Untitled

580 time
lacking sufficient human and natural resources in
order to provide an adequate standard of living.
Most of the Third World countries are in Africa,
Asia and Latin America. Their economies, including
revenues derived from tourism, are locked in to
denote relationships with the so-called developed
First World. All seek foreign exchange through this
growing industry.
time
VALENE L. SMITH, USA
VERONICA LONG, USA
A change in the perception and organisation of
time is a principal characteristic of the transition
from ordinary life to tourism. The latter can be
seen as a leisure activity or an activity in time free
from obligations. Indeed, one of the major varieties
of tourism is called `vacation ', a period of vacant
or free time. However, tourist time differs from
ordinary leisure, in that it is a special, extraordinary
time, anticipated and cherished as a major
break of everyday routine, and often remembered
as a highlight of one's biography.
The break in time between routine and tourism
has been conceptualised in two contrasting but
related pairs of terms. Graburn �1977) conceives of
touristic time as akin to the sacred time in
premodern societies, and juxtaposes it to profane
time, thus emphasising the reverberation of
religious or festive motifs in the touristic experience.
Others, following Victor Turner, conceive
touristic time as essentially a limited reversal of the
ordered, organised nature of time in everyday life
�Wagner 1977) This liminal or liminoid time �see
liminality; rites of passage) is akin to timelessness:
it is free from the chronological divisions
and of the associated `timetables' of daily routine.
This conception comes close to that of `flow', the
loss of a sense of time experienced by those deeply
engrossed in an activity.
Ironically, the high value attached to the often
limited time people dispose of for tourism, may in
practice countervail its liminal character. Tourists
frequently seek to accomplish as much as possible
on their trip; though at leisure, they are in a hurry
and pressed for time. Routine, everyday modes of
temporal organisation thus penetrate tourism,
especially in its more organised institutionalised
forms such as group tours. In contrast, some
alternative forms of tourism, such as drifting,
purposely avoid fixed travel timetables and itineraries.
Tourism and time are also related in another
respect, namely, the temporal nature of tourist
attractions. A pervasive motif of modern tourism is
the quest for the authentic, often conceived in
temporal terms as the original, pristine, primitive
or antique. In that respect, travel to remote
attractions is not only a trip in space but also back
in time, as, for example, a visit to a `primeval forest'
or a `stone age' tribe. Indeed, the value of sights
visited, artefacts seen and souvenirs purchased is
often appreciated in terms of their antiquity.
In contrast, postmodern tourism is often oriented
in the opposite temporal dimension; the
future, vicariously experienced in theme parks
or in fantastic voyages in virtual reality. Both the
past and the future orientations of tourism are
appreciated owing to their contrast to the present,
or as a mode of escape from it. However, the
ultimate escape, time travel, is not yet available,
although according to some it could become a
realistic possibility sometime in the third millennium.
References
Graburn, N.H.H. �1977) The Sacred Journey, in V.C.
Smith �ed.), Hosts and Guests, Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press, 17±31.
Wagner, U. �1977) `Out of time and place: mass
tourism and charter trips', Ethos 42�1/2): 38±52.
Further reading
Cohen, E. �1986) `Tourism and time', World Leisure
and Recreation 28�6): 13±16.
time budget
ERIK COHEN, ISRAEL
Time budgets are an established social scientific
research technique which provides for a systematic