IELTS Academic Reading Practice 63

Section A

Tourism, vacations, and travel are becoming more popular than ever before, although few of us today would have noticed this change. While social scientists have had considerable difficulty when attempting to explain some topics, such as work or politics, one might assume that the same would be true about studying tourism. However, there are interesting parallels between tourism and 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.

Section B

Tourism is a leisure activity which counterbalances its opposite activity, that being regulated and organized work. It is one manifestation of how work and leisure are organized as separate and controlled 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 organized in particular places and occurs for predictable periods of time. Tourist relationships arise from a movement of people to various destinations, as well as their time staying there. Tourism involves people making a journey of some distance, followed by 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.

Section C

A substantial proportion of the population in modern society engages in such tourist practices. New socialized forms of provision have developed in order to cope with larger numbers of sightseeing tourists. Places are chosen to be visited for sightseeing because tourists fantasize and look forward to going to them. This may be either because these destinations are seen by tourists as exotic, or different from what’s normal at home, or because they are somehow uniquely impressive. Tourists’ anticipation is built and sustained by a variety of non-tourist mediums such as films, TV literature, magazines records and videos, which encourage them to daydream about far off destinations.

Section D

Tourists tend to visit landmarks and areas that are markedly different from their everyday experiences at home. These places become popular because they are seen as being somehow extraordinary. Those visiting tourist sites often do so with a much greater sensitivity to the visual elements of a place than they would in everyday life. People will linger in areas longer to make sure they can completely take in their surroundings, and may even choose to document their experiences by writing in a diary or taking photographs.

Section E

One of the earliest dissertations on the subject of tourism is Boorstin's 1964 analysis on “pseudo-events”, where he argues that contemporary Americans cannot experience reality directly, but instead thrive on pseudo-events. Isolated from the local people and environment, the mass tourist travels in guided groups and finds pleasure in inauthentic contrived attractions, gullibly enjoying the pseudo-events and disregarding reality. Over time, the images generated by 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 foreign land.

Section F

To service the burgeoning tourist industry, a professional industry has developed in an attempt to reproduce constant novelty for the sake of attracting tourists. How they decide to do this depends on a few factors, such as class, gender, and generational distinctions of taste within the potential population of visitors, as well as the availability and interests within local, and global markets. It has been said that to be a tourist is one of the characteristics of the modern experience. Going on vacation is seen as a symbol of stability and success, like owning a nice car or home. 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 to the needs and tastes of the tourists in accordance with their class and overall expectations.