been, constructed. An example of an interactional typology is the author's earlier classification of tourists into four major types, according to the extent to which tourists expose themselves to the strangeness of the host society orencapsulate themselves in the environment bubble of the home society (Cohen 1972). Smith's typology (1977:8-13) represents a similar but more elaborate attempt on the same interactional lines.
An example of a typology based on the '13this author's more recent attempt to constru enomenology of tourist experiences (Cohen 1979b) in which an attempt is made to
reconcile the intrinsically opposed
positions of Boorstin and MacCannell concerning the nature of contemporary toun
iti
the context of his general attitude towards his society and the surrounding world. The
as he still den1ities w th the trl ral center of his society an finds no meaning in the surrounding cultures, he will tend towards recreational tourism. For a tourist of this
type, who comes close to the one described by B
hrough which he recuperates from the strains and tensions of has
b t possesses no deeper meaning. However, many moderns, as MacCannell has rightly emphasized, are alienated from their society in daily life. This does not, however, mean that they automatically become "pilgrims," seeking authenticity in "the centre out there." as Victor Turner (1972) called the pilgrim's goal. Instead. different modes of touristic experiences of the alienated individual can be distinguished. fulitYclvd
The diversiont_ j 'mode is one in which the individual neither possesses a spiritual center at home nor seeks for one abroad. Rather, the trip is for him a pure diversion, a mere escape from the boredom and meaninglessness of routine, everyday existence into the forgetfulness of a vacation (i.e. a literally "vacant," namely empty, time)• The further modes represent progressive steps towards the identification of the tourist's experience with the pilgrim's. The experiential mode comes closest to MacCannell's conception of the tourist. The tourist, aware of the fact that he himself is precluded from having authentic experiences, basks in the authenticity of the life of others. The experimental mode represents one further step: The tourist experiments with -various unfamiliar, alternative ways of life in the search of a new spiritual center. Finally, the existential mode is represented by the tourist who has actually acquired a new, "elective," spiritual center, towards which he feels the same adherence which the traditional religious pilgrim felt for the major centers of his religion. The journey of the existential tourist to his elective spiritual center, is homologous in meaning to the traditional pilgrimage. The elective center becomes the new center of his cosmos.
MacCannell could obviously argue against this typology on the ground that it merely describes the superficial "phenomenological" characteristics of the tourist's experience. He could claim that what on the surface appears to be mere superficial recreation in fact has a deeper structural significance. He would find support for this argument in Leymore's (1975) pioneering study on the deep structure of modern advertisement in which it has been claimed that apparently superficial. even vulgar, symbols relate to deep underlying themes of human life. One may reply that it is essential to keep the phenomenological and the structural levels apart. Their confusion has indeed led to MacCannell's overgeneralization. It is one thing to discover by