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The ties that bind: Exploring the relevance of neo-tribal theory to tourism
Citation
Hardy, A and Robards, BJ, The ties that bind: Exploring the relevance of neo-tribal theory to tourism, Tourism Analysis, 20, (4) pp. 443-454. ISSN 1083-5423 (2015) [Refereed Article]
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Copyright Statement
Copyright 2015 Cognizant Communication Corporation
Official URL: https://www.cognizantcommunication.com/journal-tit...
DOI: doi:10.3727/108354215X14400815080686
Abstract
In tourism studies/tourism management, traditional approaches to the segmentation of tourists have
tended to focus upon the tangible aspects of why people travel, such as visitors’ motivations, demographic
characteristics, and values and behavior exhibited at specific destinations. This review article
from Hardy and Robards takes a critical approach to challenge the governing assumption involved
here, that marketing studies of "tourism" should routinely or necessarily focus on the individual and
thus upon class-based characteristics such as income to define tourists. Rather, the authors argue that
tourists may be fruitfully segmented by commonalities of intangible aspects, such as "a shared sense
of sentiment," "tourist ritual," "collective bonding," and "belonging." Hardy and Robards thereby
suggest that neotribal approaches indeed offer rich opportunities to do this by empowering the
exploration of tourists’ symbolic and behavioral characteristics. This review article consonantly proposes
that by returning to Maffesoli’s work, researchers in the twin fields of tourism studies/tourism
management may make substantial critical contributions to unfolding understandings of and about
"consumer tribes." Hence, Hardy and Robards suggest that subtribes exist within broader neotribes
and that that sort of "membership" may not in fact be as fluid as many investigators have previously
suggested.
Item Details
| Item Type: | Refereed Article |
|---|---|
| Keywords: | Recreational vehicle users; Consumption; Maffesoli; Neotribes; Subtribes; |
| Research Division: | Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services |
| Research Group: | Tourism |
| Research Field: | Impacts of tourism |
| Objective Division: | Expanding Knowledge |
| Objective Group: | Expanding knowledge |
| Objective Field: | Expanding knowledge in law and legal studies |
| UTAS Author: | Hardy, A (Associate Professor Anne Hardy) |
| UTAS Author: | Robards, BJ (Dr Brady Robards) |
| ID Code: | 95865 |
| Year Published: | 2015 |
| Deposited By: | School of Social Sciences |
| Deposited On: | 2014-10-09 |
| Last Modified: | 2018-03-15 |
| Downloads: | 247 View Download Statistics |
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