African as Tourist

Abstract

This article argues that in most tourism studies the African has been stereotypically cast as a “touree” but not “tourer.” As such, mainstream theory in tourism is a product of a predominantly Western ethnocentric view of the tourist as a Westerner. In recent years, however, some authors have started to question modern-man-in-general approaches to the study of tourism, highlighting their failure to recognize the interface between culture and tourism. The article argues further that authenticity, for example, has been at the center of tourism sociological debate for decades, yet to date no attempts have been made to provide an African viewpoint. Indeed, the lack of African tourist studies which investigate culture specific meanings in relation to central debates in tourism has created an “African perspective gap” in tourism theory in general.