For decades, mass tourism has been a widely used term in tourism research, and it still has no clearly agreed definition and content. There has been growing interest among scholars to address mass tourism from fresh viewpoints. This article aims to analyse theoretically and reconceptualize the discursive practice of mass tourism as a socially constructed idea and its implications. Deterministic and flexible discourses of defining mass tourism were identified within the discussions on mass tourism. The first is grounded on the idea of homogeneous mass, while the latter concentrates on alternative interpretations of the phenomenon complementing its heterogeneity. Ideas of further directions of mass tourism research are discussed.
Identity politics create distinctions, narratives and shared conceptions, and where distinctions can be made, differences arise. Contemporary states, organisations, companies and communities have procedures to level out these social boundaries, but the process of hospitality and welcome is at times more problematic than exclusion. The key question concerns the universality of welcome. If our welcome is extended to the masses, is the mass itself defined and delimited and, second, how does a general welcome condition everyday encounters with the (entitled) stranger. In this reflection, we concentrate on the concept of welcome on two different levels. The mass and interpersonal encounters and argue that whether refugees, migrants or tourists the spatiality of the welcome needs to be considered from both individual and collective viewpoints.
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