CROSSROADS IN CULTURAL STUDIES
Fourth International Conference
June 29 - July 2, 2002, Tampere, Finland

Consumption and Construction of Tourist Landscapes

Organisers: Jarkko Saarinen and Soile Veijola

Consumption and Construction of Tourist Landscapes I: Places and Spaces

Allon, Fiona (University of Western Sydney, Australia) ON THE BEATEN TRACK: BACKPACKER CULTURES AND COMMUNITIES IN SYDNEY
This paper will explore the changing cultural dynamics of tourism and touristic landscapes in Sydney, focusing on the specific group of young budget-travellers known as 'backpackers'. Sydney is one of the favoured destinations for young travellers, especially 'backpackers'. But despite the considerable economic benefits that these travellers bring to the city, many Sydney-siders regard the growing numbers of backpackers as a 'problem', citing inadequate budget-accommodation, general disruption and 'cultural differences'. Many local communties are forced to promote their areas as highly desirable tourist destinations with distinctive cultural profiles, while at the same time confronting the defamiliarisation created by increasing numbers of 'non-locals'. Through a focus on the production of place and locality specifically for consumption by 'others', the paper will explore the ways in which specific modes of travelling and leisure, as well as discourses of authenticity and identity, become deployed in the shifting spatial dynamics of deterritorialisaation and reterritorialisation characteristic
of international tourism.

Spierings, Bas (University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands) MAKING DOWNTOWN FUNSHOPPING CENTRES
City centres in the Netherlands currently are redeveloped to become more attractive to both domestic and foreign consumers that supposedly behave in accordance with new patterns of leisure, travel and culture ("funshoppers"). This paper focuses on the way the funshopping concept has been translated into a downtown ransformation strategy. After a brief investigation of both the origin and meaning ascribed to the funshopping concept, three dimensions of downtown transformation are discussed in relation to the concept. The coherent dimensions are described by "urban function", representing a mix of consumer services; "urban form", representing urban morphology and architecture; and "inter urban competition", representing rivalry for travelling spending power. Initial fieldwork on the redevelopment of downtown Enschede and Nijmegen is used to illustrate the dimensions. It reveals a redevelopment discourse by local policy makers, property developers and retailers that is highly funshopping-minded.

Vikman, Noora (University of Tampere, Finland) 'QUIETNESS' AS A COMMODITY
'Quietness' is one of the appreciated qualities and common assets in North Italian village Cembra. No doubt Cembra could be promoted and marketed as a 'quiet place' without major difficulties. But how is this image of quietness constructed as part of the commodifying process? Because the 'environment' exists both in and outside our cultural constructions it is interesting to compare the 'quiteness' as a physical phenomenon and as a created image. Interestingly, participating in the common tourism project appeals also to emotions. 'Soundtalk' lightens these small scale nature-culture paradoxes and 'possible dreams' and reveals continuous 'adaptation processes' towards ecologically irreversible impacts of tourism. This soundscape study stresses the importance of subjective listening experiences as outlooks and a tool to approach the people's relationship with their environment. The insider's voice concerning village everyday life is still polyphonic.

Bieder, Robert E. (Indiana University, USA) THE BUYING AND SELLING OF NIAGARA FALLS
The paper will focus on the contested commodification and construction of Niagara Falls and the lessons it posed for the development of national parks in the American West. I begin in the early nineteenth century when Europeans castigated Americans for their speculative abasement of the falls. In 1885, New York State made Niagara Falls a state park thus eliminating much of the commericalism that impeded appreciation of the falls but, in so doing, frustrated hydroelectric power interests seeking to use the falls. In retaliation, such companies diverted one half of the water from above the falls to power their generators. I conclude by showing how, despite Niagara Falls being ranked third in the United States after the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone in public appeal, Niagara Falls continues to be compromised by industrial developments.

Consumption and Construction of Tourist Landscapes II: Texts and Textures

Taleghani, Shareah (New York University, USA) TRAVELING THE TEXT OF TANGIER: LITERARY TOURISM, PAUL BOWLES, AND THE COSMOPOLITAN IMAGINARY
For the English-speaking traveler journeying to Morocco, the first city on the itinerary is Tangier-at least according to the Lonely Planet travel guide. But the tourist does not travel to Tangier to soak up an "authentic" Moroccan atmosphere; instead she/he is invited to observe the sites of "Literary Tangier." At the center of "Literary Tangier", the late Paul Bowles stands as an icon of another era-that is linked to a faded cosmopolitanism. This paper will offer a critical exploration of the relationship between the notion of literary tourism of Tangier, the iconography of Paul Bowles, and the limitations of the cosmopolitan
ideal. Through an examination of the intersection of these themes and through a reading of various texts around Bowles, the conclusions drawn here will demonstrate that the literary text of Tangier in the western imagination lies in the mythology of a particular author rather than in his texts.

Burch, Stuart (Nottingham Trent University, United Kingdom) STOCKHOLM AT 750: TEXTURES OF MEMORY IN THE URBAN LANDSCAPE
This paper identifies what 'realms of memory' will be exploited during this summer's celebrations marking the 750th anniversary of Stockholm. 'Lieux de mémoire' was coined by Pierre Nora to refer to the 'symbolic element[s] in the memorial heritage of any community'. Public spaces, museums and heritage sites compose a 'texture of memory': an essential requisite of any tourist landscape. Henri Lefebvre defines 'texture' as 'networks or webs; monuments constitute the strong points, nexuses or anchors of such webs.' He stresses that they are 'not read' like a text but rather they are 'acted': 'A monumental work, like a musical one has a horizon of meaning: a shifting hierarchy in which now one, now another meaning comes momentarily to the fore'. In light of this I will imaginatively interpret the changing landscape of Stockholm during this commemorative period in order to uncover traces of memory and sources of identity formation.

Veijola, Soile (University of Lapland, Finland) TRUST IN TOURISM: HOSTS AND GUESTS REVISITED IN EXPERIENCE ECONOMY
This paper provides a critical reading of the discourse of experience economy (Pine & Gilmore 1999) in tourism from the sociological perspective of trust. It argues that the innocence of mass tourism and suspicion of anti-tourism have now been largely replaced by "swift trust" (Meyerson et al. 1996) of tourist drama. The elementary juxtapositions in tourism, of culture/tourism, host/guest, friend/enemy, authentic/fake, suspicion/trust, are analysed through the discourse of theatre (as in Pine and Gilmore), but developed further into a fundamental critique of the notions of guests, hospitality and amenities, which constitute both the theoretical discourse and the empirical world of tourism marketing and industry.