In general terms, the "impact" of tourism refers to the imprint that the tourist, tourism, and its associated infrastructures leave on an environment that has been converted into
a destination. As anthropologists, we are interested in analyzing a specific aspect of these impacts, even though it
can hardly be isolated from the whole: the changes in and
interrelations of actors in concrete situations.
This article tries to emphasize these encounters (considered
as obligations, negotiation processes, or ludic elements), which will occasion the diverse ways in which the sociocultural impact of tourism shows itself, generating, as whole, perfectly articulated identities capable of realizing
themselves at the rhythm imposed by the touristic system. Far
from considering that this activity perverts the populations and
cultures in which it is developed, these demonstrate their great capacity for adaptation in the exploitation of a
new resource, the tourist.
