The Ego Factor in Tourism

Tourists travel the entire globe to be in the presence of peoples, places, and objects they cannot buy or otherwise take possession of except in a spiritual sense. This essay explores the noneconomic relation at the heart of tourism, which is now said to be the largest economic sector in the world. The dominant way commercially successful destinations have organized touristic experience has been to model themselves as closely as possible on the ego. Other commodities sold on the basis of their intangible qualities may be implicated in the same narcissistic ego structure. Some questions are raised about the sustainability of ego-based consumption. Copyright 2002 by the University of Chicago.