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Our argument is that it is important in tourism theory to explicitly interpret and explain tourism also as an innately geographical phenomenon that takes place on the Earth. This is not a novel idea. It may readily be found in many traditional accounts of tourism, and not only those of tourism geography. It is obvious too that the core of tourism since the founding days of tourism studies has been thought of in terms of travelling and going somewhere else, for example; “[t]o be there oneself is what is crucial in most tourism” (Urry 1990/2002, p. 154). It may further be noted that paying heed to the geographical nature of tourism also means to keep a critical eye on its spatial underpinnings. For example, tourism has in tourism theory often been captured by a spatial imagery that assumes a clear distinction between home and away. The universality of this spatial imagination of tourism has recently been questioned and critiqued as we have alluded to in the above. Tourism imaginationings as geographical patterning Human life on the Earth has always involved geographical movements between different locations and environments, be it for survival reasons, for the purpose of work, exploration, curiosity, adventure, or whatever else possible human motives there might be. However, prior to the advent of modern mass tourism there were no touring masses on the road travelling on return tickets for leisure purposes from the origin of home to the away of tourist destinations. In other words, humans were geographical animals long before they became those touring animals we refer to as “tourists”. Geographical imaginationings, like information and communication about other places and people so central for modern tourism, have also existed as long as humans themselves. Before modern tourism people like adventurers and explorers also wrote about their various experiences and understandings. They then contributed to the development of modern forms of collective geographical imaginationings which later were to become part of tourism imaginationings. In a publication from 1852 one could, for example, read about Iceland in the following way: This is the island that is shown to us in our geographical books and maps, as a small white spot on the borders of the Arctic ocean, and described as a cold, dreary, and uninteresting region, inhabited by a few dwarfish and ignorant people, who have little knowledge of the world and whom little is known (Miles 1852, in Boucher 1989, p. 17). 42
At that time Iceland was portrayed as cold, dreary and uninteresting. With a population size of approximately 60.000 people, it was usually not geographically imagined as more than a small white dot somewhere in the middle of a North Sea. In cartographic representation it could appear as an insert on the upper left corner on the map of Denmark, its colonial ruler till 1944. That the country itself [Iceland], or any thing that is to be found here, is worth a journey to see, or that the history or habits of the people possess any degree of interest, has not, probably, crossed the minds of a thousand persons (Miles 1852, in Boucher 1989, p.17). But times rarely stand still. Thomas Cook made tourism history in the midst of European modernity, where modern tourists began to appear mobile on railways, ocean liners, and later in aeroplanes. With the advent of modern tourism came the possibility for places on Earth to mutate into tourist destinations. And so it is that there is another story to be told today about a former remote island like Iceland. After all, “it has not been thought advisable to leave this country entirely alone, especially in an age of travel and discovery like the present” (Miles 1852, in Boucher 1989, p. 17). Iceland has become a place in popular domestic and international tourism imaginationing: with every part of the country, every town or district, making a conscientious effort to offer tourists something special. /.../ Travelling around Iceland to enjoy nature and the local’s way of life is a wonderful and enjoyable activity (Skarphéðinsson 2008, p. 2). As etymology reminds us, travelling used to be an activity full of labour and associated with all the hard work needed to overcome the difficulty of going anywhere. Modernization changed that by creating a very tangible infrastructure for transportation and geographical mobility over the surface of the Earth. Modernity does not only mean that “everything solid melts into air”, as the ring-road on Iceland well illustrates. Yet, these material processes of modernization were accompanied by modernity, that is, ways of imagining one’s place and possible routes of belonging and escape in a sea of change. By entering the gates of tourism imaginationings some places like Iceland were eventually 43
Page 2 and 3: © Icelandic Tourism Research Centr
Page 4 and 5: Table of Contents 1. Introduction .
Page 6 and 7: esearch but also “education and c
Page 8 and 9: Tourism images have had a longstand
Page 10 and 11: gradually expanded and become more
Page 12 and 13: Tourism - an earthly business For u
Page 14 and 15: Image 1.3: The Island of tourism &
Page 17 and 18: 2. Image & destination The actual a
Page 19 and 20: variety of sources could be used in
Page 21 and 22: consequences for how she or he will
Page 23 and 24: either the textual or the visual, a
Page 25 and 26: Composed of numerous small encounte
Page 27 and 28: materiality. Yet, you are able to r
Page 29 and 30: demand it is mediated by investment
Page 31 and 32: tourism reflects broader social and
Page 33: signification, not the least in tou
Page 36 and 37: usiness and market to potential cus
Page 38 and 39: ound to cross traditional disciplin
Page 40 and 41: sightseeing and whatever activities
Page 42 and 43: Social science research is carried
Page 44 and 45: environment. If they had, they were
Page 48 and 49: able to cross the minds of many tho
Page 50 and 51: Eight on my list is the heritage of
Page 52 and 53: The cartography of tourism imaginat
Page 54 and 55: Images of Iceland as a tourist dest
Page 56 and 57: Whatever the specifics and forms of
Page 58 and 59: Are you dressed in the road map of
Page 60 and 61: Summing up It has often been lament
Page 62 and 63: A challenge for tourism theory and
Page 64 and 65: carved in stone, they are not given
Page 66 and 67: some of the things that signalled t
Page 68 and 69: Tourist was in fact that “we are
Page 70 and 71: globalisation gets attributed excep
Page 72 and 73: do so on the basis of its own speci
Page 74 and 75: Arguing for or against the idea of
Page 76 and 77: pushed many economies towards crisi
Page 78 and 79: Whatever new ideologies of tourism
Page 80 and 81: The IPCC Reports are based on reach
Page 82 and 83: As evidenced by the Davos Declarati
Page 84 and 85: supports the position that signific
Page 86 and 87: “voluntary compensation is still
Page 88 and 89: terms of both adaption and mitigati
Page 90 and 91: Pratt and Watts 2000, p. 840). What
Page 92 and 93: co-creator of tourist spaces” (Ek
Page 94 and 95: can researchers use photography and
Page 96 and 97:
latter, in order to set the scene f
Page 98 and 99:
Even though the Earth is mentioned
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[M]ost significant phenomena that t
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social science when it presents its
Page 104 and 105:
They further argue that “[t]ouris
Page 106 and 107:
meaning and matter. The research ag
Page 108 and 109:
REFERENCES Aramberri, J. (2009). Th
Page 110 and 111:
Franklin, A. (2004). Tourism as ord
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Jóhannesson, G.Þ. and Huijbens. E
Page 114 and 115:
Shaw, G. and Williams, A. (2004). T
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