ABSTRACT
Mainstream tourism development has been dominated by an assumption that the everyday or the commonplace is what the tourist wants to escape from. Plog (1972), Cohen (1974) and Smith (1977) each identified groups who sought the ‘ordinary’ in their travels-Plog’s ‘allocentric’ who is happy to board with local residents; Cohen’s ‘experiential’ traveller who looks for meaning in the lives of others; Smith’s ‘explorer’ who desires to interact with his hosts and accepts local norms. In the 1970s these groups were marginal to the business of tourism. Today, guidebooks explain how to meet the ‘real locals’ (Rough Guides 1996) and companies targeting the independent traveller are amongst the fastest growing sectors of the industry.
