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Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press,
55±82.
Stonequist, E.V �1937) The Marginal Man, New
York: Scribner.
marker
DAVID J. TELFER, CANADA
There have been several efforts to construct
general theoretical models of the tourist experience
�MacCannell 1976; Urry 1990). MacCannell
links his theory of tourism to general semiotics,
positing a correspondence between the attraction
and the semiotic signified, and the marker as
`signifier'. In restricted usage, `marker' refers to the
signage and informational plaques found at a place
visited by tourists. Examples would include the
brass plaques on famous old houses, the signs on
the cages at zoos which give the names of the
animals in the cage, and perhaps some additional
information about their behaviour, habitat and
the like. Tourists do not necessarily arrive at
destinations knowing everything they might know
to make their experience meaningful and interesting.
The quality of their experience is in part a
function of the ways tourism settings are marked.
Too much information can detract from the object
that is marked. Too little can impoverish the
experience. The aesthetics of marking itself can
alter the entire experience.
MacCannell expanded the use of marker to
refer to all material which makes reference to a
destination, whether this is found on-site or offsite.
The fame of an attraction �such as the Eiffel
Tower) is a function of the quantity of its off-site
markers. The power of world-class attractions
stems from the fact that they are the subject of a
huge proliferation of textual and visual images
ranging from amateur photos in family albums to
being the backdrop for novels and major motion
pictures �like Mount Rushmore in Hitchcock's
`North by Northwest'). This proliferation of images
is usually not commercially driven by a particular
agency responsible for promoting the attraction. It
happens outside the framework of focused entrepreneurial
activity, having many sources, most of
which seem incidental, but it is crucial to the drive
behind sightseeing which is a collective human
activity even if the sightseers are not organised by
anything except the perceived fame of the places
they visit. The huge proliferation of off-site markers
establishes the tourists' desire to visit a major
attraction, to see it for themselves. Thus, attractions
which have achieved fame naturally act as
magnets for commercial attractions and set up the
situation in which the tourists may discover lesser
sights for themselves.
The act of sightseeing is technically a `marker±
sight±marker transformation'. When they are
finally in the presence of the sight, tourists
exchange previous markers for actual experience;
when they leave, they now possess markers of their
own in the form of a memory, a story, a photograph
or a souvenir. Thus, the act of sightseeing is a key
part of the formation of collective experience and a
collective conscience in societies which have grown
to the point where it is no longer possible for
everyone physically to get together. At least everyone
can `get together' in principle, one tour group
at a time, at the most sacred attractions and have a
`common memory' thereby.
See also: advertising
References
MacCannell, D. �1996) The Tourist:A New Theory of
the Leisure Class, New York: Schocken Books.
Urry, J. �1990) The Tourist Gaze:Leisure and Travel in
Contemporary Societies, London: Sage.
market
market 373
DEAN MacCANNELL, USA
In an everyday sense, the term `market' is often
associated with its historical past as a place where
traders meet buyers to exchange their wares.
Developments in electronic communications �see
computer reservation systems; global distribution
systems) have meant that markets no
longer need to be physical settings for trade to take
place. Thus economics uses the market concept to
mean a system by which goods and services are
exchanged between buyers and sellers. This would
include such powerful global networks as the