The use of Virtual Tourism and the World Wide Web

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             When looking at tourism on the Internet it is important to look at the tourist's own experience of that place in comparison to reality. Urry (1990) looked at what reality means to the tourist and came up with the idea of the "Tourist Gaze".
             "The Gaze therefore presupposes a system of social activities and signs which locate the particular tourist practices, not in terms of some intrinsic characteristics but through the contrasts implied with non-tourist social practises, particularly those based within home and paid work." Urry, J (1990) The Tourist Gaze.
             The Tourist Gaze is a way of talking about the ways in which tourists learn to look at places they might visit. Before they travel, they are likely to have a series of expectations about what should be present at the destination. To some extent, they will want to see those things when they arrive, and they will want to be able to acquire visual souvenirs of what there is to see (photos). Servicing all of this there are image-makers, place marketers and people who undertake to accommodate the tourist visit. Airlines, hotel owners, resort owners, resort chambers of commerce etc., are all in the business of trying to cash in on the Tourist Gaze. They can even alter the place to suit the Gaze. They certainly massage the image for tourist publications. .
             Although Urry uses the term "Tourist Gaze" he is quite emphatic about this being very varied. He points out that there isn't one "Tourist Gaze" but many, and the Gaze changes over time and varies from person to person, from group to group.
             The most important aspect with Urry's concept "the tourist gaze" is that he contrasts people's everyday life's with their and holidays acknowledging that there are individual differences between people, which means that they should not be treated as a homogenous group. By considering the situation before the holiday in contrast to what is accomplished through the holiday, Urry actually is trying to grasp the social and sociological processes that form the individual's need for and use of their holiday.