Erikson on the Tour

This study investigates the relationship between personal crisis and sense of alienation, and tourist experience patterns in men and women at different points of the adult life course. Analysis showed that the roles tourists engage in are a function of a dialectical relation between a wish to escape and a wish to relocate. Life stage and gender were found to have an influence on both factors and in shaping the tourism style. The article supports Cohen's conclusion (1979) of a causal link between the degree of the tourists' alienation from their society and the depth of their touristic experience, but it finds that other factors interfere with this link and affect it.