People also go on vacation to experience what it is like to live and work on a farm, to be a meditating Buddhist monk or simply to engage in strenuous activities like riding horses on a ranch. For the visitor, because these unfamiliar activities are exotic, they are attractions, but for a resident they are merely work.
However, although 'voluntourism' has brought attention and revenue to many formerly hidden areas of the globe, there is also a great deal of criticism of this phenomenon. An individual's socioeconomic condition, the argument against voluntourism goes, should not be a tourist or visitor attraction. The idea of gawking at a poor area of the world, in return for a short period of 'feel good' volunteerism is deemed to be exploitative.
Regardless of one's feelings about 'voluntourism,' however, its growing popularity and the desire for more experience-related travel suggests that new definitions of tourism must incorporate the exoticism of activities, as opposed to places and monuments and sunny beaches, into the evolving definition of visitor attractions. For some people working hard with their hands or living in a poor area of the world is 'exotic' and to them attributes of an area's need give a place 'attraction,' just as much as more conventional relaxation activities make another area...
A visitor attraction is in the eye of the beholder, and tourism to such attractions may be best, most simply defined, as an excursion to what is deemed to be 'other' in a desirable fashion. Visitor attractions provide escapism, whether escapism from the mundane, or escapism from a too comfortable suburban life.
Works Cited
Harris, Robert & Joy Howard. 1996. Dictionary of Travel & Tourism Hospitality Terms. Melbourne,
Hospitality Press. Excerpted at the Western Australia Tourist Board. http://www.tourism.wa.gov.au/publications%20library/growing%20your%20business/what%20is%20a%20tourist%20attraction%20v3%20211005%20%28final%29.pdf
[November 29, 2010]
Metelka, Charles J. 1990. The Dictionary of Hospitality, Travel and Tourism. 3rd ed. Delamr, New
York. Excerpted at the Western Australia Tourist Board.
http://www.tourism.wa.gov.au/publications%20library/growing%20your%20business/what%20is%20a%20tourist%20attraction%20v3%20211005%20%28final%29.pdf
[November 29, 2010]
Ruiz, Rebecca. 2007. Eight hot spots for volunteer travel. Forbes.
http://www.forbes.com/2008/02/07/travel-volunteer-executive-forbeslife-cx_rr_0207travel.html[November 29, 2010]
