Written in an accessible style, with many photographs and drawings by the author, Smooth Sailing provides an ethnographically informed introduction to the nature of tourism and an important aspect of tourism, ocean cruising.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Abstract -- Keywords -- 1. Preface -- 2. Introduction -- 2.1 Overtourism -- 2.2 Kinds of Tourists -- 3. Aspects of Travel and Tourism -- 3.1 Tourism as a Form of Consumption -- 3.2 Tourism as a Cultural Phenomenon -- 4. Tourists and Travelers -- 4.1 Travelers and Mythology -- 4.2 Travel and Myth -- 4.3 The Myth Mode and Travel/Tourism -- 4.4 What is Travel? -- 4.5 Are Tourists Travelers? -- 4.6 Erik Cohen’s Typology of Tourists -- 4.7 Are There Important Differences Between Tourists and Travelers? -- 4.8 Tourists as Continual Spenders -- 4.9 Explorers, Settlers, Travelers, and Tourists -- 4.10 Stanley Plog on Different Kinds of Tourists -- 4.11 China Tour -- 4.12 Tourists Take Trips -- 4.13 Tourist Meccas -- 4.14 Uses and Gratifications of Tourism -- 4.15 Tourism and the Consumption Imperative -- 4.16 The Four Consumer Cultures and Tourism Preferences -- 4.17 The Search for authenticity -- 4.18 In Quest of the Exotic -- 4.19 Travel as a Rite of Passage for Young Men and Women -- 4.20 An Imaginary Image That Explains Things -- 5. The Mindset of the Traveler -- 5.1 Travelers as Risk Takers -- 5.2 Travelers as Strangers -- 5.3 Travel Fueled by Nostalgia -- 5.4 Travel and Ambivalence Towards Modernity -- 5.5 Travel as a Means of Personal Transformation -- 6. Notes on Ocean Cruising -- 6.1 Aren’t Crises Boring? -- 6.2 Social Class and Cruising -- 6.3 Statistics on the Cruise Industry -- 6.4 Main Dining Room Menu on Princess Cruises -- 7. Cruising and the Psyche -- 7.1 A Psychoanalytic Approach to Cruising -- 7.2 Come Back New -- 7.3 Cruising and the Carnivalesque -- 7.4 Cruising and Addiction -- 7.5 Cruising and Quantum Experiences -- 8. Princess Cruises: A Case Study -- 8.1 A Cruise Critics Review of the Grand Princess -- 8.2 The Grand Princess Alaska Cruise -- 8.3 Two Splurges -- 9. Coda -- 9.1 The UNWTO on Tourism -- 9.2 How I Wrote This Book -- References.

Written in an accessible style, with many photographs of important tourist sites and drawings by the author, Smooth Sailing provides an ethnographically informed introduction to the nature of tourism and an important aspect of tourism, ocean cruising. The book discusses topics such as the nature of tourism, different kinds of tourists, the role that myths play in tourism, gratifications from tourism, and travel as a means of personal transformation. It also deals with ocean cruising and considers the notion that cruises are boring, social class and cruising, cruising and addiction, and cruising and the psyche.

Description based on print version record.