Relocating the tourist

This article traces the arrival and the subsequent debates about the place of the tourist in sociology. The sociology of tourists first focused on the ir economic, and then their physical and sociocultural impacts, in the ster eotypical case of mass tourists of the metropolis visiting historical and p eripheral locations. More recently, Graburn and Smith differentiated touris ts by class, gender and lifestyle, and then by national origin. Tourism has come to be seen as a form of expressive and perhaps therapeutic culture co mparable to art, play and leisure. The tourist as sight-seer was first cast igated by snobbish social commentators, and then valorized as a seeker of a uthenticity by MacCannell, and as a easter of gazes by Urry. Cohen usefully examined the range of tourists' experiences and authenticities. In this sp ecial issue Lengkeek and Harrison re-examine tourist differentiations, auth enticities and subjective experiences. Thorns and Perkins conjoin the notio n of the tourist as sight-seer with that of physical performer, while Liebm an Parrinello looks at the tourist as both embodied and as technologized.