The complex interplay between tourism and culture

Geographical and cultural boundaries make less difference in transforming innovations nowadays. Culture means creative action and the combination of innovations adopted from different areas and cultures. Chance and the continuous need for change are an essential part of culture. The demand for authenticity often leads people to think that there was a kind of primary ideal of culture. But there was never any stable start but a continuously changing process. Tourism is an important part of contemporary Western culture, including national, local and ethnic groups. Historically the tourist industry is a relatively young cultural phenomenon. Nevertheless, the methods and :mechanisms the tourist industry uses are very much like those which cultures have used in the course of time. The tourist industry offers tourists a selected past and tradition which are emphasized by pleasant features, nostalgia and sentimentality. Selected history and tradition are present images of tile past. But is it only the tourist industry which manipulates culture and tradition? Even ethnic groups, nations and etc. do so. Who has the right to set the forms and contents for the image culture should have?