Development of Tour Uriely 2005

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210 THE TOURIST EXPERIENCE de-differentiation. Specifically, the tendency of recent studies to de-differentiate everyday life and tourist experiences deconstructs the early definitions which emphasize distinctiveness. Practices of deconstruction are also evident in the shift from generalizing toward pluralizing depictions of the tourist experience, which involves two stages. In the first, the early conceptualizations are deconstructed by the emergence of tourist typologies. The second is manifested in recent studies that deconstruct well-established typologies by stressing the diversity of tourist experiences within each of the existing categories in these typologies. The third development presented in this study indicates how the attention of researchers was shifted from the displayed objects to the tourist subjective negotiation of meanings. This clearly illustrates the inclination of postmodernist thought to stress the role of subjectivity (Frazer 1989; Uriely et al 2002). The fourth development indicated above—from debates that existed between competing standpoints of modern tourism to the compromising nature of the discourse between different interpretations of postmodern tourism—corresponds to the nondualistic and anti-hierarchal intellectual attitude associated with postmodernist modes of analysis (Bauman 1987; Denzin 1991; Lather 1991). By utilizing the modernist/postmodernist dichotomy, this analysis acknowledges that a general cultural change referred to in the literature as postmodernity is underway, and that it affects various domains of cultural activity, including the fashion of constructing knowledge in tourism studies. Specifically, the analysis presented above suggests that the depicted developments are not detached from a contemporary trend in the social sciences addressed as ‘‘postmodernist thinking’’, which is in itself a manifestation of a wider cultural change referred to as postmodernity. Nevertheless, the modernist/postmodernist dichotomy utilized in this analysis should not be grasped as a proposition regarding the extent of change or competition that contemporary conceptualizations introduce to the literature on the tourist experience. Instead, it is suggested that contemporary conceptualizations of the tourist experience introduce complementary extensions to the earlier theories rather than a contrasting new approach that invalidates them. For instance, the essentialist views of Boorstin (1964) and MacCannell (1973) are included in Cohen’s phenomenological typology of tourist experiences (1979), which is intersected with the differentiation between institutionalized and noninstitutionalized tourists (Cohen 1972) in order to create the recent subtypology that captures the diversity among backpackers (Uriely et al 2002). In this process, later conceptualizations seem to introduce additions rather than a contrasting alternative to the logic of earlier works. In this respect, the current analysis challenges the notion of postmodernist thinking as a contesting and sharp departure from earlier modernist theorizing (Bauman 1987, 1992; Denzin 1991; Flax 1990; Frazer 1989). Thus, it is suggested that with regard to the specific trends in the literature the term late modernist (Giddens 1990; Wang 2000) seems to be more appropriate than postmodernist.
NATAN URIELY 211 The evaluation of the shift toward postmodernist or late modernist theorizing in terms of its promises and threats to future research is required as well. In this regard, one might appreciate the practice of deconstruction, including the de-differentiating and the pluralizing depictions of the tourist experience, for their rising sense of sensitivity to the complexity and the diversity of tourism. Indeed, early generalizations were not sensitive to issues such as gender-related or cultural diversity. With respect to the former, for instance, Elsrud (2004) argues against the lack of gender awareness in the literature although there is so far no evidence suggesting a similarity between the ways in which men and women interpret their tourist activities. Similarly, most of the generalizing conceptualizations concern the mind of the Western tourist, while ignoring other voices, whether Japanese, Singaporean, or Brazilian (Elsrud 2004; Wang 2000). Thus, pluralizing depictions of the tourist experience, which are sensitive to gender or cultural diversity, seems to be appropriate for future research. However, the inclination of earlier theories to generalize and differentiate the tourist experience from the routine of daily life is probably part of their attempt to capture the essence of the investigated phenomenon rather than their lack of awareness of its diversity. Such a modernist attempt to track the essence of a phenomenon by generalizing is particularities aims to make sense of its diversity rather than to deny it. By turning away from this fundamental attempt of scientific practice, the recent deconstructions appear to threaten the possibility of structuring future knowledge. In this respect, the recent conceptualizations comply with the notion of postmodernist thought as a destructive perspective, which fails to elaborate sufficient alternatives for structuring knowledge (Antonio 1991; Gitlin 1989). Therefore, in addition to their deconstruction in recent studies, early conceptualizations of the tourist experience need to be reconstructed in future studies. Specifically, further studies are encouraged to redefine the current distinctions between tourist and everyday life experience and to develop new typologies, which capture the logic of contemporary variations. For instance, if work and tourism are currently intertwined (Pizam et al 2000; Uriely 2001; Uriely and Reichel 2000), future studies should specify which types of work-related activities are incorporated in contemporary tourist experiences. Questions regarding the remaining similarities within institutionalized holidaymakers or backpackers need also to be addressed in light of recent studies, which stress the multiplicity of experiences that are available within each of these conventional categories of tourism (Uriely et al 2002; Wickens 2002). The postmodernist inclination toward subjectivity is another problematic aspect of recent conceptualizations. First, it is suggested that an approach that ignores the external opportunities or constraints imposed on the individual cannot provide a complete depiction of the tourist experience. Second, the focus on subjectivity could be seen as a naive perspective, which assumes that tourism is an area of life that facilitates a real freedom of choice. In contrast to this view, it is
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