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126 culture broker
common thread that runs through many explanations
on cultural tourism. One of the most elegant
of these humanistic definitions is expressed by
Adams simply as `travel for personal enrichment'
�1995: 32). Kneasfsey reflect and expands on this
idea of a search for knowledge �1994: 105). Further,
they express the ideas of development, presentation
and interpretation of cultural resources as an
essential element of tourism. This expression of
cultural tourism as an industry is an important
aspect of the modern understanding of it.
In short, cultural tourism can be defined broadly
as the commercialised manifestation of the human
desiring to see how others live. It is based on
satisfying the demand of the curious tourist to see
other peoples in their `authentic' environment and
to view the physical manifestations of their lives as
expressed in arts and crafts, music, literature,
dance, food and drink, play, handicrafts, language
and ritual.
References
Adams, G.D. �1995) `Cultural tourism: the arrival
of the intelligent traveler', Museum News,
December: 32±5.
Kneasfsey, M. �1994) `The cultural tourism: patron
saint of Ireland?', in U. Kockle �ed.), Culture,
Tourism and Development, Liverpool: Liverpool
University Press.
Williams, R. �1983) Keywords:A Vocabulary of Culture
and Society, London: Fontana.
World Tourism Organization �1995) Report of the
Secretary General of the General Programme of the Work
for the Period 1984±1985, Madrid: World Tourism
Organization.
KEITH DEWAR, NEW ZEALAND
culture see anthropology; cross-cultural study;
culture, corporate; ethnography; sociology
culture broker
The term `culture broker' refers to a person who is
a middleman or a mediator between the destination
culture and the tourist culture. This broker
is a go-between who usually assumes the role of
explaining or selling the indigenous culture to those
visiting the destination. A tour guide, for example,
would be a culture broker, as a person who escorts
tourists to the various villages and sites along the
tour itinerary, and who interprets or explains
what they have seen. A `culture broker', in brief,
describes one culture for the benefit of the
members of another �Cohen 1985).
Tour guides are not the only form of culture
broker. A similar function may be performed by
local intellectuals who write books or articles about
the traditional culture for visitors, or by local
businessmen who conduct seminars or consult for
foreign companies on how to do business in a
culturally alien setting. Further, an English anthropologist,
for example, may write an ethnographic
account of an African culture for consumption by
an English or a Western audience, and in that sense
the writer becomes a form of culture broker who
takes on the task of explaining African culture for
other English people. Journalists, artists, photographers
and travel writers may serve in a similar
capacity.
Tour agencies and governmental bureaus who
select the sites that tourists will visit and who design
the itinerary of the tour are indeed culture brokers,
ones who have considerable power. They not only
select which domestic attractions the tourists will
visit and which sites will be excluded, but by their
overall design of the tour they play a large part in
constructing what the tourists will see of the host
country, and hence the impression of the country
that the tourists bring home with them.
A tour agency or a governmental tourist bureau
may conduct a course or provide guidelines on how
the local guides should conduct themselves when
dealing with select groups of tourists, such as those
from Japan, Italy or Germany. On these occasions
the bureau is a culture broker, assuming the role of
explaining the tourist culture to the local interpreters
of indigenous culture. One may even think
of the process as double-ended or open-ended, for
no one has absolute knowledge of a culture and
there is always the possibility of misunderstanding
and ambiguity. Foreign tourists may be trying to
figure out the local culture with the help of
domestic tour guides, but the guides themselves