Exam Essay - In many Muslim countries, strict standards

Exam Essay

In many Muslim countries, strict standards exist regarding the appearance and behavior of Muslim women, who must carefully cover themselves in public. Tourists in these countries often disregard or are unaware of these standards, ignoring the prevalent dress code, appearing half-dressed (by local standards) in revealing shorts, skirts or even bikinis, sunbathing topless at the beach or consuming large quantities of alcohol openly. Besides creating ill-will, this kind of behavior can be an incentive for locals not to respect their own traditions and religion anymore, leading to tensions within the local community. The same types of culture clashes happen in conservative Christian communities in Polynesia, the Caribbean and the Mediterranean.

Question: Using the contact hypothesis, describe the potential outcomes of the tourist-host contact indicated above. Be sure to discuss the outcomes in terms of tourist-host attitudes, interactions, perceptions, values, and communication. Your answer must be a minimum of 700 words and maximum of 1000 words.