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determinants of brand choice, situational factors
and intentions).
Research into consumer behaviour is particularly
important in the tourism industry, and much
progress in this respect has been made. This has
assisted in product design, destination development
and marketing, among other things. Consumer
behaviour research draws from the
disciplines of psychology, sociology and economics.
Such research studies consider the effects
of many variables such as motivation, personality,
attitudes, culture and lifestyle upon consumers'
buying behaviour.
Further reading
Churchhill, G. �1987) Marketing Research:Methodological
Foundations, 4th edn, Hinsdale, IL: Dryden
Press.
Kinnear, T. and Taylor, J. �1987) Marketing Research:
An Applied Approach, 3rd edn, New York: McGraw
Hill.
Kotler, P. �1994) Marketing Management:Analysis,
Planning and Control, 10th edn, Englewood Cliffs,
NJ: Prentice Hall.
mass tourism
ROGER CALANTONE, USA
Mass tourism refers to the steady stream of large
numbers of tourists to holiday destinations. This
movement began to develop in the 1960s, with
growing affluence, longer holidays and cheaper
transportation in and from industrialised countries.
Initially, this tourist flow visited sun, sand, and
sea destinations. Much of it was seasonal �for
example, Mediterranean resorts in summer and
the Canary Islands and the Caribbean in winter).
Some, like Hawaii, remained popular throughout
the year. Since the 1980s, more frequent holidays,
inexpensive package tours and growing interest
in cultural tourism, nature-based tourism,
and sextourism has influenced this pattern.
There is now an increased tourist volume heading
to Mediterranean, Southeast Asian and Pacific
destinations.
Mass tourism generates considerable income
and employment. At the same time, the sheer
volume of tourists places the physical environment
and culture of destination communities
under great pressure. Generally the hosts cope
remarkably well, but still mass tourism has some
unpleasant repercussions. Some notorious examples
are the rampant building and consequent
environmental degradation along the Spanish
coast, the debris littering the slopes of the Alps
and Himalayas, the damage to chambers inside the
Egyptian Pyramids, and the increase in child
prostitution in Southeast Asia.
This form of tourism also commoditises culture
and human relations �see commercialisation).
There is little occasion and time for contact
between host and guest populations. This
dehumanises both. Traditional norms of hospitality
cannot be maintained in the face of a
constant flow of tourists, who become faceless
customers and to whom natives are merely
curious objects. Obviously, scale is an important
factor. Discomfort caused by crowding is more
keenly felt where the tourist volume is disproportionate
to the local population, with popular small
islands being particularly vulnerable. In certain
destinations, locals now complain that tourists peer
through their windows, enter their houses uninvited
and look down on their customs. Measures to
control tourist impact include stricter planning
and building controls, limiting visitor flow, better
guiding and leaflets on local culture/etiquette.
Local residents protest threatened values by covert
actions, hiding from tourists, communal celebrations,
coupled occasionally even with overt aggression.
Unavoidably, as the volume of mass tourism
grows, so will its unpleasant consequences.
See also: ghetto
Further reading
mass tourism 383
Boissevain, J. �ed.) �1996) Coping with Tourists:
European Reaction to Mass Tourism, Providence,
RI and Oxford: Berghahn Books.
Smith, V. �ed.) �1989) Hosts and Guests:The
Anthropology of Tourism, 2nd edn, Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press.
JEREMY BOISSEVAIN, THE NETHERLANDS