Charleston,South Carolina Tourism and the Presentation of Urban Slavery in an Historic Southern City

ABSTRACT

Heritage tourism's depiction of slavery makes for an interesting study. Several years ago, David Butler published an article in this journal that was highly critical of the depiction of slavery by Southern US plantations during tours offered to visitors, indicating that these attractions “whitewashed” this aspect of their history. The current study, intended as an extension of Butler's work, focused upon urban slavery versus plantation slavery and the handling of the issue by historic antebellum houses now opened as heritage tourist attractions in Charleston, SC. Encouragingly, it was learned that these historic homes are doing a much fairer job of exposing their guests to the issue than had been noted by Butler's plantation tours.     

On the political utterances of plantation tourists: vocalizing the memory of slavery on River Road

ABSTRACT

Within the study of southern plantation house museums, the cultural power that tourists exercise in interpreting, reacting to, and even shaping historical narratives has received limited attention. The purpose of this paper is to advance our understanding of the agency of visitors at plantation museums, paying particular attention to their verbal expressions as they respond to the depiction of slavery on guided tours. Spoken words, questions, and conversations of plantation tourists are not unproblematic transmissions of information but represent “political utterances” that play a crucial role in the constitution and mediation of the process of remembering (or forgetting) the enslaved. We consider the importance of tourist voice and outline two analytical settings for studying the political utterances of plantation visitors – the vocalizing of interpretative communities in post-tour or exit interviews and docent reaction to on-tour comments and questions posed by visitors. Drawing evidence from interviews with visitors and docents at four tourist plantation along the River Road District, we demonstrate the diversity and impact of the political utterances of tourists, and how these vocalizations of memory can possibly lead to greater changes in the way in which slavery is dealt with and remembered at southern plantation museums.     

Counter-narratives of slavery in the Deep South: the politics of empathy along and beyond River Road

ABSTRACT

The historical institution of slavery is unevenly memorialized across the US's cultural landscape. This unevenness is particularly noticeable in ‘Deep South’ states such as Mississippi and Louisiana, where cotton and sugar cane plantations once required vast numbers of slaves to economically succeed. While many antebellum plantation sites now function as tourist attractions complete with ‘Big House’ tours, they often ignore or annihilate the memory of slavery from plantation history. However, not all plantations and museums disregard slavery, and the owners and workers at these sites intentionally employ slavery counter-narratives to evoke empathy in visitors and create a more socially just cultural landscape. This paper examines three sites along and beyond River Road that employ counter-narrative techniques: the Natchez Museum of African-American History and Culture, Frogmore Cotton Plantation, and Whitney Plantation. The paper includes a discussion of each site's narrative tactics and how they stand out from other plantation sites in their representation of slavery. Engaging in growing conversations on the possibilities of empathetic responses to counter-narrative spaces, this paper argues that empathy – while important and possible for many visitors and consumers at these sites of memory – may preclude important political activism and greater solidarity between racial groups.     

Who are they? Visitors to Louisiana's River Road plantations

ABSTRACT

This article examines the responses of 448 tourists to an exit survey at four Louisiana River Road tourist plantations. We investigate and discuss the relationships between the demographics of the tourists and their interests as they relate to tourist plantations. Cluster analysis of the visitors' interests indicates that visitors typically fall into one of four interest clusters: “Everything is great!”; “Culture and the Enslaved”; Culture without the Enslaved”; or “Everything is just Okay”. Several plantation managerial and theoretical implications are discussed, as well as suggestions for future research directions.     

Placing the enslaved at Oak Alley Plantation: narratives,spatial contexts,and the limits of surrogation

ABSTRACT

As iconic landscapes of the American South and significant heritage tourism destinations, Southern plantation museums have traditionally erased slavery and the enslaved from their narratives of the antebellum past. Recently, some plantation museums, such as Oak Alley Plantation in Louisiana, are commemorating the enslaved within their landscapes and narratives, although often in limited and insufficient ways. In this paper, I draw on theories of symbolic excavation and commemorative surrogation to understand both the difficult memory work necessary to include the history of slavery at plantation museums and the fact that such museums or memorials act as surrogates for the lives of enslaved women and men that have been lost from our social memory. Using photographic documentation, content analysis, and textual analysis, I then examine the Slavery at Oak Alley exhibit to argue that fully assessing the efficacy of such commemorative surrogates requires that they be placed within the spatial narratives of both the plantation museum and the history of slavery more broadly.     

Sources of Slavery-Destinations of Slavery

Summary

This study seeks to account for differences between the UK and US in including sites of black slavery as part of their heritage tourism and museum agenda. Both countries were heavily involved in the slave trade and both currently have immigrant communities with an appreciation of their origins. However, and unlike the American situation, it is only recently that Britain has opened the contentious issue of slavery to public gaze. In this regard, attention focuses specifically on the mounting of a pioneering Slave Exhibition at Liverpool's Maritime Museum and, by interviewing its chief curator, various insights are gained as to the potential and pitfalls of such a permanent display of an inglorious past. Further interpretation is added by references to the general literature on heritage tourism, the emerging context of “thanatourism” and the framework of a Force Field model that can usefully accommodate the competing interests of rival stakeholders.     

Memory,slavery, and plantation museums: the River Road Project

ABSTRACT

Heritage tourism plays an increasingly important yet controversial role in interpreting the emotionally and politically charged memories and legacies of African enslavement. Antebellum plantation museums in the southeastern USA remain relatively underanalyzed by researchers, despite their tradition of ignoring and minimizing the contributions and struggles of the slave community. Yet, this neglect is being challenged somewhat by a growing number of plantations and counter-narrative sites that incorporate slavery into docent-led tours, promotional materials, exhibits, and preserved structures. Responding to a need for scholarship that can ferret out the nuances, complexities, and conflicts of producing and consuming heritage at these tourist sites, this special issue presents the results of a study of four plantations (Laura, Oak Alley, Houmas House, San Francisco) along Louisiana's River Road. The issue's editors and contributing authors address a central question: what factors, social actors, and interactions (social and spatial in nature) shape, facilitate, or even constrain the remembering of slavery at southern plantation museums, including those sites making seemingly significant progress in recovering the enslaved? River Road is a microcosm of the larger politics of reshaping southern and American heritage tourism and demonstrates the value of industry-engaged, multi-method examinations of different plantation landscapes within the same region.     

Interrelationships between tourist involvement,tourist experience,and environmentally responsible behavior: a case study of Nansha Wetland Park,China

ABSTRACT

This study examines a model linking three facets of tourist involvement (“importance & pleasure,” “sign value,” and “risk probability & consequence”) with tourist experience (TE) and environmentally responsible behavior (ERB). Data were collected with a self-administered questionnaire in a convenient sampling approach from tourists visiting Nansha Wetland Park, China. In total, 308 valid questionnaires were obtained. The structural equation modeling technique was applied to data analyses. Of three tourist involvement (TI) facets, “importance & pleasure” was found to be the most salient predictor of TE, which in turn led to ERB. “Risk probability & consequence” was shown as a potent predictor of both TE and ERB. “Sign value” did not have any effect on either TE or ERB. Basically, TE served as a full mediator between “importance & pleasure” and ERB, and a partial mediator between “risk probability & consequence” and ERB. Contributions, managerial implications, and future research directions are discussed.     

The Effects of Travel Agent Characteristics on the Development of Trust: A Contingency View

Abstract

Trust is a key factor in the establishment of long-term relationships between travel agents and their customers. Prior research across service industries has documented that both “person-related” (e.g., empathy, politeness, and customer/service representative similarity) and “offer-related” (e.g., customization, competence, reliability, and promptness) service representative characteristics have an impact upon trust. However, the relative importance of these characteristics, and in some cases the direction of their relationships with trust has varied across studies. In this paper, we posit a contingency model of trust, suggesting that within the travel agency industry, the effects of the above variables on trust will be moderated by length of customer/service provider relationship. Our model is tested in a business-to-business context by means of a mail survey involving 487 small business owners. The small business owners provided data about their relationships with their travel industry service providers (i.e., agents). Our results demonstrate how corporate travel agencies can work toward the establishment of trust with their clients under varying market conditions.     

A New Environment for Coherent Heterogeneity

Abstract

Usually, a distribution channel is in charge of the packaged tours, but due to the concentration of distribution companies, and the tangential position of the intermediate regions, there is a lack of interest to commercialize the fragmented tourist offer in these regions. In such an environment, IT provides the possibility to implement reticular integration strategies without business concentration or homogenization, in order to facilitate the commercialization of intermediate regions. This article argues that in order to facilitate a more effective transition to complexity management IT is the suitable tool for a joint management of the small tourist business, not only in commercialization, but in the fields of customer relationship management (CRM), suppliers management, marketing, quality and economic resources planning (ERP), making available the migration from the actual “incoherent homogeneity” to the “coherent heterogeneity.” It also analyzes the opportunities, ways and steps of IT to assume reticular integrated strategies in the commercialization and management of tourist products and destinations, in intermediate regions.     

Tourists and researcher identities: critical considerations of collisions,collaborations and confluences in Svalbard

ABSTRACT

Svalbard is an “edge-of-the-world” hot spot for environmental change, political discourse, tourism and scientific research in the Anthropocene. Drawing on ethnographic and qualitative research, I use this context to critically explore the identity-categories of “researcher” and “tourist”. Through the lens of political ecology, I draw out the uneven power relations of knowledge production that are attached to these labels and their consequences for ongoing efforts for managing sustainable tourism. By considering the experiences of tourists, researchers and “scientific tourists”, both practically and from an embodied experiential perspective, I challenge the distinctions typically made between these roles. I bring to light several common aspects, goals and experiences these practices share. In doing so, I aim to disrupt the existing hierarchies of knowledge that champion an impersonal, rational scientific approach and call for a more varied array of knowledge and practices to be taken into account when considering the future ecologies of Svalbard and the broader Arctic region.     

The Opportunities and Limitations of the Internet in Providing a Quality Tourist Experience

ABSTRACT

It is more than a decade since hyped stories about the impact of Internet Technology in the tourism industry have caused much of a stir in the minds of academics, practitioners and public policy makers, among others. Most of the discourses figured throughout around the theme painted pictures of a myriad shades and hues of the days to come. Internet-based marketing and e-commerce are two major, interrelated areas of development impacting the sector. The former reduces information asymmetry between tourists and ultimate service providers in destinations. The latter was predicted to eliminate intermediaries who are either information brokers or those guaranteeing services at the destination. This is true all the more in an environment where tourism is a global industry (with some part of the value chain in the country of origin of the tourist and the remaining in the countries that are destinations) and extremely dependent on information and communication industries. Today, the consumer has more information to make decisions and to access sellers globally, with almost real-time market information providing him with new quality service and experience. With this fundamental power shift of producers to consumers, the way in which marketers think needs to adapt (Corfu, Laranja & Costa, 2003). This paper is focused on the case-study “Solares de Portugal” and basically aims to find out: (1) the importance given by the manor house owners to specific features of travel-related websites' design and their global evaluation of the “Solares de Portugal” website; (2) the perceptions of Internet users on the before mentioned features' website effectiveness as well as their global evaluation of the “Solares de Portugal” website; (3) the correspondence between the two perspectives. The study has provided conclusive evidence about the relevance of efficient website services, as well as other practically employable findings. Thus, it seems reasonable to conclude that society is becoming more familiar with technology, in particular with the PCs and the Internet. This means that the travel industry has now the opportunity to deploy the Web in a more accurate, agile and innovative way. The tourist experience begins with its planning and anticipation stage (Liebman Parrinello, 1993) in the context of which the Internet may provide new quality experiences. From the perspective of the demand side, this may lead to new opportunities of improving the quality of operations and services through the Internet. However, further research will be necessary to dig deeper into those business implications.     

Trip Planning and Decision Making of Self-Drive Tourists—

Abstract

Touring holidays are greenhouse gas intensive, and ways are being sought to reduce these emissions in New Zealand. This research seeks to influence rental vehicle tourists' planning and decision making towards shorter travel. Semi-structured interviews (n = 96) were conducted as part of a quasi-experimental approach, in which tourists were “treated” by receiving a purpose-designed tourist map. Three levels of planning and decision making could be distinguished, whereby both cognitive and affective processes were important. The tourist map did not influence tourists' itineraries, but tourists in New Zealand consistently followed a “travel budget” of about 3-5 hours driving per day.     

‘Freedom footprints: the Barbados story’ – a slavery heritage trail

ABSTRACT

Freedom Footprints: The Barbados Story is a heritage trail created around six slavery landmarks. The trail is an outcome of Barbados’ Slave Route Signage Project, implemented by the Ministry of Tourism with the aim of identifying sites of memory linked to the Transatlantic Slave Trade and slavery, researching them and installing interpretive signage. Freedom Footprints was piloted in 2011 with much fanfare and sold-out tours. However despite significant publicity prior to and during the pilot, the voices touting the trail as an outstanding heritage tourism attraction have all but fallen silent. The reasons for this silence are unknown. A case study on Freedom Footprints was developed using a combination of stakeholder interviews, observations, analysis of media reports and archival research, among others. Indications are that the trail has potential to attract both the local and tourist market. However appropriate marketing strategies must be implemented for the trail to achieve desired outcomes.     

Polarizing implications of the Pescaia tourist industry

The tourist industry of the Italian beach resort Pescaia is analyzed within the framework of the critical theory of economic underdevelopment. The tourist-receiving apparatus of Pescaia is composed of building companies, lodging units, secondary services, supplying enterprises and government institutions, partly controlled by outsiders, partly by original inhabitants. The big enterprises are managed in a rather “capitalist” way, while the small units show the characteristics of the “pre-capitalist” mode of production. The number of laborers runs to about 2,400 in the high-season, of which 1,800 are outsiders. The different components, types of owners, modes of production, owners and laborers, as well as the tourist industry and the surrounding economy are tightly connected by economic, political and administrative relations that function as channels of draining off the available surpluses.     

Social and Cultural Factors Influencing Tourists' Souvenir-Purchasing Behavior: A Comparative Study on Japanese “Omiyage” and Korean “Sunmul”

Summary

One of the major parts of tourist shopping is the purchasing of souvenirs as presents for people. There are many motives for souvenir purchasing that seem to be influenced by the culture and customs of a society. This study attempts to bring light to the various social and cultural factors influencing the purchasing of souvenirs by tourists in Japan and Korea, to make predictions about tourists' souvenir-purchasing behavior in the future, and present keys to the sales promotion of souvenir goods. The results of the analysis show, as a common point, both Japanese and Korean tourists use souvenirs as a means of supporting a relationship with others, although some differences may exist in “what,” and “how” souvenirs should be given.     

Factors Affecting Tourist Satisfaction with Theatrical Performances: A Case Study of The Romance of the Song Dynasty in Hangzhou,China

This study, for the first time, attempts to explore the factors affecting tourist satisfaction with a theatrical performance, The Romance of the Song Dynasty in Hangzhou, China. Four factors are identified to have affected tourist satisfaction: “Performance,” “Venue Environment,” “Service,” and “Stage Facilities.” These theatrical performance factors are examined to assess the relative influence on tourist overall satisfaction. Tourists have the highest satisfaction with “Stage Facilities” among all factors; however, “Service” is the most influential predictor of tourist overall satisfaction. Tourist demographic and travel characteristics toward these four theatrical performance factors reveal several significant differences. Discussions and implications are provided to theater operators to improve tourist satisfaction with theatrical performance not only in Hangzhou, but also in the whole of China.     

Spending Behaviors of Event Tourists

Abstract

Assessing the economic impact of a tourism event on a host economy often involves the estimation of average event tourist spending per trip/night. As event and destination marketers become more selective with their promotions, targeting prospective high-value tourists, it is important for them to know the spending characteristics of different types of visitors so that resources can be allocated to reach and influence event tourists who will most benefit the host economy. This study's findings of visitors to the 1999 Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta reveal that tourists from communities nearer the host economy typically spend fewer net dollars than those from greater distances. First time event visitors spend considerably more than repeat visitors who have “been there, done that” and may not feel the need to do “that” again.     

Understanding the Cultural Differences in Tourist Motivation Between Anglo-American and Japanese Tourists

Summary

There is considerable evidence to suggest that differences in cultural characteristics exist across the world. Among them, individualistic societies emphasize “I” consciousness, autonomy, emotional independence, pleasure seeking and universalism. On the other hand, col-lectivistic societies stress “we” consciousness, collective identity, group solidarity, sharing, and particularism. A comparative research on the motivation of tourists from different cultures may challenge current tourism research, which mainly focuses on individualism and rationalism. These values of individualism and rationalism result in underestimation of the influence of groups, norms, culture, and emotion or impulse on tourist behavior. There have been few studies which attempt to directly measure cultural characteristics and identity across culture, and to explain how these cultural characteristics play a role in creating distinctive differences in tourist motivation. Thus, this study explores (1) cultural differences underlying individualism-collectivism between Anglo-American and Japanese tourists; (2) examines the relationship of two cultural dimensions to tourist motivation, and (3) suggests management implications facing tourism industry.