Tourism has become such a common element of modern life that we generally fail to reflect upon its actual character and function. It is, however, the most dominant form of economic activity in the world today, accounting for 10% of all positions and revenue by some counts. In premodern times, at least in Tibet, the place of tourism is in fact occupied by a very different type of activity governing people's dominant movement to places other than where they reside - pilgrimage, or traveling to religious sites for religious reasons. If we are to look more carefully at tourism, the only common demoninator we can ascertain is that is intrinsically involves non-residents visiting places for reasons other than professional (commercial, administrative, etc.) or familial factors.
Tourism comes in an extraordinary number of flavors, which are often then classified into broader types based upon various criteria - the intent of the tourism, the cost of the tour, or the tour's thematic subject or format. The present section discusses these types of tourism as a way of surveying the breadth and diversity of tourism. We are gradually developing specific discussions of how these types of tourism apply to Tibet. Finally, in order to participate in responsible tourism across the Tibetan Plateau, it is important to understand the different forms tourism can take. Each of these can be made more responsible and engaged, but with different strategies and to different degrees. A full transformation of tourism requires attention to all forms of tourism, not just a few special niche types of tourism.
Tourism can be classified into three broad types depending on the intent of the tourist: recreational, educational, and volunteer. Recreational tourism is when the main intent is enjoyment, educational tourism is when the main intent is to learn, and volunteer tourism is when the main intent is to benefit a community or ecology through the tourist's labor.
Recreational tourism is the main type of tourism in the world, and involves tourists coming to enjoy themselves - enjoy natural splendor, interesting architecture and cultures, shopping, or whatever has attracted them to the sites and tours. More than anything else, this type of tourism is involved in the modern rise of the "vacation" - a formalized time off each year from work in which people want to enjoy themselves. While understandable - people working hard want to enjoy themselves during their time off, it has lead to the tourism industry being oriented towards the enjoyment of the paying tourists, often with little regard for the environment and communal well-being of the places and people they visit. However, it remains the most important and widespread of tourism and thus is vital to improve even if only in modest ways.
Educational tourism reflects the desire for tourists to do more than shop and superficially engage a place, but rather learn more deeply about the place, environment and communities being visited. Thus there are mainstream tours that have a strong educational focus, and incorporate more academic lectures and readings. However, the purest form is doubtlessly study abroad programs offered to high school students, undergraduates, and graduate students which are organized into site visits and provide academic credit. Such programs are part of a broader educational program, and are supported by institutions (colleges, universities, etc.) with a teaching and research focus. They thus hold great promise to be particularly supportive of local communities and be part of a longer term set of sustainable relationships. However, most such programs lack the institutional support, and often even orientation, to fullfil such promise. Thus it is important to create a framework by which such programs can be more communally aware and engaged with a long term vision.
Volunteer tourism is increasingly a form of tourism of interest to people seeking alternative experiences that involve both a more immersive and engaged relationship to the visited communities, and a sense that one is doing something beneficial to others.
One of the most frequently heard classification schemes is to categorize tours by the expenses involved in terms of transport, accommodations, meals and entertainment: backpackers, mainstream, and luxury.
A thematic classification scheme is based upon the content covered by the tour, such as the bifurcation into adventure tourism focused on adventures in wilderness such as rafting or hiking, and cultural tourism which concentrates on cultural sites such as imposing monasteries, famous cities, traditional villages, artistic monuments and the like. However, in practice the thematic foci of tours can be very diverse and granular, such as art, bird watching, religious sites, flowers, grief tourism, sexual tourism, or many other subjects. Below is an evolving list of types of tourism, which we are gradually writing descriptions for, including as they pertain to Tibet:
Tasteful Tourism involves tasting foods and drinks while visiting sites involved in their production, and bundling the sale and purchase of those products along the way, as well as potentially building a relationship between producer and consumer that might persist after the visitor goes home. Such tourism is underdeveloped in Tibet, but a classic global example is wineries. Visitors enjoy the beautiful natural settings of the winery, explore the actual buildings and equipment as they learn how wine is produced, sample the wines or eat at its cafe, and visit stores where they may buy a bottle or two. Examples in the US: the excellent restaurant at Domaine Chandon, the cable car at Sterling Vineyards, or the Smell-a-Vision exhibit at St. Supery, Missouri's Stone Hill Winery’s Branson location, North Carolina’s Childress Vineyards and Biltmore Estate, Vinelands Estate in Niagara, Canada, Dundee Bistro in Oregon owned by Ponzi Winery), and Red Newt Cellars in New York. Such winery tourism is also important in Australian and New Zealand, though it is underdeveloped in Europe (though see Banfi and Antinori in Tuscany and Marques de Riscal in Rioja, Spain, or France’s Champagne and the Loire Valley is replete with beautiful châteaux.
In contrast to "Farm and Nomadic Immersion Tourism", this tourism tends to be less immersive and more short-term. Visitors typically would spend an afternoon on site, or, if there is a hotel, perhaps a day and a night. In addition, it involves relatively little connection with local communities in preference for a more specific engagement made for visitors.
"Agritourism" involves visitors getting a indepth experience of farming (which could be extended to nomadism), where they participate in the work life and learn about the sources of their food. Tourists may pick their own fruit, learn how to make apple cider, tap trees for maple syrum, milk a cow, or herd cattle. Aiming to be both entertaining and educational, this is especially attractive to families with children. It helps deepen your relationship with nature as well as educates you about other ways of lives and local cultures, while also serving as a way to strengthen your bonds with your fellow visitors. Examples in the US include: at Doublerafter Cattle Drives in Ranchester, Wyoming, families can relive the Wild West while herding cattle, cooking over a campfire, and sleeping under the stars (doublerafter.com); in Woodstock, Vermont you can learn how maple syrup is made, while tours at Sugarbush Farm demonstrate how sugar-maple trees are tapped and then the results processed and taste-tested in the sugar house (sugarbushfarm.com). At Fair Oaks Farms in Fair Oaks, Indiana, visitors can watch calves being born in the birthing barn, bottle-feed the babies, and practice milking, as well assee cheese and ice cream being made (fofarms.com). Elsewhere in the world, families can stomp grapes during the wine crush in Italy, feed deer and bison in New Zealand, and pollinate vanilla flowers in India.
Currently underdeveloped in Tibet, there is great potential for such types of tourism. The more adventurous visitors could travel with nomads through high altitude pasture lands, living in tent, cooking over fires, herding yaks, making dairy products. Other visitors could live in agrarian villages, exploring the rhythms of traditional village life as they learn how to do various agrarian tasks and participate fully in the communities.
David Germano.