Visible and hiden sociocultural consequences of the uniformity of contemporary tourism

Abstract

The duality of contemporary tourism is reflected in the stable distribution o f, on the one hand, positive and, on the other, negative and unfavourable social and economic functions. The paper investigates the causes and the manifestations of a specific and more and more significant (regarding its immanent dangers) field of tourism which speaks of the so-called “other”, dark, negative, unfavourable, conflictual, even pathological in certain elements side of this contemporary and prestigious-important social-economic phenomenon. The investigation is a segment of the author’s scientific project which has been accepted by the Croatian Ministry of Science and Technology entitled “Social and Economic Contradictions of Croatian Tourism” and whichwill investigate the social and sociocultural negative phenomena in tourism both in Croatia and elsewhere. The aim and purpose of die project is to diagnose the problems, to systematise them, to establish the ways and measures to relativise, alleviate or uproot a part or the totality of these phenomena all with the purpose to affirm and advance its positive social and economic functions and activities in order to achieve more permanent and lucrative social and economic effects. Various examples of visible and hidden consequences from world tourism culled from the relevant sources warn and make suggestions to Croatian toursim how to “actualize” this question for the benefit of tourism in Croatia.