Working with the carnivalesque at the seaside: Transgression and misbehaviour in a tourism workplace

Abstract

To date, consideration of the carnivalesque at the seaside has focussed on the practices and behaviour of tourists. Less attention has been paid to tourism employees who are not participants in the carnival but may nevertheless be affected by the ‘playful crowd’ that they work with. This study focuses on employees in a seaside amusement park. Employees regularly experienced ‘misbehaviour’ (such as abusive language, attempted theft and violence) by visitors reflecting the spirit of carnival. Employees responded by treating tourists with contempt and retaliated with tactics such as cheating, and reciprocal abuse and violence. The spirit of carnival rubbed off on employees in other ways such as using alcohol or drugs in the workplace, and participation in casual sexual encounters with both other staff and customers. In a variety of ways, employees inverted and transgressed the norms of the hospitality encounter in ways which reflected the influence of the carnival.