Product Description

This is a fully revised edition of the groundbreaking study on tourism, which was originally published in 1990. The original chapters have been empirically updated and many new research findings incorporated and evaluated.

This Second Edition deepens our understanding of how the tourist gaze orders and regulates the relationship with the tourist environment, demarcating the `other' and identifying the `out-of-the-ordinary'. It elucidates the relationship between tourism and embodiment and elaborates on the connections between mobility as a mark of modern and postmodern experience and the attraction of tourism as a lifestyle choice.

The result is a book that builds on the proven strengths of the first edition and revitalizes the argument to address the needs of researchers and students in the new century.

Praise for the First Edition:

`There is much to be applauded here...this is an engaging and thought provoking book which should be read by those interested in advertising and the changing nature of contemporary culture' - Contemporary Sociology

`The book is written in a very accessible style that would serve as a good point of entry for anyone interested in leisure, tourism, and cultural change in contemporary societies. The scope of Urry's book is breathtaking, one is left with a feeling of coming to terms with the complex set of social relations that are tourism, both in their production and consumption' - Planning Practice and Research

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #148828 in Books
• Published on: 2002-01-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 184 pages

Review
'There is much to be applauded here...this is an engaging and thought provoking book which should be read by those interested in advertising and the changing nature of contemporary culture' - Contemporary Sociology 'The book is written in a very accessible style that would serve as a good point of entry for anyone interested in leisure, tourism, and cultural change in contemporary societies. The scope of Urry's book is breathtaking, one is left with a feeling of coming to terms with the complex set of social relations that are tourism, both in their production and consumption' - Planning Practice and Research

Customer Reviews

Still too visual
I read Urry's tourist gaze a couple of years ago when I first started studying tourism. His ideas offered a frame work that many tourism researchers refer to. It was very exciting for me then.

Since I first read the first edition, I have also read many criticisms against his thoughts. Urry acknowledges these criticisms but he still largely ignores these charges in this new book. That is puzzling to me. So, in the second edition of his "classic", Urry revises or more accurately, merely tinkers with his original tourist gaze ideas.

Tourism research today has moved towards tourism experiences. Urry seems to be stucked with his visual gazes. I therefore wonder why one should buy his second edition even though his examples are now more international (I bought it because I do not own the first edition).

Other tourism researchers, such as Richard Prentice (on heritage interpretation), and Can-Seng Ooi (on mediated tourism consumption) have shown that the tourist gaze, as a concept, is highly inadequate. There is a need to look at the many different ways tourists interpret and consume tourism products beyond the visual. Such researchers emphasise the point that tourism is an industry that sells experiences. Urry seems to be stuck with just selling visual sights.

Nonetheless, Urry's conceptualisation remains central in tourism research. Almost every tourism article and book quotes him. It has become a classic and all tourism students must own a copy. Maybe it is time for a new classic. The three stars are for his original contribution to the debate.

Visual gazes
I read Urry's tourist gaze a couple of years ago when I first started studying tourism. His ideas offered a frame work that many tourism researchers refer to. It was very exciting for me then.

Since I first read the first edition, I have also read many criticisms against his thoughts. Urry acknowledges these criticisms but he still largely ignores these charges in this new book. That is puzzling to me. So, in the second edition of his "classic", Urry revises or more accurately, merely tinkers with his original tourist gaze ideas.

Tourism research today has moved towards tourism experiences. Urry seems to be stucked with his visual gazes. I therefore wonder why one should buy his second edition even though his examples are now more international (I bought it because I do not own the first edition).

Other tourism researchers, such as Richard Prentice (on heritage interpretation), and Can-Seng Ooi (on mediated tourism consumption) have shown that the tourist gaze, as a concept, is highly inadequate. There is a need to look at the many different ways tourists interpret and consume tourism products beyond the visual. Such researchers emphasise the point that tourism is an industry that sells experiences. Urry seems to be stuck with just selling visual sights.

Nonetheless, Urry's conceptualisation remains central in tourism research. Almost every tourism article and book quotes him. It has become a classic and all tourism students must own a copy. Maybe it is time for a new classic. The three stars are for his original contribution to the debate.