What Does Anthropoloty Contribue to Toursism - 966 Words

What does anthropology contribute to tourism? While I was thinking why anthropologists should study tourism and how they can contribute to it, I realized that actually anthropologists have a lot in common with tourists: they both are outsiders who spend time exploring the cultural features of another society. However, more often tourism was seen to be an activity of economics, rather than of people. It happened due to the widespread lack of awareness of the sociocultural significance of tourism. Tourism impacts on peoples lives. It is a significant part of my life, of my friends lives†¦ It is widespread in the globe with very few places left untouched and very few people who have never travelled. So is the tourism sector in need of anthropological research and can anthropological knowledge contribute to tourism management and practices? From my point of view, the answer is undoubtedly positive. Tourism often involves face-to-face encounters between people of different cultural backgrounds, it gives people the opportunity to reflect on their own lives through the eyes of others. In any travelling experience the tourists establish many relations with other people such as tour operators, hotels and restaurants personnel, guides. The satisfaction of guests depends on all the interactions they have during the trip. Therefore it is important to understand the role of the â€Å"human factor† in tourism. First of all, anthropology allows to better plan tourism and to make it more