In conclusion, these are only two of the many harassment situations tourism managers
and practitioners face daily across the global landscape. Although these exercises are
confined to vendor persistence and religious proselytizing and omit the myriad other
types (e.g. drug peddling, verbal and physical abuse, or sexual harassment), they
illustrate several important dimensions surrounding the problem. First, harassment is
a complex phenomenon that arises in the milieu of interpersonal interaction embedded
with sometimes sharp host-guest socio-economic and cultural differences. Second,
although the problem cannot be stopped absolutely, thinking through and attempting
Tourist
harassment
313to reconcile the motivations and requirements of all major stakeholders is the preferred
way forward to achieve consensus and durable solutions. Third, successful strategies
will place a priority on strengthening community awareness of the unique contribution
tourism makes to the destination’s economic life. They will also foster enhanced
host-guest intercultural understanding. Finally, controlling harassment likely will
remain an ongoing issue until the structure of the tourism industry develops more
effective ways to integrate those at the margin into the mainstream since these
visitor-resident economic distances, in part, are both underlying determinants and
visible expressions of the problem.