On Structural Features of “Paradise” Tourist Sites: Simulacre, Vulnerability, and Touristic Domination

DOI Web Site Web Site 9 References

Bibliographic Information

Other Title
  • 楽園観光地の構造的特徴―シミュラークル，脆弱性，観光地支配―
  • ラクエン カンコウチ ノ コウゾウテキ トクチョウ シミュラークル,ゼイジャクセイ,カンコウチ シハイ

Search this article

Abstract

Tourism is a social phenomenon which spread around the world with the advance of technologies and institutions in the modern times, especially in the late 20th century. While there are diverse forms and types of tourism and tourist destinations, this article focuses upon so-called “paradise” touristic sites which developed and diffused throughout the world along with, and based on, the stereotyped images and representations of Paradise on Earth, for example the beautiful blue ocean and sky, white clean sand, coral reef, tropical fish and flowers, the gentle inhabitants, their traditional simple cultures, and so on. Though we now find many “paradise” resort sites constructed and under construction, especially in the island areas of tropical and subtropical zone, there are few previous studies that get on the subject of “paradise” tourism itself. Thus this article is devoted to describe some basic points that “paradise” touristic sites generally have as a preliminary theoretical research for the following ethnographic case studies. To synthesize various scientific knowledge including anthropology, sociology, nissology, and post-colonial theory, “paradise” touristic sites have several structural features such as; (1) because they sell the collage made of homogeneous “paradise” imaginations that correspond to what Baudrillard called simulacre, it is difficult to differentiate items for sale of their own sites each other, (2) the small islands where “paradise” resorts were constructed are vulnerable from ecological and geo-political points of view, (3) so it is obvious that promoting business at “paradise” touristic sites is intrinsically risky, above all for small-scale entrepreneurs who engage at the small-scale touristic site, (4) some major “paradise” touristic sites share a commonality of so-called touristic domination that is directly or metaphorically associated with colonial rule. “Paradise” touristic sites are products of the modernity, and it is important to critically understand the structure of “paradise” touristic sites and tourism that are deeply folded in the Occidental centrism.

Journal

References(9)*help

See more

Related Projects

See more

Keywords

Details 詳細情報について

Report a problem

Back to top