World cultures have always been influenced by visitors

“As a host community adapts to tourism, its facilitation to tourists’ needs, attitude, and values, the host community must become more like the tourists’ culture. That is what tourists in search of the exotic and ‘natural’ vacation setting mean when they say a place has been ‘spoiled’ by tourism, i.e., those who got there before them and required the amenities of home. Anthropologists are often in the forefront of those who deplore the dilution and adulteration of traditional culture. However, the alteration of one culture by another has always been a fact of existence. Some societies have remained in relative isolation from others for long periods of time, but in this century virtually no community is immune from outside contact, and the tourist is more ubiquitous than any other kind of representative of other cultures.”
–Theron Nunez, in Valene L. Smith’s Hosts and Guests: The Anthropology of Tourism (1977)

Posted by | Comments Off on World cultures have always been influenced by visitors  | December 29, 2008
Category: Travel Quote of the Day, Travel Writing

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