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ludic
The ludic aspects of tourism or tourist behaviour
can be best understood through the definition of
play presented by Johan Huizinga in his classic
work Homo Ludens. Play is:
considered as a free activity standing quite
consciously outside `ordinary' life as being `not
serious', but at the same time absorbing the
player intensely and utterly. It is an activity
connected with no material interest, and no
profit can be gained by it. It proceeds within its
own proper boundaries of time and space. It
promotes the formation of social groupings
which tend, among other things, to stress their
difference from the common world by disguise
or other means.
�1950:13)
If tourism, especially sunlust tourism or sun,
sand, sea and sex tourism is considered an
activity where tourists go through a voluntary
spatiotemporal transition from ordinary life to
something that resembles the liminal, and engage
themselves in playful and hedonistic activities in
bounded ritual spaces �resorts), the analogy
between play and tourism comes forth clearly.
When tourists travel to their playgrounds, they not
only cross a mental boundary between the ordinary
and non-ordinary, but they also travel across space
from the context of the ordinary everyday life to
something that lies outside it �see rites of
passage).
Many of those theorising on tourism and tourist
behaviour �including Erik Cohen, Nelson Graburn,
Jafar Jafari and James Lett) seem to propose that in
modern secularised and differentiated societies
tourism as play with its liminoid aspects has taken
over functions that religious rituals with their
liminal aspects had in the relatively undifferentiated
tribal societies. Following this line of
argument, keeping in mind that play is a crucial
part of human culture, it can be understood how
mass tourism to destinations with no traces of
authenticity in the paradigmatic sense of the
word can be rewarding, recreating, uplifting and
even provides deep experience for tourists as they
play this game outside the context of everyday life.
Further reading
ludic 365
Cohen, E. �1985) `Tourism as play', Religion 15:
291±304. �Examines the concepts of play, rites of
passage and liminality in connection to tourism.)
Huizinga, J. �1950) Homo Ludens:A Study of the Play
Element in Culture, Boston: Beacon Press.
Lett, J.W. �1983) `Ludic and liminoid aspects of
charter yacht tourism in the Caribbean', Annals
of Tourism Research 10�1): 35±56.
TOM SELANNIEMI, FINLAND