Tourism in Austria a case study of the influence of tourism on ethnic relations

This study discusses the influence of tourism on ethnic relations between two populations in southern Austria. For many centuries the two populations have co-existed in the same geographical area. This co-existence was based on the exploitation of two separate ecological niches in the same environment — trading and farming. With the coming of tourism in the late 1950's, however, both populations are now cooperating and competing within the same ecological niche, tourism. Tourism has led to increased contact between the two groups and greater participation in each other's affairs. This contact and participation in turn has had the effect of breaking down ethnic boundaries which had remained virtually unchanged for over one thousand years prior to the advent of tourism.