analysis that a superficial experience might have deeper structural significance; it is
quite another thing to claim that this deeper structural significance actually motivates
every tourist--or, in MacCannell's terms, that every tourist essentially seeks
authenticity. A problem of general sociological significance is thereby obscured he
conditions under which deep structural themes penetrate, so to speak, to the surface
and acquire motivational significance. Rather than postulating that all tourists are
modern pilgrims despite what they say or feel, one should look for the general societal
conditions which generate tourism in the experiential. experimental, and especially.
existential mode. is a 'clear example of such "parallel
institutionalization." Moreover, the nature of tourist institutions serving the same type of tourist may differ considerably, depending on the wider institutional structure of the host society. Kemper's comparative study reported in this issue of Annals clearly demonstrates this point for conventional mass tourism, while ten Have's (1974) paper represents a detailed case study of the tourist-oriented institutions emerging in response to mass-drifter tourism as a consequence of an "enlightened" and tolerant policy of the authorities in contemporary Amsterdam. But one needs more detailed comparative studies to encompass the whole rangeof forms of institutionalization of tourist roles and emergence of corresponding touristic institutions.
The tendency of sociologists towards