Formas de análisis de la relación entre anfitriones y turistas

Abstract

The present article intends to present some aspects about the study of the relationship between hosts and guests in the field of tourism (the `host & guest ́ context, for Anglo-Saxon scholars). This relationship is increasingly important in so-called sustainable tourism, which is based on the interaction between the residents in charming and tourism potential areas, with visitors. In our opinion, much of the sustainability of the tourism "business" depends on how this relationship evolves. The exchange between both groups of actors (hosts and guests) is on the basis of this relationship. This exchange can be developed in different ways: it can be balanced or unbalanced, according to the negotiating capacities of each part. It may favor or not the dependence of one of the parties, especially when the viable alternatives to the tourist business are limited. On the contrary, it can favor the independence and empowerment of the parties, if there are acceptable counterparts and alternative options. This exchange will be in function on a series of variables from which we stand out the degree of exposure of `the hosts ́ to the tourist phenomenon. The Theory of Social Interchange (TIS) offers an explanatory paradigm of the role of the strategies that the different actors can deploy in this relational context. At the empirical level, literature offers examples of how to approach analytically the relationship between hosts and tourists. This article explained some researches, the sampling designs and the scales that have been made, validated and applied. All this has the interest of being able to be replicated in contexts different from those that have been used for its generation and development, especially in rural areas of peripheral regions.