ABSTRACT
Qualitative tourism studies started initially as cultural critique against the perceived superficiality of the tourism experience. Daniel Boorstin's approach has been blamed for underestimating travellers and for suggesting that all travellers actually want spurious experiences instead of the authentic ones. Like Boorstin, Dean MacCannell too wrote about tourists in general, without paying much attention to actually defining them more specifically. As both Boorstin's and MacCannell's tourists leave a familiar place, go to a far place, and come back to the familiar place, the Turnerian tourists do the same. For the postmodern tourists, travel is a game and they can freely admit that they are just playing and having fun without intentions to seek anything more. While Turnerian tradition stressed the tourists' quest for anti-structure that differs from their everyday life, the postmodern tourists are left with a paradox. While they seem to be looking for anti-structure, they also want it to be like everyday life.
