Sociology of tourism: what it is and what it studies

Spain is the third most touristic country in the world, with close to 32 million visitors a year and only behind France and Mexico. It is striking that until the 1990s, when Spain was the second most visited country in the world, it did not studies began to be developed around the social activity generated by tourism in our country.

The sociology of tourism aims to study the consequences that tourism has in a territory. It has two main lines of work: the emergency before mass tourism and its sustainability; and its research as a development factor for countries or developing countries. The sociology of tourism in Spain was born in the last years of the Franco regime, when, led by Mario Gaviria, a multitude of studies were developed around the city of Benidorm, a pioneer tourist destination in Europe.

Most of the social studies on the social repercussions of tourism made reference to bad growth planned or speculative derivatives of tourist mismanagement, alleging that these would turn against the initial generators of tourism.

In this article, we are going to discover what the sociology of tourism is and how these processes have been studied throughout history. We will also refer to some pioneering people in the study of this field, giving voice to their findings and realities. Surely you love to travel, discover other places and feel out of place in another country, but, Have you ever wondered what effects mass tourism has on the places where it is develop?

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What is tourism?

Although this may be a very simple concept, we are going to delimit what can be considered tourism in order to understand its meaning from the perspective of the sociology of tourism. Tourism has been defined as a manifestation of its time, of a socioeconomic reality. Basically, tourism is defined as a recreational activity that is based on traveling or touring a country or place for the sheer pleasure of discovering it.

Tourism is a social, cultural and economic phenomenon, and supposes that people move to countries or places far from their usual environment for normally personal reasons, although they can also be professional or business. These people are usually called "travellers", and tourism covers the entire set of activities that these people carry out in this context.

The characteristic activities of tourism are those that generate the most typical products associated with tourism. This can be visits to museums, national monuments, traditional restaurants... There are many ways to experience tourism and they all have something in common: it has repercussions on the territory that is being visiting.

Origin of the sociology of tourism

Prior to the development of the sociology of tourism, it is important to identify at what historical moment the first manifestations of tourism began and that are most similar to what we know as such today from today.

1. Early forms of tourism

The origin of tourism can be located in continental and industrialized Europe and the eastern coast of the United States from the second half of the 19th century.

Tourism originates from curiosity, pleasure, snobbery, illness and the search for different climates. He managed to establish himself in these territories when the first enterprising people began to appear that begin to capitalize on displacement services linked to specific activities in new territories. It is important to name the figure of Thomas Cook, founder of the first travel agency, Thomas Cook & Son in 1874.

The enrichment of the German, French and English bourgeoisie led to the creation of clients capable of paying for the trips offered by agencies such as Thomas Cook in the mid-19th century. However, the working class was relegated to leisure in the form of a pedestrian excursion until the 1930s, when in Europe union struggles won the right to paid vacations.

2. origin of social studies

From studies focused on culture, they highlight the importance of the role of writers in the process that led to the adhesion of tourism to the collective mentality. The writers motivated the need to carry out displacements to recognize what they considered strange and unknown.; know the diversity of human realities foreign and different from their own. Novels such as Stendhal's Memoirs of a Tourist or Almeidaa Garrett's Travels in My Land are referenced as triggers for tourism and the taste for discovering territorial environments different from your own.

Some pioneering sociologists studied the behaviors of foreign travelers taking into account their economic and cultural consequences, such as Leopold von Wise and Kurt Krapf in the first half of the century xx. It would not be until after the Second World War, that, promoting international tourism and massification, sociological studies focused on its impact would increase.

As previously mentioned, reference is usually made to two lines of work in the sociology of tourism:

Emergency before mass tourism

This current focuses on explaining the economic benefits of mass tourism for developing countries. development, while highlighting the need to build tourism aimed at the sustainability of the visited territory.

Understanding the phenomenon

This second vision of tourism focuses on studying the way in which the social sciences can understand this phenomenon together with the way of understanding the sociocultural, economic, demographic and environmental consequences of these processes.

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3. Current challenges of the sociology of tourism

We are currently in a key historical moment to study tourism and its processes associated with closeness and assuming plasticity and very rapid changes. First of all, sustainability and climate change are absolutely topical issues, so the sociology of tourism can be very useful to predict which paths to take to favor the ecology of our planet. On the other hand, at a cultural level, due to very rapid globalization and the possibility of cultural homogenization, the study of identities is interesting. local cultures to preserve their individuality and question how to promote authentic cultural expressions in a context as globalized as the current.

On the other hand, technology and digital transformation also pose new challenges in which to apply this current of thought; the rise of platforms like Airbnb and the widespread use of social media have completely transformed the tourism industry. For example, the sociology of tourism could study the influence of the viralization of a tourist TikTok and what environmental impact this may have. In relation to this example, the sociology of tourism is also focused on knowing the operating processes of mass tourism, considering its negative impact on local residents, infrastructure and resources natural.

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Applications of the sociology of tourism: Mario Gaviria and Benidorm

In Spain, the sociology of tourism gained strength in the last years of Francoism and the first years of the construction of democracy at the hands of Mario Gaviria, considered one of the most influential sociologists in our country. Trained in Law in Zaragoza, he was considered a disciple of the academic Henri Lefevre, noted for his ideologies focused on environmentalism and anti-nuclear. Gaviria's contributions dealt above all with the sociological application to the rural and urban world, leisure and, above all, tourism.

In the 70s, Mario Gaviria brought together a multidisciplinary team of more than 40 people to study the phenomenon of the moment in the city of Benidorm, which would become the second most visited coastal city in Europe today, and the first in terms of hotel occupancy.

Gaviria referred to the city of Benidorm as "a perfect social laboratory", defending its urbanism for its especially sustainable capacity spatially and demographically, given the high and compact levels of density housing. In this sense, Mario Gaviria defended compact cities such as Benidorm or Barcelona and its Eixample, arguing its greater sustainability against the chlorophyll model of the chalets separated from each other. others.

Gaviria concluded that tourism was essential for Spain at its time and development, arguing that what the city of Benidorm generated for its tourists was something essential and irreplaceable. Benidorm could be considered, in his opinion, as the pure physical materialization of what is known as the Welfare State.

Studying tourism contributes to all kinds of growth

In conclusion, the sociology of tourism has close and evident relationships with the knowledge of tourism processes, but it is important to take into account their multidimensionality. Understanding tourism and its movements, the possibility of predicting the economic, demographic and social evolution of the studied territory is generated.

In addition, with longitudinal and prolonged studies over time, the sociology of tourism allows us to know in depth the influence of this process in a certain culture or social group. The sociology of tourism should be valued like any other type of social study, and not considered a "second" category when dealing with issues that can be presented as everyday or banal.