city's
annual inter-ward horse race, the Palio, in a
number of Italian cities each summer; to which
they replied `We do not perform the Palio, we live
it!'
Much as it suits the moralistic and nostalgic
leanings of Western analysts who tend to see
money and commerce as automatically corrupting,
most detailed studies of tourism settings show that
all change has complex outcomes and that this
industry is rarely the sole or even the prime factor
in economic change. Cohen �1988) has shown
that authenticity is not antithetical to
commercialism and that it may co-exist, be
modified or assume new forms in modern touristic
situations. It has been commonly found that
commercial modifications of objects for sale or
performances for viewing may stem further decline
or loss of interest, may stimulate new creativity, or