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140 demonstration effect
Further reading
The Implications of America's Changing Demographics and
Attitudes on the U.S. Travel Industry �1989), Washington
DC: Discover America Implementation
Task Force.
demonstration effect
MARK J. OKRANT, USA
The arrival of tourists in growing numbers at a
destination will have many social, cultural and
economic effects on host communities. Within
those communities, some may wish to imitate the
behaviour of tourists. Such imitation is known as
a demonstration effect. It implies that the new
behaviours are seen as desirable by at least some
sectors of the host community.
The term demonstration effect is closely linked
to acculturation, which can be defined as
cultural change initiated by the interaction of
two or more cultural systems. However, imitation is
but one aspect of acculturation. The attendance of
local youths at discos in a developing world holiday
resort may be an example of a demonstration
effect where Western pop music and dance is
enjoyed, but the change in behaviour where local
people withdraw some features of their cultural life
from public view is part of a wider process of
acculturation.
An understanding of demonstration effects
requires consideration of why some behaviours
are imitated and not others, who imitates them,
how they are learned and to what extent tourism is
a cause of imitation. Research has indicated that
there are a number of determining factors,
including the strength of the host culture and its
flexibility and responsiveness to new influences, the
homogeneity of that culture and its acceptance by
all members of the host community, the gap
between the cultures of the host and those of the
tourists, the contact situation, the type of social
interactions that result from contact situations,
the respective economic power relationships between
host and guest, the motivation of both
tourist and host, the level of exposure of the
former to other sources of influence besides
tourism, and the role of tourism entrepreneurs
and their staff.
Early work by anthropologists in tourism concentrated
upon the impacts of tourism on developing
countries' societies and viewed the
relationship as being one of dominance±
subordination. In the first edition of Smith's book,
Hosts and Guests �1977), many case studies related
change to the impact of tourism alone. However, in
the second edition �Smith 1989) there is a much
greater recognition of change emanating from nontourist
sources. Indeed, Smith indicates that
changing practices among Inuit peoples in Alaska
that she first attributed to tourism may in fact have
been due more to welfare policies and the growth
of extractive industries �1989: 75±7).
Other research has sought to more carefully
delineate the original practice and separate the
behaviour from the reason for that behaviour. For
example, in Sri Lanka there was growing evidence
that pilgrims were using transistor radios as a
source of entertainment, and this was initially
thought to be due to tourists' influence. It was
argued that the solemnity of the pilgrimage was
being undermined. Subsequent analysis showed
that, like Chaucer's pilgrims, there had long been a
tradition of frivolity. Thus the culture of the Sri
Lankan pilgrimage utilised a new means to achieve
old ends of fun.
Another growing realisation since the original
work undertaken on tourism±host impacts is that
host communities are not always homogeneous;
indeed, one of the functions of cultural organisation
is to find ways of providing legitimate means of
conflict solution. Intergenerational differences are
not uncommon, and thus tourist development
may be used by the young to more clearly
demarcate differences so as to obtain their own
ends. Of particular significance is the demonstration
effect caused by female Western tourists in
some societies. These females can develop careers
and economic independence, and the sight of such
female tourists can reinforce other Western processes
of corporatisation and education in creating
changing expectations by females of the host
community.
Another factor that determines the nature of the
demonstration effect is the number of tourists.
However, opinions differ as to how this might cause