https://doi.org/10.25198/2077-7175-2021-2-105
TOURISM IN THE CONTEXT OF THE MCDONALDIZATION CONCEPT
N. M. Mukhamedzhanova
Orenburg State University, Orenburg, Russia
e-mail: nuriyam@yandex.ru
Abstract. Tourism as a mass sociocultural practice has been developing especially actively in our country since the 90s of the XX century, when borders between countries once divided by ideological barriers were opened; international contacts at the state and personal level has been strengthening, new connections and relations, new organizations serving the diverse and growing needs of the population has been emerging. At the same time, the number of publications of various subject areas, dedicated to tourism sphere, has been growing. Scientists investigate the problems of tourism economics and management, the development of entrepreneurship in the tourism sector, legislation of tourism business, technologies for the provision of tourism services, etc. Tourism is considered in most papers as an economic phenomenon, as the most important resource for the development of the national economy. However, the problem of the concept of tourism as a socio-cultural phenomenon still requires serious comprehension. How does tourism reflect the processes that are taking place in domestic culture in connection with the processes of modernization of Russian society at the turn of the XX-XXI centuries? The answer to this question determines the relevance of the stated topic. The aim of the work is to identify the differences between tourism as a socio-cultural practice of the era of globalization and traveling of previous eras. The problem of tourism development as a socio-cultural practice is considered by the author from the standpoint of the main provisions of the theory of modernization and the theory of McDonaldization by J. Ritzer, who considers this phenomenon as a simplified form of rationality in the era of globalization. From the standpoint of the author of the article, the development and spread of tourism is associated with the establishment of capitalism on a planetary scale, which results in the penetration of capitalist relations into all spheres of culture, the McDonaldization of the socio-cultural sphere, in particular travel as an analogue of modern tourism in traditional society. Tourism activity is based on 4 basic principles of McDonaldization: economic efficiency, predictability of the consequences of certain actions, tracing the process and the result, technologically equipped control over behavior. This is what distinguishes tourism from the traveling of past eras. Tourism is an indicator that any cultural phenomenon, obeying the laws of the market, inevitably loses its spiritual, value-semantic essence and transfers from the category of cultural phenomena to the category of economic ones.
Key words: globalization, tourism, travel, modernization, McDonaldization, personality type, postmodern.
Cite as: Mukhamedzhanova, N. M. (2021) [Tourism in the context of the McDonaldization concept]. Intellekt. Innovatsii. Investitsii [Intellect. Innovations. Investments]. Vol. 2, рр. 105–111. DOI: 10.25198/2077-7175-2021-2-105.
