From culture shock and culture arrogance to culture exchange: Ideas towards sustainable socio‐cultural tourism1

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Abstract
Ecologically sustainable development has captured the imagination and the serious attention of governments and world business. All too frequently the socio‐cultural component of ecologically sustainable development is given secondary and cursory attention in the planning of industry futures, including the future of tourism. This review paper will argue that empowering visitors, training tourism professionals and educating host communities in the nature of cultural interaction are all necessary activities in order to move from a paradigm of culture shock to one of cultural exchange, and hence ecologically sustainable socio‐cultural development. This paper presents two opposing future scenarios for tourism development, under which key socio‐cultural implications for four groups of participants are outlined. These groups, segmented for the purpose of analysis, are: tourism community professionals; the host community; visitors in general; and visitors who are committed culture seekers. Specific educational, research and human resource development strategies for each of these groups are identified in order to achieve a pro‐active, planned and sustainable model of cultural exchange.

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