ABSTRACT
Travel and tourism prepare an environment for intercultural interaction processes. Due to the different cultural characteristics of tourists from different nationalities, their attitudes toward each other and the results of these attitudes, and the threats they perceive from the outgroup, can be determined within the framework of the integrated threat theory. It is possible that different behaviors and attitudes will emerge in the travel and tourism sector, where cultural differences are intensely observed. Tourists of different nationalities and cultures, working together and spending time in common areas, reflect the traces of many personal and cultural factors while meeting their needs. In this context, in addition to demographic factors such as age, gender, and marital status as well as psychological factors such as motivation, perception, personality structure, and learning, factors of the cultural dimension of nationality, which belong to individual factors, may allow the emergence of a cultural differentiation and a different intergroup contact. For this reason, the traditions, social values, attitudes, and behaviors of each nationality should be examined first. Thus, the different images that tourists have in each other may cause them to approach with subjective evaluations by moving away from an objective approach. Integrated threat theory is important for intercultural research, as it helps to explore social issues and to understand the cognitive processes behind people’s attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. Some of the applicable research topics of the integrated threat theory are expressed by Redmond (p. 3), “religious intolerance”, “public attitudes towards immigration”, “racial profiling and stereotyping”, “public attitudes toward same gender relationships”, “support for feminist movements”, “diversity” and “national identity”, and “different motives in the workplace”. This chapter aims to examine the question, “Does travelling/tourism impact on prejudice, discrimination, assimilation, genocide, segregation, and integration?” And if the answer is yes, it aims to determine the answer of the question, “How does travelling/tourism impact on prejudice, discrimination, assimilation, genocide, segregation, and integration?”
