Abstract

This book is the only in-depth ethnographic study of British charter tourists. It is based on several months of participant observation of British charter tourists on holiday in Palmanova and Magaluf on the Mediterranean Island of Mallorca. With a focus on space, the body, and food and drink practices, the book explores the experiential nature of touristic practice which provides insight into constructions, understandings and knowledge of the self in relation to national, regional, class, and gender identities. These issues in turn highlight elements of power and control which are mainly articulated through the attempts to manipulate tourists' consumption practices by the mediators of tourists' experiences.

The British on Holiday is a valuable addition to the tourism research literature and it deserves a wide audience amongst tourism researchers, advanced tourism students and destination managers.The British on Holiday is perhaps one of a few research books which would be good to read on the beach. But it is more than that, and I urge all my colleagues to dip into it.

Andrews' book breaks new ground in critically constructive recognition and deep analysis of the experiences of charter tourists. With sound anthropological attention, habitual academic stereotypes are upturned in a consideration of individuals' feelings and thoughts alongside astute commentary on power and 'regular' life. A rare study that integrates tourism.

This is a remarkable book, for several distinct and overlapping reasons. To start with, it is a first-class ethnography. Andrews’ volume presents us with a penetrating description and analysis of the best-known destination for British holidaymakers in the Mediterranean.

Overall, this book adroitly explains and evaluates the tourism behavior in two of the most popular Mediterranean resorts.It explores the consumption patterns of British charter tourists in these famous resorts. It is an excellent and detailed representation of the active behavior of tourists while they are on holiday. Different anthropological and cultural theories are utilized in order to exemplify aspects of nationalism, identity, and consumption as a triptych against which to understand society in relation to tourism through ethnographic study.

Hazel Andrews is Senior Lecturer in Tourism, Culture and Society in the Centre for Tourism, Events and Food Studies at Liverpool John Moores University. With a particular focus on practices of embodiment, consumption, habitus and place, her research and publications examine social and symbolic constructions of national, regional and gendered identities in the context of British tourists to Mallorca. Her current research involves the application of theories of existential anthropology to understandings of tourists' experiences and an examination of discourses of nationalism in tourism imagery. Hazel is a co-founder and an editor of the Journal of Tourism Consumption and Practice.

This book offers a fascinating analysis of the practices of certain forms of tourist behaviour at a micro level, while also linking these to the wider social and cultural constraints that inform and sustain them.