This theoretical study seeks to unearth the many choices found in tourism from a perspective that views tourism as language with a concentration on paradox and oxymoron. After initially tracing the ...Greek etymology of these two terms, the focus is on paradoxical propositions that, although self-contradictory, may contain a possible truth or belief that needs to be carefully revealed, as in the case of (religious) myth for instance. The exploding of such myth is often evident in expressions that carry an appended out-of-place question mark, for example, Tourism: Passport to development? Oxymora, by nuanced contrast, comprise two elements that deliberately contradict one another in order to lead to a new meaning or concept that stems from their contiguous placement. Such a challenging figure of speech is frequently signalled by the addition of an extra-contextual exclamation mark. It is the binary structure of both paradox and oxymoron that lies beneath the various continuum models that continue to be successfully employed both theoretically and methodologically in tourism research. This conceptual analysis also examines examples of paradox and oxymora in various dilemmas of tourism. The conclusion is that paradoxes and oxymora lie at the very heart of tourist motivation and experience.
Abstract
After briefly discussing the two major approaches to the study of tourism (theoretical “why” and practical “how”), and two of their respective protagonists (Tribe and Aramberri), the focus ...of this chapter turns to the use of paradigms by the former group. First, the meaning of paradigm is explored and examples are provided of paradigms and paradigm shifts in tourism research. However, Aramberri challenges this theoretical position by asserting that such ideological frameworks are not paradigms at all, and are, at best, postmodern mantras. He further argues that such muddled thinking can be overcome once tourism becomes a scientific discipline, a stance firmly rejected by the theoreticians. Thereafter, the use of the word “paradigm” is examined in relation to conferences, research, and shifts, as well as such major tourism perspectives as authenticity, strangerhood, play, and conflict.
A discursive analysis of natural area destinations is presented in this article, where it is argued that the management and use of natural areas for (eco) tourism is influenced by economic and ...institutional practices that contribute to rationalizing ‘Nature’ and the visitor experience. A brief look at some historical influences on nature-based tourism development in (post)-modernity sets the context for illustrating paradoxical discourses (e.g. neo-liberalism, ecological modernization and globalization) that structure and instrumentalize human relationships with the natural world. Viewing these natural areas as performance spaces helps to show how the multiplicity of discourses plays out and how nature and tourists are performatively engaged in these spaces. A conceptual analysis of performativity in relation to touristic spaces is presented and its potential to enable resistance to the rationalizations outlined in the article is examined. The possibility of a performative tourist ethic is discussed, based on a notion of reflexive praxis. Implications for (eco-) tourism research and practice are offered.
Slavery, Contested Heritage and Thanatourism Dann, Graham M. S.; Seaton, A. V.
International Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Administration,
10/2001, Volume:
2, Issue:
3-4
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
This article introduces a collection of eight revised papers that focus on the connection between slavery and tourism. After tracing the history of the former from its origins to the present day, and ...after providing some examples of related attractions, it confronts a number of dilemmas associated with their juxtaposition. A brief overview of the contributions to the volume is supplied, along with some epistemological and methodological concerns that they raise. Slavery tourism is finally contextualized within a framework of thanatourism, dark tourism and dissonant heritage, a field which in turn poses several questions for further research into this new and exciting phenomenon.
Rooms for Rent Dann, Graham M. S.
Tourism recreation research,
20/1/1/, Volume:
38, Issue:
2
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Inspired by insights from Topor's Le Locataire Chimérique (1964) and Roman Polanski's 1976 film version of The Tenant, this subjective account explores the hypothesis that because people own ...virtually nothing they are paradoxically attracted by a tourism which provides situations that are likewise bereft of belonging and identity within an alternative culture. The reflection covers three phases: pre-trip, travel and on-trip. The first contextual stage examines Topor's ideas of what it is to be a cultural tenant along with all that this status implies in terms of daily living. This is arguably akin to the experiences of his anti-hero, Trelkovsky, a Polish émigré, when renting a flat in Paris and coming under various prescriptions and proscriptions enjoined on him by the recently deceased previous tenant and the surrounding neighbours. Although he decides to escape such mental oppression, ironically he comes under a new set of obligations. These constraints carry over imaginatively from Topor's descriptions to the next stage of the current paper, in which Trelkovsky, now projected as a first-time tourist, continues his role as tenant by renting a seat on a plane, and, once arrived, by renting a taxi and a hotel room. Furthermore, at his destination, everywhere he goes he suffers increasing anomia. However, his greatest disappointment is an encounter with his supposedly more experienced compatriots, from whom he wanted to get away in the first place, and who find themselves in a similar predicament.
Popular summer holidaymaking in the mainstream and much-visited destination of Mallorca is segmented and versatile in terms of tourist motivations. This study demonstrates unanimous touristic ...interest in pleasant weather conditions and a majority emphasis on sociability, relaxation, and beach life, along with cultural sightseeing and landscape experience motivations. Moreover, the findings indicate quite stable motivations in this holidaymaking context. There are very few motivational differences between Mallorca visitors using package tours or charter flights and their fellow tourists going by scheduled flights. The questionnaire-based survey results thus challenge conventional wisdom about Mediterranean seaside package tours as undifferentiated "sun and sand mass tourism" for "ordinary people" lacking individuality. Although air travel and package tours may still be standardized, the tourists themselves do not become homogenous simply by the mere utilization of such products.
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