Abstract

Contemporary theory and practice within the discipline of Marketing is founded on the twin axioms of ‘difference’ and ‘choice’. Bodies of consumers are ‘read’ by marketeers in terms of a search for difference. Consumer behaviour is assumed to emanate from Cartesian choice. Underpinning both is an individualism assumed to permeate contemporary Western societies. A re-visitation of the work of Veblen, in particular the concept of emulation, facilitates an alternative perspective. Via a theoretical route involving theories of informational cascades, and by setting a cultural context drawing on the work of Lyotard, Baudrillard and Foucault, it is argued that consumers’ objective is the pursuit of sameness rather than difference. The homogeneities of ‘old tourism‘, and the heterogeneities of ‘new tourism’ are thus revealed to be different in form only.