Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to show the significance of the sociological approach to tourism studies through reconsideration of Dean MacCannell’s “tourist” theory. The most significant contribution of his study to a sociology of tourism is that he regards tourists as agents to construct social solidarity in post-industrial society. He argues that, by experiencing other societies through sightseeing, tourists promote differentiation between post-industrial western society and pre-industrial non-western society and in doing so construct their collective identities. Despite some objections made to his arguments, his analysis of tourists is useful in that it sheds light on processes of localization, which is part and parcel of globalizing contemporary society.
