Contemporary tourism and the host community in less developed areas

The aim of this article is to re-examine the concept of community and of host and visitors’ interaction in studies of tourism in less developed, remote areas. The re-examination proceeds along two lines: first, a critique of the concept of ‘community’, stressing the importance of its de-structuration into networks and linkages for the examination of the touristic process in those areas; and second, an examination of the changed nature of the host-tourist encounter under contemporary conditions of improved communications, the changing mix of tourists, and emergent ‘post-tourism’. This re-examination has significant implications for the study of the interface between tourist and host communities as well as for tourism management in less developed areas of the world.