Host and Guest Interactions

Host – guest relationships

HOSPITALITY & GIFT EXCHANGE

The term hospitality comes from the Latin noun hospice meaning a place of shelter or entertainment. Pre-modern times this implied free sustenance and lodging to travellers. Travel was then done out of necessity and adversity than pleasure and there was an obligation to welcome these strangers (often a social or religious duty).

“hospitality throughout history has been centred around security, physical comfort, psychological comfort, all centring around offerings, gratis or commercial to others by a host” Christian (1979)

The exchange between the host and guest was studied by Mauss who developed the theory of Gift Exchange (1925).Strangers were welcomed because they brought news, information about events, told stories and made a change from the usual routine in exchange for free accommodation.


HOST-GUEST RELATIONS

In visiting any destination, the visitor will have some impact on the destination. The relationship between host and guest will depend on the degree of interaction.

Doxy’s (1975) Irridex is a model charted to show how stress builds up in the community as the number of tourists increases. This stress is not necessarily the result if the numbers of tourists but rather the type of tourists.

STAGE 1 Euphoria
Visitors are welcomed because hosts can see positive benefits such as jobs and investments. There is little formal development at this stage.


STAGE 2 Apathy
Visitors are taken for granted. Hosts accept some problems that come as part of having tourists. Interactions have become less personal and much more personal.

STAGE 3 Irritation
Locals are concerned about the growth of tourism and the resultant impacts such as congestion and efforts are made to improve the infrastructure.

STAGE 4 Antagonism
Open hostility towards tourists, attempts made to limit the damage and tourism flows. The use of derogatory terms such as “grockles” are used to describe tourists, attempts to ration the number of visitors because of the demands on the infrastructure (sewage/energy etc). Concern also over cultural capacity – visitors impacting on normal life for hosts: such as religion, use of beaches and demands particularly of tourists from other cultures.

Feelings against tourists can become very strong – for example, this scathing appraisal made almost 140 years ago: "Of all the noxious animals , the most noxious is a tourist; and of all the tourists, the most vulgar ill-bred, offensive and loathsome is the British tourist". by Reverend Francis Kilvert as long ago as 1870 (quoted in Jim Butcher's The Moralisation of Tourism)

Another, more damning description of tourists came from Lord Glenconner was referring to tourists visiting Mustique when he said “They are just like another crop, like cotton was in the past”. (The Times 13/01/01).

Some people have a more positive response to tourists Greece - The Art of Hospitality





TYPES OF TRAVELLER

The relationships between hosts and visitors will not just depend on the number of visitors or length of stay but also on the type of visitor.


Smith (1989) proposed a typology of tourists:

Type of Tourist

Explorer - Very limited number of toutists - Accepts fully local norms
Elite - Rarely seen - Adapts fully to local norms
Off-beat - Uncommon but seen - Adapts well to local norms
Unusual - Occasionally seen - Adapts somewhat to local norms
Incipient mass - Steady flow of these tourists - Seeks Western amenities
Mass - Continuous influx - Expects Western amenities
Charter - Massive arrivals - Demands Western amenities


Some authors distinguish between tourists and travellers. While the tourists are more separate from the hosts, the travellers have less of a negative impact by adapting to the local norms.

Wang (2000) writes that the increase of tourism as a commodity indicates the loss of the art of travel.