the reality they are supposed to represent. Following Barthes (1984), several researchers have applied the semiotic approach to the study of tourism promotional literature. More specifically, some have analyzed the "people content" of brochures and looked at how the industry attempts to control the forthcoming interaction of tourists, hotel staff, and locaTr; through pictures and verbal descriptions of resorts.
CONCLUSIONS
From this brief overview of sociological theories and their application to tourism research, it is evident that, not only are most major theoretical perspectives represented, but that each of these has contributed something towards a sociological understanding of contemporary tourism. Admittedly, they have met with varying degrees of success, and some have turned out to be more viable than others, but it is only by performing such a state of the art analysis that one is in a position to evaluate the relative contribution of various theories to an understanding of tourism. Indeed, and by way of summary, a few general conclusions emerge.
First, it should be clear that there exists no all embracing theory of tourism, since tourism, like any other field of human endeavor, is a target field, comprising many domains and focuses, to which various theoretical approaches can be appropriately applied.
Second, it emerges from the above that no single sociological per-
spective can reasonably claim a monopoly in providing an understand-
ing of tourism. Rather, the insights contributed by various approaches should be regarded as forming pieces of a jigsaw, which, when assem-
bled, can supply the basis for a pluralistic sociological interpretation of touristic reality. As a matter of fact, some of the best work in tourism has been eclectic, linking elements of one perspective with those of another, rather than opting for an exclusive point of view. At the same time, one may appreciate the point that even the eclectic approach can experience difficulty, as for example in the Vienna Centre's (Bystr-
zanowski 1989) multitheoretical stance in relation to tourism and social change.
As an extension or corollary to the foregoing, it appears that sociolo-
gy itself provides only a partial interpretation of the multifaceted phe-
nomenon of tourism. For a more complete picture, it is necessary to combine sociological insights with those from other social science disci-
plines. Thus, when Theuns (1984) questioned 37 international tourism experts on their attitudes towards research, he found that the need for multidisciplinary basic studies ranked the highest on all agenda items. Interestingly, however, while economists and geographers viewed con-
tributions from sociologists in positive terms, the sentiment was not reciprocated. Although the investigator could not explain why exactly such a situation obtained, one may suggest that the sociologists were probably reacting negatively to what they perceived as the overly quan-
titative and positivistic approaches of their colleagues in other behav-
ioral disciplines. Yet, surely • this calls for greater, rather than less, dialog. If sociological insights on tourism are still fairly rudimentary, such a situation clearly indicates that further collaboration and more