Imagining the Scottish nation: tourism and homeland nationalism in Scotland

Genealogical tourism is one of the fastest growing sub-segments of heritage tourism. The travel motivation for genealogical visit stems from the search for familiarisation and identification with ‘the native other’ through which tourists seek to reaffirm their cultural affinity and commonness. The purpose of this article is to see how renewed cultural affinity with the homeland constructs a form of nationalism. Qualitative data collected through field surveys, interviews and questionnaires with genealogical tourists showed that such travel bestows a renewed sense of self-identity, enhances cultural affinity to their ‘homeland’ nation and plays a role in articulating ‘homeland’ nationalism. The article contributes in understanding the articulation of root, identity and ancestral belonging in the context of genealogical tourism and the way it can be linked with the ‘Nationalist’ sentiment in Scotland.     

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’.     

Location Shooting and the Filmic Destination: Transylvanian Myths and the Post-Colonial Tourism Enterprise

In this study, we examine a contested tourism proposal in Romania, Dracula Park, and its attempts to balance the indigenously produced history of the region with the powerful myths imposed by European and American filmic and literary influences: Bram Stoker's Dracula and the ‘heritage films’ it spawned. While the project was recently announced to be abandoned, the Romanian discourse on Dracula Park offers an avenue for a post-colonial critique which we explore in the context of globalisation, place, identity and various texts of the culture industry. A film-location-tourism spectrum helps illustrate some of the issues raised in this paper. Dracula films and Dracula Park (DP) occupy a problematic spot on this continuum, as myth and history are mediated around a real Transylvania by local-global cultural intermediaries. This helps us situate the political economy of tourism in settings like post-socialist Romania. We argue that the literary-film-DP example shows tourism as a postcolonial enterprise of a globalised culture industry. This industry, of which tourism is a part, not only shapes touristic spaces in ex-colonies within the developing (lesser developed) world, but also constructs identities and heritage in peripheral spaces within the cultural coloniser's Europe.     

Landscape,Memory and Heritage: New Year Celebrations at Angkor,Cambodia

This paper examines tourism, memory and notions of heritage at the World Heritage Site of Angkor, Cambodia. Rather than viewing heritage and social memory as abstract concepts, the paper explores domestic tourism at Angkor as the context within which Cambodia's recent history is re-articulated and made meaningful for a population recovering from decades of national turmoil. In exploring the various values and meanings associated with the national festival of Khmer New Year, the paper argues that an understanding of Angkor as a form of 'living heritage' remains neglected within a management framework which conceives the site as a form of material culture of the 'ancient' past. It is therefore suggested that exploring the values and meanings associated with Angkor's cultural heritage in this way provides valuable insight into the complex relationships of landscape, memory and identity.     

Holiday in Mexico: critical reflections on tourism and tourist encounters

This article examines the role of tourism as a motive and mechanism for change in contemporary cities, considering how the theming of space with tourists in mind necessarily involves other kinds of spatial and social transformation, and asking what role actual and hypothetical tourists play in local contests over space and representation. Looking closely at Belfast's Gaeltacht Quarter provides an insight into how global fashions in place marketing, tourism and minority language promotion intersect with the particularities of areas to which they are applied. This paper argues that the superficially value-neutral, internationally recognisable language of economic development can be used both as a means of transcending, and a means of strategically negotiating, intense struggles over space, identity and status.     

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.     

Tourism in peripheral areas—the challenges for northeast Scotland

All peripheral regions face significant challenges with tourism development. This research initially acknowledges the challenges facing peripheral regions, which can be either geographical, such as access and infrastructure, or perceptual in nature, such as image related. Subsequently the challenges for tourism provision and development in the northeast of Scotland are discussed. Primary data have been collected from tourism providers in the region in an attempt to identify the specific challenges that face northeast Scotland. This region of Scotland faces a unique challenge in that the region effectively has two micro‐economies; Aberdeen city and its surrounding area benefit from the influence of a relatively buoyant oil industry, whereas the more remote areas to the north and west exhibit many peripheral tendencies. This juxtaposition of two contrasting operating environments in a peripheral area highlights the unique challenges for tourism development in this part of the world. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

'Heritage' Tourism in Northern Ireland: Opportunity Under Peace

Having endured terrorist violence for 30 years, Northern Ireland is on the verge of achieving a lasting peace. Tourism is well poised to benefit from the prospects of peace and the economic growth that is anticipated to follow. In this paper the first section, based on an analysis of secondary tourism data collected between 1994 and 1997 (a period during which the Irish Republican Army declared two cease-fires), assesses the extent to which tourism can benefit within a climate of peace. Heritage tourism within Northern Ireland is examined, on the basis that the majority of tourist attractions and the tourism experiences being sold to visitors fall under the heritage label. Heritage and heritage tourism is discussed within the Northern Ireland context. The second half of the paper examines what are emerging as the key challenges and issues facing the tourism industry in Northern Ireland and the opportunities for long-term growth. The paper reveals that tourism benefited for the yearsin which a cease-fire held, but that the heritage attraction is somewhat complex, with a range of heritage types ranging from natural to industrial. Discussion centres on how this 'heritage' experience is to be planned and managed, and the challenge of ensuring sustainability of a product that has the support of both 'communities' in Northern Ireland.     

When the Past Poses Beside the Present: Aestheticising Politics and Nationalising Modernity in a Postcolonial Time

This article focuses on the Tunisian government's tourist promotion policies during the 1990s. It takes a Deleuzian perspective, using the notion of crystalline narration developed by the author of The Time-Image. I will emphasise the idea of coalescence between past and present as revealed in the advertising images of the period where heritage objects appear among other contemporary objects.

In fact, I will draw on a corpus of short films and commercials produced by the Tunisian tourism bureau to be broadcast both inside and outside the country. My analysis will focus on the ways in which actors in the fields of politics and tourism use these objects for media purposes, targeting both Tunisians and foreign tourists to whom they strive to hold up a crystal-image of Tunisia. This image is shored up by a political discourse put forward by a state that wishes to appear both to its citizens and to others as reconciling past and present. The crystal metaphor evokes a narrative mode in which heritage is likened to the glittering of scattered crystals and Tunisian identity seems to emerge from the ‘mists of time’ with sparkling refractions on ‘tips of the present’.     

Urban heritage and cultural tourism development: a case study of Valletta’s role in Malta’s tourism

ABSTRACT

Despite significant potential for cultural tourism, the predominant form of tourism in Malta is sun and sea. This paper evaluates Malta’s potential for cultural tourism with a focus on Valletta, a fortified historic city that overlooks the Grand Harbour. Valletta’s rich urban heritage and historic narrative makes it ideal for the development of a more culture-oriented tourism. The paper explores how, over more than half a century of tourism activity in Malta, culture and heritage retained a secondary role. Since the mid-nineties, Malta’s tourism policy shifted with culture and heritage being given greater importance, even if the sun and sea tourism remained a priority. Public and private investment brought about changes in Valletta that made it more amenable to cultural activity and tourism. Although European Capital of Culture Valletta 2018 provides new opportunities for cultural tourism to Malta, it is unclear whether this will bring a lasting legacy for Malta’s tourism. This Valletta case study shows that, for destinations with an established form of tourism, the development of cultural tourism meets with difficulties, in spite the presence of a rich urban heritage.     

Memory work versus memory-work and its utility in heritage tourism

This paper advocates researching the diverse, unstructured, idiosyncratic personal and autobiographical memories of individuals – visitors, tourists, local residents and geographically dispersed patrons associated with heritage resources and heritage tourism attractions. ‘Memory-work’, conceptualized by Frigga Haug and her collaborators in the 1980s as a feminist constructionist method, is differentiated from ‘memory work’ (without hyphen) as defined in the scholarly literature from different disciplines in the past three decades. For the purposes of this paper, memory work is then conceptualized as a qualitative, interpretivist research approach focused on memories, which employs a range of methodologies and techniques to elicit and ‘process’ memories, and draws on memory theory for analysis. It is argued that memory work can provide useful insights for academic knowledge production and applied research in heritage tourism. A few examples of specific research techniques are presented to illustrate the diverse spectrum of how memory work can be carried out in practice. It will moreover be discussed how memory distortion and ‘false memories’ are to be treated, how memory work differs from other qualitative modes of enquiry, and what its benefits and limitations are.     

Tourism in the Middle East: Conflicts,Crises and Economic Diversification,Some Critical Issues

This paper briefly examines tourism activity over a 60‐year period in the UNWTO Middle East region together with Israel and Iran. The region has been subject to political turmoil over that period, and its tourist arrivals have not fully capitalized on the potential that the region holds. The region has a wealth of heritage, a climate conducive to tourism and a range of leisure resources that should provide a comparative and competitive advantage to its tourism industry. This paper examines the vulnerability of tourism in the region as countries try to diversify their economies away from energy dependence. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Ethnography: a research method in practice

This article discusses the ethnographic methods employed for a doctoral study focusing upon heritage tourism and English national identity. It explains the fundamental principles behind the research and how the field work was conducted. In addition, it examines the issues of practicality which emerged during the research process and discusses how these were resolved. The article concludes by highlighting the importance of ethnography as a tool for understanding and interpreting visitor behaviour. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

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.     

Literature,tourism and the city: writing and cultural change

Today national and regional tourism organizations look to sophisticated cultural tourism programmes to enhance the visitor experience for tourists of their particular city. Yet research indicates that a challenge exists in designing and implementing programmes that take full advantage of a city’s historical and emergent literary cultures. In this paper, we offer critical insights into how literary cultural heritage can foster the development of an integrated and dynamic approach and provide the experience sought by local and global tourists. International exemplars are cited together with an analysis of the Australian city of Brisbane that describes itself as a ‘new world city’. The findings of our research show that programmes that harness diverse literary cultures, rather than adhering to a single literary representation, are better equipped to build identity and thus extend cultural tourism potential.     

The Impact of Host Community on Destination (re)branding: A Case Study of Hiroshima

This paper investigates local groups’ opinions on interpreting a dark heritage site for the promotion of tourism and analyzes their roles in tourism activities, through a case study of Hiroshima, Japan. As the first city suffered nuclear bombing, Hiroshima is a primary tourism destination in Japan but faced the challenge of revitalization. Fieldwork investigation methods, including semi‐structured interviews, were applied. The results suggest that local people hold favorable attitudes toward tourism development. They conduct an alternative approach to rejuvenating Hiroshima by identifying the essence of the place – a cheerful and peaceful city – and incorporating it into tourism events. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The life cycle of authenticity: neo-nomadic tourism culture in Kazakhstan

The paper presents the findings related to the stages of life cycle of authenticity where Kazakhstani nomadic culture in a post-Soviet heritage evolves towards tourist consumption. Using a qualitative case-study research approach, the analysis of data traces stakeholders’ perception of authenticity of various elements of Kazakhstani cultural tourism. The study intertwines inextricably with the processes of authenticity, commodification and cultural change as Kazakhstani traditions have evolved to a neo-nomadic tourism culture where authenticity becomes a currency at play and a point of differentiation from other tourism destinations. The findings offer an original approach to understand the transformation of authenticity at various stages of Kazakhstani tourism development and explore how authenticity is positioned in the influx of tourists and supporting roles from local governments and organisations.     

Resident attitudes towards dark tourism,a perspective of place-based identity motives

Place-based identity theories prove to be valid in better understanding resident attitudes towards support for tourism. Yet, its effectiveness is not verified in the context of dark tourism and resident attitudes towards dark tourism remains unknown. Based on a survey of 526 local residents in China’s Yingxiu, the epicentre of the Great Wenchuan Earthquake, the authors examined the relationships between the local residents’ place-based identity motives and their attitudes towards support for dark tourism development. Results show that the motive of ‘belonging/meaning’ is one of the most important determinants; residents’ involvement in dark tourism and bereavement affect their identity motives and attitudes towards support for dark tourism. The theoretical contributions and managerial implications are discussed.     

Identifying Croatian museums’ indigenous visitors in a post-war era: perceptual examinations of one's own heritage

The paper focuses on the consumption of the past by indigenous people through the museum or heritage site within post-war Croatia. Through the application of an inductive, qualitative methodology, ‘Critical Ethnography’, an integrated theory of individual identity formation, which is both social and psychological in nature, is presented. The paper, which is the culmination of theory building, has been guided by in-depth interviews, observation of behaviour and the incorporation of theoretically sensitising literature. As a result of reflexive integration of both the data and the literature, three categories, which constitute the developed theory are derived and analysed in relation to the different ways of constructing meaning and experiences within the museum/heritage context. The labels assigned to each of the developed categories, the ‘Fragmented self’, the ‘Paraphrenic self’ and the ‘Enlightened self’ are a reflection of a part of the self, which identifies to varying extents with the ascribed post-war identity of ‘Croat’. Furthermore, the three explanatory categories of behaviour look into the various ways with which the individual subject reflects upon and interprets his/her own past in relation to the formation of an acceptable post-war conception of his/her individual identity. The paper concludes that in order for a nation to project its cultural heritage worldwide through its museums and cultural sites, it needs first to understand and incorporate the indigenous’ views of their own heritage and then to develop and communicate cultural heritage products through other industries, such as tourism.