Royal University of Phnom Penh Subject: Global Studies (GS201)

Institute of Foreign Languages Lecturer: Seng Seavmeng (SSM)

Department of English

PART 3: Tourism
UNIT 2: Why has tourism become a global phenomenon?
I. KEY TERMS

Instruction: Find an appropriate term for each of the following definitions. Any mistakes in spelling will
result in half mark deduction.
1. disposable income is the amount of income left to an individual after taxes and other
contributes have been paid.
2. Mass tourism Refers to the travel that involved large numbers of tourists visiting a
particular place together.
3. Ecotourism is a responsible travel to nature areas the conserves the environment
and improves the well-being of the local people.
4. Leisure time is the part of a day, week, or year when people have no work
commitments.
5. a recession which regionally affects only a region or group of
countries.
6. Niche tourism is the special-interest tourism based on a particular area, interest, or
activity.
7. long-haul destination refer to destinations that are long distance away from the tourist's
home country, usually reachable by a flight of generally 5 hours or
more.
8. Official notices that discourage citizens from travelling to a particular
region or country
9 short-haul destination refer to destinations that are short distance away from the tourist's
home country, usually reachable by cars, bus, train, or flight of
generally less than 5 hours

II. MATCHING VOCABULARIES

Instruction: Match the vocabulary with its definitions.
A (words) B (definitions) Answer
1. lodge (n) a. the customary code of polite behaviour in society or among 1.
members of a particular profession or group
2. immense (adj) b. cease developing; become inactive or dull 2.
3. etiquette (n) c. encourage the development of (something, especially something 3.
desirable)
4. surveillance (n) d. extremely large or great, especially in scale or degree 4.
5. volatile (adj) e. liable to change rapidly and unpredictably, especially for the 5.
worse
6. foster (v) f. a small house at the gates of a park or in the grounds of a large 6.
house, occupied by a gatekeeper, gardener, or other employee
7. stagnate (adj) g. change (something) radically or fundamentally 7.
8. retiree (n) h. close observation, especially of a suspected spy or criminal 8.

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Royal University of Phnom Penh Subject: Global Studies (GS201)
Institute of Foreign Languages Lecturer: Seng Seavmeng (SSM)
Department of English

III. READINGS
Instruction: The reading passage has five paragraphs (A – E). Which paragraph contains the following
information? Write the correct letter A – E in boxes 1 - 4 on your answer sheet. Note that one paragraph
is not needed.

Lists of given headings

i. The politics of tourism
ii. The cost of tourism
iii. Justifying the study of tourism
iv. Tourism contrasted with travel
v. The essence of modern tourism
vi. Tourism versus leisure
vii. The artificiality of modern tourism
viii. The role of modern tour guides
ix. Creating an alternative to the everyday experience

Tourism

A.Tourism, holidaymaking and travel are these days more significant social phenomena than most
commentators have considered. On the face of it there could not be a more trivial subject for a book.
And indeed since social scientists have had considerable difficulty explaining weightier topics, such as
work or politics, it might be thought that they would have great difficulties in accounting for more trivial
phenomena such as holidaymaking. However, there are interesting parallels with the study of deviance.
This involves the investigation of bizarre and idiosyncratic social practices which happen to be defined
as deviant in some societies but not necessarily in others. The assumption is that the investigation of
deviance can reveal interesting and significant aspects of normal societies. It could be said that a similar
analysis can be applied to tourism.

B. Tourism is a leisure activity which presupposes its opposite, namely regulated and organised work. It
is one manifestation of how work and leisure are organised as separate and regulated spheres of social
practice in modern societies. Indeed acting as a tourist is one of the defining characteristics of being
‘modern’ and the popular concept of tourism is that it is organised within particular places and occurs for
regularised periods of time. Tourist relationships arise from a movement of people to, and their stay in,
various destinations. This necessarily involves some movement, that is the journey, and a period of stay
in a new place or places. ‘The journey and the stay’ are by definition outside the normal places of
residence and work and are of a short term and temporary nature and there is a clear intention to return
‘home’ within a relatively short period of time.

C. A substantial proportion of the population of modern societies engages in such tourist practices new
socialised forms of provision have developed in order to cope with the mass character of the gazes of
tourists as opposed to the individual character of travel. Places are chosen to be visited and be gazed
upon because there is an anticipation especially through daydreaming and fantasy of intense pleasures,
either on a different scale or involving different senses from those customarily encountered. Such

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Royal University of Phnom Penh Subject: Global Studies (GS201)
Institute of Foreign Languages Lecturer: Seng Seavmeng (SSM)
Department of English
anticipation is constructed and sustained through a variety of non-tourist practices such as films, TV
literature, magazines records and videos which construct and reinforce this daydreaming.

D. Tourists tend to visit features of landscape and townscape which separate them off from everyday
experience. Such aspects are viewed because they are taken to be in some sense out of the ordinary. The
viewing of these tourist sights often involves different forms of social patterning with a much greater
sensitivity to visual elements of landscape or townscape than is normally found in everyday life. People
linger over these sights in a way that they would not normally do in their home environment and the
vision is objectified or captured through photographs postcards films and so on which enable the
memory to be endlessly reproduced and recaptured.

E. One of the earliest dissertations on the subject of tourism is Boorstins analysis of the pseudo event
(1964) where he argues that contemporary. Americans cannot experience reality directly but thrive on
pseudo events. Isolated from the host environment and the local people the mass tourist travels in guided
groups and finds pleasure in inauthentic contrived attractions gullibly enjoying the pseudo events and
disregarding the real world outside. Over time the images generated of different tourist sights come to
constitute a closed self-perpetuating system of illusions which provide the tourist with the basis for
selecting and evaluating potential places to visit. Such visits are made says Boorstin, within the
environmental bubble of the familiar American style hotel which insulates the tourist from the
strangeness of the host environment.

F. To service the burgeoning tourist industry, an array of professionals has developed who attempt to
reproduce ever-new objects for the tourist to look at. These objects or places are located in a complex
and changing hierarchy. This depends upon the interplay between, on the one hand, competition between
interests involved in the provision of such objects and, on the other hand changing class, gender, and
generational distinctions of taste within the potential population of visitors. It has been said that to be a
tourist is one of the characteristics of the modern experience. Not to go away is like not possessing a car
or a nice house. Travel is a marker of status in modern societies and is also thought to be necessary for
good health. The role of the professional, therefore, is to cater for the needs and tastes of the tourists in
accordance with their class and overall expectations.

Answer sheet
A. iii B.v C.iv D.ix E. vii F. viii

IV. COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS

Instruction: Answer the following questions based on the lesson from the textbook.
1. In what ways is tourism changing?
Trends in the global tourism industry international tourism and domestic tourism, and Evolution of mass
tourism to niche tourism.
2. Briefly explain the evolution of mass tourism to niche tourism.
The evolution of mass tourism to niche tourism illustrates the growth of tourism into different forms such as
mass tourism, package holidays, and niche tourism. Mass tourism refers to travel that involves large
numbers of tourists visiting a particular place together. Package holidays involve a tour usually arranged by
a travel agent, with a commendation, accommodation, and most meals included in the package. Niche
tourism is special-interest tourism based on a particular area, interest, oractivity.
3. What are the reasons for the growth of global tourism?
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Royal University of Phnom Penh Subject: Global Studies (GS201)
Institute of Foreign Languages Lecturer: Seng Seavmeng (SSM)
Department of English
the reasons for the growth of global tourism are the development of technology, demand factors, and
destination.
4. Why is tourism subject to regional fluctuations?
tourism subject to regional fluctuations are disasters, regional and global recessions, unfavorable political
situations, and outbreaks od diseases.