The unbearable lightness of tourism … as violence: an afterword

This Afterword reviews the special issue of the Journal of Sustainable Tourism on Critical Geographies, which focuses on the intricate relationships between tourism and various forms of tourism related violence. It notes the slippery and complex concept of violence in tourism, and that it is typically seen from the viewpoint of the tourist, with researchers working from the anthropological host and guests relationship model as a way of negotiating kinship and friendship between societies, with broader aspects of tourism's power play with socio-cultural change perhaps conveniently forgotten. Tourism and tourists are seen as hiding their corporate and personal violence behind destination branding, tourism imaginaries and saleable commodification. While the innovative approaches adopted by papers in the special issue are commended, two key and still outstanding issues are highlighted. Tourism researchers must find ways to share their work more effectively across all stakeholders, as well as publishing in academic journals. And researchers should become more self reflexive and critical of themselves, seeking to address the complex practical challenges for sustainable tourism thinkers and doers of creating better links between the visitors and businesses of developed societies, and the culture and communities of developing societies

Cultural Anthropology. Global Forces, Local Lives.

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Seducation: Learning the trade of tourist enticement

In this chapter, I explore how apprentice tour .guides s.uch .as t~ose .at the Arusha Guide School are acquainted with forergn tounsm rmagmanes and associated discourses- what MacCannell (1992: 1) calls 'an ideological framing of history, nature and tradition' - and how they b~come skilled at strategically using them while guiding, often through tnal and error. How are local guides taught to perceive their life-w?rld ~hro~gh ~he eyes of foreigners? How do they learn to (re)pro~uce t~u~rs~ rm~gmanes? 0~, to turn the question around,. what role ~o gurde trammg r~stlt,utes and gmdes themselves play in the mcessant crrculatron of tounsm .s foundatr?nal myths? I search for answers to these questions by analysmg the va.nous processes and mechanisms through which guides in northern Tanzama ~re 'seducated'- formally schooled and informally trained in the art of narratl~g and performing seducing tourism tales. As I will. illustrate, the ~ynam1cs of seducation are heavily informed by asymmetncal power relatrons that structure the ways in which particular cultural forms are picked up and incorporated into how guides learn to see and represent the(ir) world

Managing the local-to-global dynamics of world heritage interpretation and appropriation

The global expansion of world heritage sites coincides with the growth of leisure and tourism as major forms of economic and socio-cultural development. Year after year, the tourism and travel industries proudly present statistics showing steady increases in international tourist arrivals and receipts, and a growing contribution to the world total GNP. Given the pervasiveness and local particularity of heritage, it is not surprising that heritage tourism is among those niches growing most rapidly. Such special interest tourism is being developed, both as a primary objective and as a by-product of other leisure activities, by a wide variety of actors. The management of world heritage sites as sustainable tourism destinations is seldom straightforward. Through an Indonesian case study, this paper critically analyzes some of the key issues at stake in the management of world heritage tourism. The central part of the island of Java is home to three world heritage sites, while four others are on UNESCO's tentative list. The region's internationally acclaimed and protected temples and palaces draw large crowds of domestic and foreign visitors, and offer a lucrative source of income for both the government and tourism service providers. In 2006, when I was doing fieldwork on local tour guide practices around these monuments, a severe earthquake and several volcanic eruptions of Mt. Merapi struck the area. Many lives and homes were lost and some historical buildings badly damaged. In addition, the number of tourists drastically dropped. The ensuing crisis intensified existing conflicts over heritage appropriation and interpretation on local, national, regional, and global levels. Why, for instance, did the main complex of the Prambanan temples have to remain closed until international UNESCO experts showed up to assess the damage? Moreover, how to defend the pumping of large sums of overseas money into the restoration of "dead" pre-Islamic heritage when thousands of families had lost their houses? Based on extensive fieldwork, I use this particular Indonesian case study to explore ethnographically how translocal processes increasingly influence the local meanings and management of heritage – both in times of stability and of turmoil – but also how these "foreign" elements are incorporated and strategically (mis)used by locals in the heritage narratives told and sold to tourists (be they domestic or international). An in-depth analysis of the empirical findings leads to a broader reflection on the dynamic interplay between the externally imaged (represented) and locally imagined value and management of world heritage in Indonesia and beyond. Heritage interpretation and appropriation seem enmeshed in complex webs of meaning, variously cherished and expressed by shareholders at different levels. While much of the theorizing on world heritage management has relied upon inherited or borrowed (Euro-American) conceptions and assumptions about what should be valued and privileged, this paper illustrates that the significance of heritage – be it natural or cultural, tangible or intangible – is characterized by everchanging pluriversality. This complexity needs to be taken into account when developing sustainable tourism management strategies

Introduction:Understanding Neo-nomadic Mobilities beyond Self-actualisation

In 2018, Noel Salazar presented a paper at the 5th World Humanities Forum in Busan, South Korea, entitled “Moveo Ergo Sum: Mobility as Vital to Humanity and Its (Self)image,” in which he reflected on the existential need for people to move. Moveo ergo sum became the motto for the 2021 Global Mobility Humanities Conference (GMHC), encouraging us to think about the multiple ways in which mobility intersects with the construction of modern subjectivities (Salazar, “Introduction”). The expression recalled a quote from one of Fabiola Mancinelli’s research participants, a digital nomad from the US, whose words and unusual biography as a location-independent entrepreneur read like a declaration of selfactualisation through mobility, the desire to realise her full potential by constantly putting herself outside her comfort zone: “Travel is who I am, and this is not negotiable” (426). This remarkable coincidence was the trigger for us to propose the panel “Understanding Neonomadic Mobilities beyond Self-actualisation” to unpack the mobility-identity nexus as an analytical lens to explore the phenomenon of contemporary nomads

Mobile labour: an introduction

Mobility has been in the academic spotlight at least since the 1980s, in the wake of globalisation studies (Salazar 2013), together with post-modern trends, which called for a theoretical breach in an academic scene dominated by perspectives on structures, territory and stasis (examples of this breach can be found in Clifford 1997; Deleuze and Guattari 1987; de Certeau 1984; Virilio 1986). In this context, ‘the nomad – whether traveller, refugee, runaway’ became ‘the symbolic identity of our age’, as suggested by Kendal, Woodward and Skrbis (2009, 85). At the turn of the millennium, the world was portrayed as revolving around movement and migration, transnationalism and hybridism, networks and cosmopolitanism, liquidity and fluidity, nomads and runaways (Salazar 2020). Metaphorized as proximity and togetherness, along with cultural exchange, hybridism, networks, connectedness and cosmopolitanism, mobility was perceived by many as positive and as reducer of inequality gaps. Just as social mobility was systematically translated to its upwards trajectory towards the erasure of social, economic, and cultural inequality, physical mobility was conceived along the same lines, having the potential to challenge the ‘old’ boundaries of nationalism, ethnicity, race and even gender. In a word, mobility was equated to the promise of a more cosmopolitan, ethical, better world.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Imaged or Imagined? Cultural Representations and the “Tourismification” of Peoples and Places

The various ways in which peoples and places around the globe are represented and documented in popular media have an immense impact on how tourists imagine and anticipate future destinations. Even though tourism discourses take a variety of forms, visual imagery seems to have the biggest influence on shaping tourists' pre­trip fantasies. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, this paper illustrates the dynamic processes of cultural tourismification in Tanzania's so-called "northern circuit". In many parts of the world, famous nature documentaries, mainstream Hollywood enter­tainment, and semi-biographic films about this region have become fashionable icons for sub-Saharan Africa as a whole, often reinforcing a perfect nostalgic vision of the black continent as an unexplored and time-frozen wild Eden. While tourism representations have overwhelmingly focused on wildlife, an increasing demand for "meet-the-people" cultural tourism is increasingly bringing local people into the pic­ture. Interestingly, locals are commonly portrayed while engaging in vibrant rituals or in inauthentic, staged poses wearing celebrative costumes. As an example, the paper discusses how the romanticized image of the virile Maasai warrior, dressed in colourful red blankets and beaded jewellery, has led to a true Maasai-mania that is profoundly affecting the daily life and culture of Maasai and other ethnic groups.Les différentes façons dont les peuples et les lieux sont représentés dans les médias populaires ont un impact immense sur la manière qu'ont les touristes d'imaginer et de prévoir leurs futures destinations. Bien que les discours sur le tourisme prennent des formes diverses et variées, les images semblent avoir la plus grande influence sur la façon dont les touristes rêvent leurs voyages. Basé sur un travail de terrain ethnographique, ce texte illustre les processus dynamiques de tourismification culturelle dans ce qu'on appelle « le circuit du nord » de Tanza­nie. Dans beaucoup d'endroits du monde, les documentaires célèbres sur la nature, les divertissements grand-public de Hollywood et les films plus ou moins bio­graphiques de cette région sont devenus des icônes à la mode pour l'Afrique sub­saharienne, renforçant souvent une vision nostalgique du continent noir comme un Eden sauvage inexploré et figé dans le temps. Alors que les représentations du tou­risme se sont principalement centrées sur la faune et la flore, une large demande « de rencontrer des gens » se fait sentir. De plus en plus, le tourisme culturel fait entrer la population dans le paysage. On montre fréquemment les habitants pratiquant des rituels vibrants ou habillés de costumes de cérémonie dans des mises en scène sans authenticité. En exemple, ce texte traite de l'image idéalisée du guerrier massaï, viril, paré dans des couvertures rouges et orné de bijoux, qui mène à une vraie « massaïmania » qui affecte profondément la vie quotidienne et la culture des Massaï et d'autres groupes ethniques

“Enough stories!”Asian tourism redefining the roles of Asian tour guides

Aujourd’hui, les guides touristiques sont des acteurs-clés dans la médiation des tensions entre les processus de localisation et de globalisation. En se basant sur une recherche de terrain menée à Yogyakarta, en Indonésie, cet article montre comment les guides javanais adaptent leurs pratiques pour servir au mieux leurs clients asiatiques. à travers un examen anthropologique du secteur touristique de Yogyakarta en général, et de l’activité des guides touristiques en particulier, cet article illustre comment l’augmentation du nombre de touristes d’origine asiatique redéfinit les rôles habituellement dévolus aux guides selon la littérature scientifique. Les données empiriques montrent que, parallèlement aux réorientations de leurs routines que les guides javanais mettent en place pour s’adapter à ce qu’ils perçoivent comme les intérêts et les sensibilités asiatiques, des dynamiques structurelles plus larges contribuent aussi à façonner leurs rencontres avec les touristes asiatiques. Ces différents points réaffirment finalement que le tourisme d’origine asiatique façonne, mais est aussi façonné par les modèles, les discours et les imaginaires dominants du tourisme international.Nowadays, local tour guides are key players in mediating tensions between concurrent processes of localization and globalization. Drawing on fieldwork in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, this paper explores how Javanese guides adapt their practices to better serve and please Asian clients. By way of an anthropological examination of Yogyakarta’s tourism sector in general and the guiding scene in particular, the paper illustrates how the surge in tourists of Asian origin is redefining the roles commonly assigned to guides in the scientific literature. The empirical data illustrate that while the Javanese guides are fine-tuning their routines to accommodate what they perceive as Asian cultural sensibilities and interests, broader structural dynamics frame the encounter. This reaffirms that tourism of Asian origin is both shaped by and shaping the currently dominant models, discourses, and imaginaries of international tourism