King, Victor T.
(2018)
Tourism And Erik Cohen In Thailand:
Comparisons, Impacts, Mobilities And
Encounters.
International Journal of Asia Pacific Studies (IJAPS), 14 (2).
pp. 1-38.
ISSN ISSN: 1823-6243
Abstract
The leading scholar in research in the feld of tourism in Thailand is Professor
Erik Cohen. Not only has he contributed to the store of empirical material on
Thailand on a wide range of tourism-related subjects, but he has been involved in
an important series of debates about theories and paradigms in the sociologicalanthropological study of tourism. These debates examine the appropriate concepts
to be deployed in understanding leisure activities and the transformations which
tourism has set in motion. In tourism studies, there are several key ideas which
have preoccupied researchers, many of them in relation to Thailand, to do with
cultural “touristifcation” and commodifcation; imaging and representation; staging
and authenticity; identity and ethnicity; host-guest relations; mediation and tour
guides; trajectories of change; sequential typologies; and the tourist gaze. A most
recent set of discussions generated by Erik Cohen and Scott Cohen has considered
the utility of the sociological concept of mobilities and the problem of Eurocentrism
in understanding local-level touristic encounters. The paper will critically review
these concepts and provide contextual material on the development of tourism in
Thailand during the past four decades. Until recently tourism in Thailand has tended
to focus on selected sites along an axis which includes the northern hill or “tribal”
regions, Chiang Mai and its environs, the greater Bangkok metropolitan area, and
several beach and island resorts in southern Thailand, subjects which Erik Cohen
has examined in considerable detail.
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