| Crdts. Teor. | 4 | The purpose of this subject is to explain and analyse some of the main social effects caused by the development of modern tourism. Since the early 1960s, with the boom of mass tourism, thanks to the combination of a series of factors ¿a new international order, economic prosperity, the revolution of communications, the appearance of tour operators and consumerism, among others- most of the citizens from developed countries have been able to join the tourist practice, and tourism is going through an unprecedented expansion. Very little time has sufficed for tourism to become a huge mass phenomenon that keeps constantly growing, both domestically and internationally, to such an extent that, in our times, it has become one of the most deeply-rooted social activities. It affects both the emitting societies, which are the ones that have managed to reach a level of development high enough for the majority of their inhabitants to be able to travel, and to the receiving, host societies, which are hit by numerous important alterations in many aspects: economic, social, cultural, developmental (urbanistic), demographic, environmental, etc. As will be analysed, one cannot deny the capacity of tourism to transform peoples, their cultures and individuals, and the speed and intensity with which this evolution has taken place has very often made it difficult to implement a satisfactory parallel activity. This subject is structured in a series of topics which cover the areas considered most relevant to start to make students aware of the relevance of tourism in these days and in our society. After all, tourism is a phenomenon of an unprecedented social dimension. |