NEW TYPES OF TOURISM Laszlo Árva ESSCA Hungary, Szolnok University College 1. SHIFT FROM FORDIST TO POST-FORDIST TOURISM CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTION If we would like to understand those new forms of tourism which have emerged during the last decades starting from the new types of educational tourism through the youth music festivals till the new types of entertainment centres at the highways we should have a short look at the new developments of tourism consumption theories. Shaw and Williams (2004) summarizing the latest findings of tourism consumption theories, based on the works of Miles (1998), Saunders (1981) and Bourdieu, has described the development of tourism consumption in the developed countries from Fordist type consumption to post Fordist consumption patterns. Fordist type consumption was the product of the post WWII economic development, with the longer paid holidays, wide use of cars, and increasing purchasing power. This tourism could be called mass tourism and its characteristics are according to Shaw and Williams (2004) the following: • collective consumption by undifferentiated tourists • Collective gaze of tourists – focused on signifiers designed to concentrate tourists’ seasonally polarized consumption • Demand for familiarity by tourists • Undifferentiated product – similarity of facilities and experiences • Rigidity of production – highly standardised, large scale, dependent on scale economies • Low prices – importance of discontinuing and price cutting • Large numbers of tourists to a circuit of mass production The Fordist type of tourism consumption was the result of the “trente gloriouses”, the thirty year long rapid economic development in Western Europe and in the USA between 1945 and 1975. The first and second oil crisis (1973-1977) and the consequent introduction of new technologies – computers, IT technologies, satellite communication – and new production methods – Toyota just in time system, foreign investments and multinational company structures – have speeded up the process of creation of the “Global Village” (McLuhan, 1962). In this “global village” information spreads with the speed of light and the IT based technologies make easier to develop tailor made, specialised products for a differentiated market. With the spread of foreign investments and the development of the multinational company system income differences have started to growth rapidly contributing to