Communicating ‘normalcy’ in Israel: intra/intercultural paradox and interceptions in tourism discourse

This case study of Israeli tourism discourse during a time of heightened violent conflict compares official state discourse, which situates tourism in Israel as safe and the country's status as ‘normal’, with material–symbolic interceptions of individuals and occurrences. I locate an intra/intercultural dialectic of ‘normalcy’ used to signify several paradoxical meanings, to achieve and preserve security of being, and to strategically situate an ‘interpretive mismatch’ for ideological and economic intercultural consumption. I also reflexively examine the complicit and resistant roles of foreign media press trips in co-constructing state tourism promotion strategies, in part looking at my own role as a journalist as echoer of strategic intercultural regimes of truth and filterer of interceptions.     

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.     

Perceptions of terror stricken tourism destinations

ABSTRACT

In the wake of global safety and security concerns, it is important to understand and document perceptions held by tourists so as to inform destination recovery efforts post terror attack. This exploratory study employs focus groups to examine American millennials’ perceptions of risk and their intentions to travel to terror-stricken destinations, specifically Nice, France. Perceived risks related to general international travel articulated by participants included, health, theft, and safety concerns. Participants indicated that they were willing to travel to Nice, post terror attack, with the exception of one group that would choose to travel elsewhere in France. Participants’ rank ordering of the sources they would consult during the decision making process for travel to a terror stricken destination included: family, people with lived experience of the destination, and government. This paper contributes to risk perception literature, particularly scholarship on the nexus between terrorism and tourism.     

Tourism,Nationalism and Post-Communist Romania: The Life and Death of Dracula Park

The following analysis examines how Romania is responding to Dracula as a tourist attraction and focuses on the debate surrounding the proposed development of Dracula Park. The theme park employed a mythology developed from Bram Stoker's popularised Count Dracula, a character loosely based on medieval Wallachian ruler Vlad Tepes. The proposal triggered a string of heated debates that eventually thwarted the project. Although Dracula Park was met with opposition in Romania and from abroad, tourism (mainly from the western European Union and north American countries) to ‘Dracula sites’ continues and local tourism industries are thriving. This paper will contextualise this situation in longstanding debates on national identity and attempts to redefine Romania after Communism.     

‘Hafa Adai … means hello!’ Written banal codeswitching on tourism websites

In the expanding research on the discourse(s) of tourism, a paucity of work exists in the context of written codeswitching (CS), that is, the use of two or more languages (codes) within a written text. In this article, I explore the presence and use of indigenous language CS within the English text on official tourism websites. The focus is on ‘exotic’ US island states and territories including Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the US Virgin Islands. Though English is predominant on these sites, a few codeswitches into ‘exotic’ languages are found within the English text. In contrast to Mühlhäusler's [(2008, August). Developing language-based tourism products for Norfolk Island. Paper presented at the 15th World Congress of Applied Linguistics, Essen] findings related to Norfolk (Norf'k) Island, Australia, that tourism promotes not only the island but also the language native to the island, I argue that this particular type of CS, which I label ‘banal’, may function solely for the purpose of promoting the identity of an exotic Other rather than to promote or maintain their indigenous languages.     

Borders in tourism: the transformation of the Swedish–Finnish border landscape

Permeability in the European internal borders has increased, challenging state-centric tourism development in the border regions. The aim of this article is to examine the development of the Finnish–Swedish border, which has been one of the European Union's internal borders since 1995, as a tourist attraction. An examination of the path of tourism development in this border region shows that the differentiative meaning of the border that has been characteristic for state-centric tourism development has diminished and some of the excitement of crossing the old east–west border has vanished. At present the significance of the border for local tourism development can be seen in the new cross-border enterprise and commercialisation of tourist attractions. Such development can have a wide-ranging influence for the reorganisation of border landscape and dissolution of mental boundaries in the region. This study contributes to an understanding of the transition in the European Union's internal border regions from the perspective of tourism.     

China’s first Tourism Law: representations of stakeholders’ responses

The application of tourism laws to advance the well-being of stakeholders is of broad interest to many countries attempting to shape the rapid rise of the sector. In China, the first Tourism Law came into effect on 1 October 2013. The 112-article law includes various measures to address issues such as unfair competition. Adopting a social representations framework, this study investigates the perceived impacts of China’s new Law from the perspectives of eight groups of stakeholders. Data were collected from 152 articles published in the Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure. This material was used to access the commentaries and social representations of the impacts of the Law. A consistent array of positive and negative comments was uncovered using content analysis, justifying a view that a hegemonic representation exists across the groups. Additionally, and somewhat unexpectedly, it was discovered that the new Law is also a catalyst for further conflicts requiring additional management. Pursuing a social representations framework as a way of integrating stakeholder views was seen to be valuable for future studies in China and elsewhere.