It is often assumed that the culture which tourists bring on vacation is their own, or that of their country or cultural group, and that the culture with which they come in contact is that of the host country or group. But Boniface (1998) argues that tourists behave differently when they are away from home, indeed, that they enter tourist areas "precisely because their experiences there will not, for them, be routine" (747, quoted from MacCannell). Boniface argues that tourism "has produced a special and distinguishing culture consisting of the behavior not only of tourists but also those offering them hospitality services. ...the behavior of all those involved in the tourism process is sufficiently distinct as a tourism "culture" in an anthropological sense of the word" (747).

But as we have seen, anthropologists do not necessarily have an anthropological definition of "culture."

Is tourism, then, a new culture? A true meeting of cultures? Or something in between?

Lippard (1998) argues that with today's postmodern view of the self as fragmented, "the self changes according to the place it is set down" (31). She asks the interesting question, "Is anyone himself when a tourist?", or is the idea of "my tourist self" an oxymoron? (33). Nuryanti (1996) sees tourism as an experience only imaginable in modernity. "Tourism's fundamental nature is dynamic, " she says (249), and is "characterized by rapid movements through areas that are segmented into national and regional cultures and traditions creating an international identity in what has been termed the "global village"... In reconstructing and experiencing this global village, there is an infinite possibility of movements combined with interlocking scales of time and space... In the world of tourism, fantasy and reality are interwoven" (250).