Current Issues in Tourism
Editor: C. Michael Hall (Department of Management, College of Business and Economics, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand) and Chris Cooper (Foundation Professor of Tourism, University of Queensland, Australia) Michael and Chris are joint editor of the book series Aspects of Tourism. Reviews Editor John Jenkins (University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia)
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Volume: 4 Number: 1 Page: 42–67
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Trust Between Culture: The Tourist
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William Cannon Hunter
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Trust between culture is a salient issue to tourism studies. But the effect of tourism on culture is disputed, and surrounded by a basic lack of trust. Tourists as well as hosts categorise 'others' by their
most immediately functional role, which is economic. Yet difference is an unavoidable social fact and does not exempt one from the responsibility of social relationships. For tourism, simulations
of 'the other' are desired but must be always kept distant. So difference is accentuated by commerce, maintained by role identification and exacerbated by the brevity of the tourist's encounter. Therefore,
the social alchemy between host and tourist is marked with dominance, power and alienation. Trust is engagement with 'the other', a reflexive relationship of engagement over time. Trust can exist in the
tourist's encounters when differential power relationships are recognised - and negotiated through sincere engagement and natural communication. Professionals and intellectuals as well as the tourist must
take an active and sensitive role in fostering reflexive and engaging social relationships between culture.
© Channel View Publications 2001
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