Tourist mobility: sociological theory and implementation practices

Abstract

The article analyzes the connection between the sociology of tourism and the general sociological theory of mobility, which leads to an understanding of modern tourist mobility not as a process of revealing the will of individuals to learn about different cultures, but as a system of social constructions that exist in the form of tourism practices and are focused on maximizing profits for global tour operators. The methodology. The method of the propositional analysis is aimed at identifying logically based semantic units with the aim of selecting and synthesizing reliable knowledge expressed in texts written on issues of sociology of tourism and the general sociological theory of mobility. Scientific novelty is in clarifying the concept of tourist mobility and tourist practices; in revealing that they are largely the result of commercially oriented social construction carried out in the interests of global tour operators; in demonstrating that commercial and non-commercial tourist mobility entail incompatible social consequences. Conclusions. The article is devoted to current problems of modern sociology of tourism in its connection with the general theory of mobility (one of the founders of which was the British sociologist John Urry) that complemented the “old” theory of social mobility by the doctrine of the movement of people, goods, capital, information, etc. in geographical space. Now society has come to be understood as a mobile structure consisting of many mobile practices (including tourism) that can be aimed at either developing essential strength of people or control over their consciousness and behavior.