Tourism, Performance, and Place

Jillian M. Rickly-Boyd, Daniel C. Knudsen, Lisa C. Braverman are at Indiana University, USA and Michelle M. Metro-Roland is at Western Michigan University, USA.

• Contents: Preface; Introduction: landscape perspectives on tourism places. Part I Theoretical Frameworks: Introduction; Rituals of tourism; Semiotics and tourist meaning-making; Ideology and tourism sites; Performing tourism places. Part II Tourism Performances: Introduction; Performing tourist ideologies: Israeli birthright tourism; Marketing ’Danishness’; Touring Florence; Lifestyle rock climbers: mobile performances of home; Conclusion: expanding tourism geographies. Bibliography; Index.

’As an academic field, tourism studies has embraced many disciplines, with seminal works coming out of a host of disciplines. The authors of this book deserve high praise for acknowledging and demonstrating the role that these works play not only in our current knowledge, but also in developing the field. Their use of ritual, semiotics, ideology and performance is even more relevant today than when first mooted.’ Sue Beeton, La Trobe University, Australia ’A critical spatial discourse on the ritualization and performativity of tourism, this fine tome provides an interesting and intellectual examination of tourism place and space. It successfully fuses deep and meaningful theoretical insight with interesting empirical examples to highlight theory in practice. I commend the authors for writing an exciting and novel book that is sure to please all who are interested in the production and consumption of tourism places.’ Dallen J. Timothy, Arizona State University, USA ’One of a very few studies that meets the epistemic challenge posed by global tourism. An innovative repurposing of social and semiotic theory to explain how space and place are constructed by humanity in transit, where assumptions of shared common language or culture do not hold, where borders and boundaries are meant to be crossed and not to contain.’ Dean MacCannell, University of California, Davis, USA