In what ways does tourism change the host community? This book offers original insights into the broad and deep influences of tourism, and places them within the historical context of globalisation. Intensive fieldwork spanning many years on a Canary Island has produced a rich portrayal of the community, examining the changes experienced in areas including their working lives, families, identities, local culture, values, attitudes, political structure and economic base. The tourists, predominantly independent, are also examined, and their unique impact analysed. The research emphasises the indigenous experience, and makes cross-cultural comparisons, especially with island communities. It employs the methods of sociocultural anthropology and includes the multidisciplinary findings of tourism studies: in doing so it is innovative and challenges standard understandings of the influence of specific types of tourism on small communities.