ABSTRACT
Studies of the sensual experience in tourism have until recently been predominantly concerned with the visual, as epitomised by John Urry’s (1990) concept of ‘the tourist gaze’, which it is argued shapes tourist practice and experience, and embodies a Foucauldian power to gaze upon others. This ocularcentric approach resounds in Judith Adler’s (1989) assertion that the practice of Western sightseeing emerged as the eye gained ascendancy over the ear, giving rise to the pursuit of ‘picturesque’ and ‘sublime’ views and hierarchical sensual understandings that ‘privilege vision and consider touch and taste as bestial and base’ (Paterson, 2009: 767). Urry continues to insist that ‘the organising sense within the typical tourist experience is visual’ (2001: 146). However, we question whether in a world of proliferating tourist practices and destinations there can be any ‘typical’ tourist experience. For while modes of sightseeing are important to certain tourist endeavours in particular circumstances, numerous other sensory experiences experienced by tourists challenge this insistence on the pre-eminence of vision (see also Larsen, Chapter 8 of this volume).
