How does socialisation influence the tourist we become?

Strand two: Where we come from and
where we go to: How our backgrounds shape
our tourism preferences Discussion paper by Charlotte Morriss
How does socialisation influence the tourist we become?


What is it that influences you to decide what your travel desires are or the knowledge that you actually have on destinations. Is it from your family? Your peers or is it from when you was at school in education or could it be from what the media is telling you and showing you? These four aspects are key elements of socialisation through a person life and those elements indeed influence our decision and help to shape the type of tourist we will become.

Socialisation is such a broad topic with many elements within this area. There are several authors who all have different opinions of what socialisation means. Author McPherson (1989) believes 'It is a complex developmental learning process that teaches the knowledge, values, and norms essential to participation in social life. It is through socialization that we learn all types of social roles, among these are roles related to sport and leisure participation'. Whereas author Bilton (1996) ideas are 'The beauty of socialisation is that though we think we are acting independently and autonomously, as active agents writing our own life-stories, in fact our journeys through life are biographically structured, by norms and values which existed before us and which will continue to exist after we have left the stage'. In short socialisation is the process that prepares humans to function in social life, a life process which by many authors' ideas has been divided into two parts; primary socialisation and secondary socialisation.
As stated above the four key elements of socialisation influencing factors are; family, education, media and peers.

Living in the parental home at a younger age you are influenced by how your parent choose to bring you up, what sort of family holidays you travel on, did your parents allow you to help decide where to travel to or was it down to their decisions? When growing older and becoming more independent did you decide to carry on going to similar destinations as you did with your family or would you go somewhere completely different for a change.

Education is another factor that influences throughout our lives especially with leisure activities and travelling. Some people believe that if you privileged enough to either a boarding school or somewhere of high importance then the more likely you are to want to travel to destination that have cultural meaning and historic presences where they are to learn things whilst on holiday and not relax and enjoy themselves. Whereas, children and teenagers that went to a public school are more inclined to want to go on package holidays to destinations that are about having fun with either their friends or families. Furthermore the famous saying 'education broadens the mind' could suggest that the more educated a person is the more they are going to want to learn about other destinations and travel to these places and see first hand a different way of life and communities. However, for those people who may not be as educated as others will see this as an influencing factor as to travel and to see the world rather than sit at home and do nothing. It does not matter what kind of school you went to or how much you are educated it is down to how people chose to use their education for what type of tourist they become.

Everyday you are constantly having the media push advertisements in your face everywhere you go whether in your in your car driving, watching television or even reading a magazine. They are pushing information and images on you in order to buy products, visit destination or have different types of services on offer. You are being brainwashed into what you believe is to be the norm to be what you believe is true it is influencing our minds as once again we believe that what the media is telling us is to be true. It is the media that is a strong element that brain washes children but it also helps to educate them. 'The media were found to be a source of knowledge and learning in children's travel socialisation and the findings revealed that many children listen to, and observe from a source of other than parents, school or peers'. (Anon, 2005).Do the media help to influence our ideas of what tourist we are to become or does it push us away from what we develop to become.

Finally, peer pressure from others weather it be in school or other socialising activities will also have an effected and an influence on what we deice to do in any leisure activities.
After great research it becomes apparent that there are four key elements that help to influence us through both primary and secondary socialisation which consequently help to determine what type of tourist we will become.

Are you now able to answer the question of 'how does socialisation influence the tourist we become'?


3 key references
Anon. (2005). Mass Media Influence on Society. Available from: www.hubpages.com [Accessed 5th May 2011].

Bilton, T. (1996). Introductory Sociology, 3rd edition, Basingstoke: Macmillan

McPherson, B.D. (1986). Socialization Theory and Research: Toward a "new wave" of scholarly inquiry in a sport context. Human Kinetics Publishers, Illinois.

Reason for choosing this topic to comment was the fact that it is close to my own discussion paper and brought up interesting things that I did not think about.

The thing that caught my attention was when the author said in her paper that more educated people are more interested in travelling to historic and cultural destinations and those who are not so high educated just want to take a package holiday and have fun with their friends: I agree with the argument that education does not affect on what kind of tourist we become, and on my point of view that depends on how old you are, at the age of young adult it is more likely to take a fun holiday with friends but when you get older you might start to have more respect towards cultural and historic aspects on your chosen destination. But could it be also other way round, people who are educated, just want to have a nice and relaxing trip for a change. I also agree with the comment the author made about being not that educated gives them more interest to travel and "learn from life". By travelling people learn important things that are not taught at school. When considering the question raised in the paper: did your parents allow you to help decide where to travel to or was it down to their decisions? A thought rose that young adults may have negative memories about their childhood family holidays, if for example they were going to a place that was not in their interest, which may be the reason for them to choose absolutely different destination.

The author had also good points about media and how they put advertisements in to our face almost everywhere we are and try to sell us all kinds of great deals. An interesting question was also raised, if the media is drawing us away from what we are or is it shaping us to be what we are. Could it be that we are what we are and if the media succeed to change our way of thinking it is part of our personality. Because if you know how and where you want to travel but after seeing a good offer of for example package holiday you change your plans, to me it could be behaviour that is telling something about upbringing they have got. But of course documents of a destination are educational and useful for a traveller who wants information about it and help if someone has a problem to decide where to go.

All these four aspects of socialisation discussed in the paper: family, education, media and peers definitely affect on us and shape us to be the tourists we are. It is hard to say which one is the strongest or weakest but for sure all of them have affection. Overall interesting topic and fits well to this strand.