| Considering
the ethnographic method and its application in the study
of tourism, this article takes up the essentials of this
small scale, grass roots study of the cultures of human
groups during fieldwork. Aiming to penetrate the social
life of some group of the people, the ethnographer may use
a variety of procedures, of which participant observation
and the use of informants of various kinds are basic. Secondly,
in order to better demonstrate how ethnographies can clarify
the subject of tourism and to indicate the pluses and minuses
of its use in this line of research, three ethnographically
based studies of different aspects of tourism are summarized
and criticized in terms of criteria derived from current
understandings about the method. Finally, some of the implications
of this brief review for the study of tourism are considered. |
