Landscape, Tourism, and Meaning

This book breaks new ground by bringing together specialists in tourism and landscape studies to discuss the relationships between the two. Issues of identity are a common thread throughout and are raised with regard to the social construction of landscape and its portrayal through tourism. The international studies range in scale from regional to national, personal to political, and from local residents to international tourists, highlighting the multiplicity of interpretations and meanings between these scales. By drawing less on the Foucauldian notion of 'tourism as gazing' and instead focussing on the social construction of meaning in the landscape, the volume provides an original and insightful new perspective on tourism theory, which provides a better understanding of the way in which tourist sites are artfully constructed and the way tourist landscapes are filled with intended and unintended meaning for the tourist.