Review of the sociological literature on tourism

Abstract

This report reviews the sociological literature on tourism. Sociological interest in tourism is a recent development and, therefore, sociological insights have been supplemented by reference, albeit partial, to the literature of other disciplines mainly economics, geography, planning, and administration. A further reason why it is necessary to refer to the literature of other social disciplines is that fact that tourism is multi-sectoral and requires a multi-disciplinary approach. For the sake of convenience, however, summaries of the literature that are annexed to this report have been divided: summaries of sociological literature are to be found in annex one; those of other disciplines, in annex two. The last annex also contains a sampling of bank tourism sector surveys and project appraisal reports in order to indicate the concerns of the Bank. The division of chapter topics follows, as far as possible, those suggested by the Bank for the seminar.