As another subtopic of Malcolm Miles' lecture, we talked about tourism, culture, heritage and identity, all of which are more suitable to me and my interests. But for some reason, I am really struggling to think of something to put down...where to start...
I suppose I'll start with what I know. Todays tourist doesn't like to think of themselves as a "tourist," they are travelers, experiencing the strange other culture which they have traveled to...That may well be the conscious aim of the tourist, but that aim is becoming ever more easily satisfied with symbols and representations, simulacra. When the tourist visits Ireland, they want to experience that rugged Irish romanticism, the 'craic,' and the Irish tourist board realizes this. Marketing for the tourism sector (which contributes a huge percentage to the Irish economy) is geared toward the guarantee of Irishness. The tourist will be able to interact with and experience the people of Ireland first hand and engage in the culture which over 44 million Americans claim descendancy to (despite the population being less than one tenth of this figure). This leads Ireland to produce more and more tourist attractions geared toward these cultural tourists and in fact leads to the manufacturing and invention of various cultural and heritage sites. How is this any different to the invention and application of an Ireland themed amusement park in Busch Gardens, America?
This constructs a stereotypical and very unhealthy image of Ireland and it's culture, and has huge untold effects. With the aid of the Irish Tourist Board, all of these images are then reinforced in the prospectful visitors mind and eventually, upon the person's visit to Ireland, they are in fact visiting another theme park on a larger scale, Irelandland, where the attractions are littered around the country and the population are employed (more like slavery) to uphold and maintain the amusement park for the entertainment of others.
What's the difference?
As this was the topic of my BA Architecture dissertation, if you wanted to learn more about it then please go to www.stephenbrowne.co.nr and look under the dissertation tab, you'll find the full text to download, only copyright is that you have to hug at least three people in 24 hours who you wouldn't normally hug...
But this theme also runs through the policies of many tourist destinations. I visited Machu Pichu a few months back, and what I found was quite annoying and a little scary.
We spent a few days trekking, cycling and white water rafting through the pristine countryside of Peru, virtually met no no other humans until in the evenings we found small villages to stay in, and one other exception which I found absolutely brilliant and I'm sorry I didn't take a picture of it! About two hours after leaving the last town and in the midst of the jungle we met an old woman...with a stall...selling twix's and coke..insane..
But anyway, spent the days trekking, only to come into the new town of Aguas Calliantes, only recently built to accommodate for the recent surge in tourism. This place still held a little Peruvian culture, but was littered with pizzerias, Italian restaurants, cafés and tourist shops, a pretty cultureless non-place.
Machu Pichu itself was incredible. Woke at 5 and hiked up a huge jungle slope for about an hour to reach the entrance, which was littered with flatscreen tvs, picnic benches and tourist guides wielding umbrellas, another odd experience.
After eventually getting past all the payment stuff etc, we got in, and it was incredible. Such a beautiful and powerful place.
We spent hours walking around and soaking the atmosphere up, it was stunning. We hiked up to Wanu Pichu and looked down at the deserted ruins, the place was absolutely fantastic!!
But then the tourism kicked in, 1st was this guy, so funny, we are in one of the most beautiful places on this earth, and this guy feels the need to tell his wife to turn the heating off...he also complained about the signal...
Then come the masses of tourists who waited for the shuttle bus service to start...There were thousands of them all clad in colorful raincoats and all longing to capture that famous postcard image of the site.
Just google Machu Pichu and this is what you will find;
(Interesting aside, turn picture counterclockwise and look for the face in the background)
These tourists do not come in order to experience the atmosphere of the place, they don't come to appreciate the complex architectural and social systems that were in play, otherwise they would have been there when the atmosphere was present, sunrise, they come to collect the image, the symbol and tick off the list the taking of this photo represents...and I was one of them.
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