A small place,by Jamaica Kincaid: envisioning literary tourism in Antigua

ABSTRACT

This work departs from a reading of the novelistic essay A small place (1988), by Jamaica Kincaid, to analyse the representation of the tourism industry and of tourists in Antigua (the author's birthplace). From there, we present Kincaid's text as ‘tourist literature’ (Hendrix, 2014), also aiming to contribute to the examination of tourism-centred literary texts. Within the context of literature and tourism studies as well as comparative studies, this paper examines Kincaid's literary text in order to consider the promotion of literary tourism in Antigua. This example is then considered in light of recent contributions from literary tourism, space production, community-based tourism, mass tourism as well as responsible and sustainable tourism. Literary heritage as a resource for the tourism industry could bring tourists and locals closer and conspire to break down barriers between the largely dark-skinned hosts and the white tourists in Antigua.     

From farmers and shepherds to shopkeepers and hoteliers: constituency-differentiated experiences of endogenous tourism in the Greek Island of Zakynthos

The effects exerted by endogenous tourism investment on the developing Greek island of Zakynthos are examined, focusing in particular on whether the experiences among residents, tourist enterprises and local government are homogeneous, or whether they reflect varied attitudes related to sociodemographic, destination, development-process and tourist characteristics. Multivariate analysis shows that the main factors contributing to the variance in locals' experiences of and reactions to tourism development are the endogenous nature associated with the early ‘development’ phase of the evolution cycle, inhabitant constituency, carrying capacity and tourist nationality. In addition, the protection and conservation of natural and sociocultural resources are revealed as serious concerns of the island's local government. Management strategies for visitor-impact alleviation should focus on community-based planning where the hosts' collective wisdom is incorporated into the overall development process and tourism policies are compatible with the physical and human components of the local society. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Towards Integration of Sustainability into Tourism Planning in Developing Countries: Egypt as a Case Study

This article argues that planning and thus implementation of sustainable tourism development would differ not only between the developed and less developed countries’ (LDCs) tourist destinations but also from one destination to another in developing countries. Although sustainability has been introduced to the global world as an avenue for the protection of the resources in the developing world that the intrageneration equity is one of its objectives, developing countries still lack the effective planning techniques and tools for implementation. Nevertheless, developed countries have got better opportunities for the implementation of such principles, ranging from appropriate funds and expertise needed for the planning tasks, to more stable economic and environmental conditions. As the capabilities of developing countries’ tourist destinations for adopting the principles of sustainability would differ, each of those destinations should be treated separately while assessing such abilities to implement sustainable tourism development. For this purpose, this article approaches the evaluation of the Egyptian tourist planning mechanism from a sustainable point of view. In order to achieve the research objectives, a benchmark technique has been employed by using sustainability indicators as criteria to judge the appropriateness of the tourist planning system against the principles of sustainable tourism development.     

Red tourism: sustaining communist identity in a rapidly changing China

‘Red tourism’ is to exploit the historical heritage of the Chinese Communist Party for tourism development. Such tourism practice has been used by the nation state of China both to drive the country's economic growth and develop new patronage of the communist ideology among the young generation. From the broader context of China's economic and social changes since 1978 when the country started its open-door policy and economic reform, our paper attempts to examine ‘red tourism’ by analyzing how the nation state of China promotes the communist heritage through ‘red tourism’ in order to sustain the communist identity in a rapidly changing China. Research questions are raised to address the economic and social factors for the nation state involvement in ‘red tourism’: the specific roles of such involvement and the outcomes. Based on a case study, this paper presents how heritage is interpreted at a specific ‘red tourism’ site in order to portray a selective part of the communist heritage as a symbol of the Chinese nation. In so doing, ‘red tourism’ aims to serve the purpose of the nation state to sustain the communist identity in the continuing effort of developing a ‘socialist country of Chinese characteristics’.     

The Stuff of which Dreams are Made: Representations of the South Sea in German-language Tourist Brochures

The ways in which the South Pacific islands are represented in German-language tourist brochures is investigated. Our discussion of these brochure representations will examine the contrasts between tourism advertising imagery and the day-to-day interactions of tourists and locals in the islands represented. Informed by literature on motives for travel, tourist brochures, place promotion and commodification, we will discuss how German, Swiss and Austrian tourism operators depend on a deep-seated desire on the part of tourists to engage with a mythical paradisal Utopia. Common to many cultures, Utopia represents dreams of a better reality. We emphasise therefore that in addition to the now well-documented paradisal element of island tourism promotion, German-speaking tourists are enticed to the South Pacific by advertising references to it as a place where dreams may be fulfilled.     

The Poetics of Tourist Experience: An Autoethnography of a Family Trip to Eilat1

This paper is an autoethnographic exploration of a tourist’s experience. Through interpreting qualitative material, in the form of a poem I wrote in 1994 about a short familial excursion to an Israeli seaside resort city (Eilat), the research seeks to sensitively describe the intricacies of travel experience. The research explores the advantages of the autoethnographic method of inquiry, and discusses tourism-related emotions and memories in the context of performance and representation. The paper joins recent efforts in attempting to challenge and loosen the grip of positivist epistemologies and discourses on mainstream tourism studies, by illustrating the emotional complexities and contradictions in the travel experience of tourists. In line with traditions of critical research in sociology, the exploration sheds light on the materiality of texts and on the role language plays in tourism, viewing the poem read in this paper (‘Quiet Eilat’) simultaneously as a representation, performance and material object of discourse.     

The tourists of developmentourism – representations ‘from below’

Tourism has become part of the ‘development’ agenda. As an agent of post-modernity, tourism helps increase the commodification of what were previously regarded as uncommodified matters of social life. Accordingly, ‘development’ is now a tourist commodity in many localities in the so-called ‘South’, where the tourists in turn assume a moral consumer style. This paper is primarily about (strategic) representations of the tourist-other as a protagonist of assistance in the realm of what I call developmentourism. My argument is to a large degree empirical, based on two villages in Mozambique. In particular, the two cases studied indicate the interlaced relationship between tourism and ‘development’, and its repercussion on the discursive activity and representations of the members of the two villages. Moreover, both cases analysed in this paper inform the broader non-governmental economic and moral order in which they are situated.     

Exploring combined tourist offerings: the case of sightrunning

This study provides preliminary empirical insight into the contemporary tourist phenomenon of sightrunning. This combined offering simultaneously concurs with and evades theoretical perspectives of hybrid tourists, sport tourism, cultural tourism and urban tourism, favouring examination of such phenomena through first-hand experiences of the participants. For the purpose of the empirical study, automated content analysis was applied in order to analyse 858 reviews of sightrunning tours extracted from Tripadvisor web pages. Results reveal that running is the dominant concept, which refers to a gratifying ‘way to see and experience the city’ (rather than the sights). Additional concepts and themes, such as knowledgeable guides and proper pace, further mediate and effect participant experiences. Findings suggest that sport tourists might be concurrently interested in involving cultural experiences, and this offers some preliminary theoretical and managerial implications. They namely identify the potentially neglected tourist segment, which is of relevance for conceptualization, research and management of tourist offerings and experiences from (and beyond) the perspective of ‘running shoes’.     

Top down or bottom up? Issues in the development of sub-national tourism satellite accounts

It is well known that tourism makes extensive use of national identities to help build brand images, and that such use can result in significant negative impacts to peoples and their cultures. Until recent times, the dominant themes for much of Australia’s international tourism advertising campaigns have been based upon male character types, Indigenous culture and landscape. The 2006 ‘Australian Invitation’ campaign which featured a young female model and use of the term ‘bloody hell’ created a media controversy. The research reported in this paper found that the majority of respondents liked and approved of the campaign, but a cluster analysis distinguished a group of approximately one third of the respondents who held negative attitudes towards it.     

Tourism as a Tool for Poverty Alleviation: A Critical Analysis of ‘Pro-Poor Tourism’ and Implications for Sustainability

Forecasts of high tourism growth in developing nations, where widespread poverty exists, has led to considerable interest in tourism as a tool for poverty alleviation. Powerful bureaucratic and business alliances have been forged to expand this programme. International development agencies are also turning to tourism as a way of alleviating poverty. This is sometimes termed ‘pro-poor tourism’ (PPT). Distinguished from other forms of ‘alternative tourisms’ such as ecotourism and community-based tourism, the stakeholders involved in this enterprise are no less divided. Ideological divisions manifest themselves in the political struggle over how tourism in developing countries should unfold. This paper identifies the different sustainability positions of prominent pro-poor tourism stakeholders and considers the implications for meeting pro-poor and sustainability objectives. Generally, tourism is too often regarded a panacea without an attendant recognition that, like any other industrial activity, tourism is highly political. As a global industry, tourism operates within a neo-liberal market economy which presents severe challenges to meeting pro-poor and sustainable development objectives. This paper therefore recommends a fundamental re-evaluation of tourism's pro-poor potential in the absence of significant commitment to directly address structural inequities which exacerbate poverty and constrain pro-poor attempts.     

Searching for a lost aura: a Naxi Dongba’s spatial practices and space remaking in touristic commoditization

This paper explores how space remaking of tourist destinations erases aura of place. Two questions are discussed: (1) where does the aura of a tourism destination originate and (2) why/how is the aura of a tourism destination erased. Ethnographic research was conducted in 2011, 2012, and 2016, in Lijiang, Yunnan Province, focusing on the life story of He Zhenwei, a Naxi Dongba, and the spatial practices of his daily life in his workplace, home, and town. It indicates that more attention is paid to representations of space than to the aura of place in the space-making of tourist destinations. I argue that this kind of space-making tends towards the disjunction of the inherent systems of symbols of physical space, resulting in the loss of the aura of place. The most innovative aspect, in which I draw on Lefebvre’s space theory and Goffman’s theatrical stage, is the juxtaposition of ritual space, life space, and staged space, which elucidates the correlation between meaning-remaking of tourist destinations and the aura of indigenous cultures. The commoditization of heritage tourism is subject to the pursuit of the ‘Other image’ of culture as well as landscaping of place which gradually leads to the annihilation of aura.     

Tourist narratives about the dissonant heritage of the Borderlands: the case of South-eastern Poland

ABSTRACT

One of the important effects of the political transformation after 1989 in Eastern Europe is the development of tourism and increasing mobility of citizens from many countries, previously separated by the ‘Iron Curtain’. The process of economic and socio-cultural change justifies the debate regarding the future, but also on the legacy of the past. As for South-eastern Poland, tourism has been used as an important narrative tool for spreading, strengthening or weakening ethnic and national stereotypes by promoting cultural resources and performances that enable cooperation and mutual understanding. However, it can also be a source of potential fears or conflicts, for instance by creating controversial tourist attractions and stories about certain historical events. This paper discusses strategies of ‘past presencing’ of the heritage of South-eastern Poland border regions in public life, culture and tourism, drawing on a few examples which show different ways of restoring the memory of the former Eastern Borderlands. The theme village called ‘The Borderland Settlement’ and the historical reconstruction ‘Volyn 1943–2013’ relate to the main myths and the active memory concept that frame tourist narratives and contribute to the reinvention and reinterpretation of dissonant heritage.     

Islamic tourism: an empirical examination of travel motivation and satisfaction in Malaysia

The objectives of this study are to test the relationship between tourism motivations and tourist satisfaction, and to test how ‘Religion’ moderates the relationship. The variable ‘Religion’ is represented by the availability of Islamic norms and practices relevant to tourism at the destination. The results of the partial least square indicate that tourism motivations are significantly and positively related to tourist satisfaction. The results also showed that Religion significantly moderates the relationship between pull motivation and tourist satisfaction. However, the moderating effect of Religion on the relationship between push motivation and tourist satisfaction was not supported.     

Ethnic tourism in Lao PDR: gendered divisions of labour in community-based tourism for poverty reduction

A simultaneous analysis of gender and ethnicity provides a fuller understanding of how tourism initiatives benefit marginalised groups in developing countries. In this article, the gendered division of labour is analysed as a way to understand the micro-politics of ethnic tourism production aiming at poverty reduction in Laos. The aim is to demonstrate how constructions of gender and ethnicity impact on women's possibilities to benefit from community-based pro-poor tourism initiatives. Socially constructed notions of gendered behaviour influence divisions of tourism labour in specific spatialities, which we argue is crucial knowledge in the implementation of tourism projects aiming at poverty reduction. The assumption that ‘the poor’ constitute a homogenous group might hide an uneven distribution of tourism benefits in local communities. By focusing on factors which marginalise women, the article demonstrates inequalities between men and women in the division of tourism work. A village in northern Laos is used as a case study to examine aspects impacting on gendered divisions of labour in community-based tourism in Laos. Two examples, the Akha people's belief in and worship of spirits, and provision of massage, are used to illuminate reasons behind gendered imbalances in more detail.     

Geosite assessments: comparison of methods and results

Geotourism as a rapidly evolving and attractive tourism form expands into many regions. This ‘new’ tourism form brings new research issues to be solved including, e.g. geosite identification, geosite assessment, geopark establishment, (geo)tourist trail definitions. One of the biggest challenges of researchers not only in the field of geotourism is to set specific value of an individual locality. The aim of this paper is to compare selected assessment methods of geosites. Different quantitative methods were selected due to fact that it is possible to compare final score of assessments. The results show that using different assessment methods on selected localities gives different results and geosite rankings. Based on this fact, further research in the field of geosite assessment is needed for (geo)tourism planning and management as discussed in this paper.     

Intimations of Postmodernity in Dark Tourism: The Fate of History at Fort Siloso,Singapore

In this paper, we examine what a few scholars have referred to as postmodernist intimations within contemporary tourism practices, and their potential implications on the way that history is portrayed within ‘dark tourism’ sites. Drawing upon the case of one such site, Fort Siloso, we emphasise two main implications: (1) the privileging, at the site, of the ‘visual’ and ‘experiential’ over the need for historical interpretations, and (2) the dilution of local specificities to make it universally appealing. We then analyse the views of visitors to the site, mainly tourists, to show that, while they appreciate the former, they are also critical of the fact that the past has been ‘watered-down’ at the site. On a broader note, we highlight a few paradoxes emerging within postmodernist conceptions of tourism today, and how the increase in demand for the enhancement of ‘the gaze’ does not necessarily mean a concomitant compromise on, and ideally should not be done at the expense of, historical rigour and depth.     

The Fromelles Interment 2010: dominant narrative and reflexive thanatourism

The heritage and tourism appeal of the First World War (1914–1918) battlefield sites holds similarities with past capital cities’ attractions and the cultural heritage, built structure and commemorative events fostered by government-backed narrative. Governments and associated institutions manage and communicate the ‘dominant narrative’ of official culture that generally concerns moral and emotional aspects of history, myths or legends. On the other hand, the ‘little narrative’ or vernacular attributed to individuals complements and enriches the significance of official narrative and links closely to public memory. Vernacular narrative derives from personal information, family history, diaries and privately held records that eventually become part of the dominant, government narrative. The combination of these narratives contributes to the continually emerging and reassembled discourse of the First World War because it links local and foreign people with one another in seemingly viable and tangible ways. The narrative passed from generations with first-hand experience to the present day intergenerational narrative that enhances the austere facts of history. Battlefield visitors are active consumers of historical events and builders of meaning that generate from a broad spectrum of sources covering government, ancestors and family. Consequently, events such as the Fromelles Interment highlight the impact of planning, promotion and management of specific tourism events by governments, various contributing agencies, the press and the general public. The idea of an interment moves away from thanatourism to the concept of restorative or reflexive nostalgic tourism because visitors related to the relaxed, festive atmosphere of the Fromelles ceremony as well as the dominant narrative behind this unique, singular event of remembrance. The Fromelles story, the creation of a new cemetery and the visitors' insights are unique because such an event is unlikely to be repeated for any other First World War battlefield.     

Colonial tourism in Victoria,Australia, in the 1840s: George Augustus Robinson as a nascent tourist

Using the private journals of George Augustus Robinson as a lens, this paper is concerned with generating insights into the emergence of tourism in colonial Victoria, during what Towner calls its ‘tourism era of discovery’. Robinson was the Chief Protector of Aborigines and is generally regarded as the most travelled man in Victoria in the 1840s. Robinson was reconstructed as a ‘nascent tourist’ whose gaze was mediated by British conventions of the picturesque and panoramic, confirming that new world tourism in Australia in the nineteenth century is rendered in old world paradigms. The role played by private landholders in creating ‘nascent private tourism’ and the nexus between explorers, travellers and tourists were also highlighted. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.