Ethnic Tourism

Ethnic tourism describes a special form of tourism with the intention to stay with a foreign ethnic group, especially a politically and economically marginal—often tribal—group. The journey’s target is to travel to strange, original cultures in the classic propagated ethnological understanding. This particular form of travel evolved in recent decades as an exclusive and prestigious niche product of international tourism and is preferably carried out in less developed countries.

A decisive feature of ethnic tourism is the penetration of habitats of indigenous people. Marginal areas such as national parks, islands, mountain regions, rainforests, or deserts offer a high tourist potential owing to their “exoticism.” A visit to indigenous people puts the strangeness of everyday life and the otherness of the culture of the indigenous people in ...