The purpose of this paper is to investigate issues of a sociology of tourism, and to discuss the sociological meanings of “tourism”. Tourism is a social phenomenon which has different sociocultural impacts in all sociological dimensions, and is now a sociological subject which cannot be ignored by sociologists. However, most sociologists have little interest in tourism, and Japanese sociologists in particular have never undertaken this theme. Taking these circumstances into consideration, the
raison d'etre of a sociology of tourism will be clarified.
This paper will then attempt to examine some significant results obtained empirical studies on tourism. Those results are classified into four subjects-
i, e. 1) tourist typology, 2) host and guest relations, 3) sociocultural impacts, and 4) international mass tourism, corresponding to four levels of a sociological space, respectively-
i.e. 1) actors, 2) social interactions, 3) social systems, and 4) the World System. Finally, future tasks for a sociology of tourism will be proposed.
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