This book is about pleasure,about holidays,tourism and travel,abouthow and why for short periods people leave their normal place of workand residence. Book is about how in different societies and especially whithin different social groups in diverce historical periods the tourist gaze has changed ahd developed. Gaze presupposes a system of social activities. In 13th -14th centuries pilgrimages had become a wide spread phenomenon.At the end of 17th century the Grand Tour had firmly established for sons of aristrocracy and by late 18th century for the sons of professional middle class.Between 1600 and 1800,treties on travel shifted from a scholastic emphasis on touring as an opportunity for discourse,to travel as eyewitness observation. Character of the tour itself shifted , from the earlier 'Classical Grand Tour'based on emotionally neutral observation and recording galleries,museums and high cultural artifacts,to the 19th century'Romantic Grand Tour'which saw the emergence of scenic tourism and much more private and passionate experience and beauty. the growth of mass tourism represents a democretisation of travel. Tourist sites can be classified in terms of three dichotomies:romantic /collective, historical /modern, authentic/ inauthentic. There is a universalisation and socialisation of the tourist gaze in the postmodern cultures.

Urry seemed to condense what should have been 600 pages into 150. And they were some of the hardest 150 pages I've read. Complexity theory is a fascinating topic and its application to globalization is definitely relevant. However, I found Urry very difficult to follow and I was left unconvinced. I would strongly suggest reading M. Mitchell Waldrop's book "Complexity" to get a much clearer perspective on the theory.