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prehistorical �the river from which early man
emerged), the medieval and the modern worlds.
A collection of essays on tourism mythology
�Selwyn 1996) reveals a wide range of themes
underlying destinations. Israeli walking tours
mythologically reconstruct the origins of the state,
Japanese coastal tourism thrives off myths of sexy,
pearl-diving women, while tours in the English
West Country feed off nostalgic longings for the life
of rural communities long gone �see nostalgia).
Romantic Western tourists like to believe that
Nepal is a `Shangri-La', while in fact Nepal is one
of the world's poorest countries with high levels of
infant mortality and poverty. To borrow Dufour's
words, myths are at once `liberating' in the sense
that they are vehicles for imagining the possible,
and `desirable' in that they lead perception away
from the pragmatic realities of history and political
economy. In these senses, tourism myths reveal one
sort of truth in the process of concealing another.
Myths lie at the very heart of tourism motivation,
fuelling dreams and fantasies. Despite some
seminal work, the area remains relatively under-
studied and presents future researchers with a rich
seam of research possibilities, in which tourism
sheds light on mainstream sociological, religious,
economic and political questions. Tourism myths
suggest not so much how the world really is but
how one would really like it to be.
References
myth 403
Barthes, R. �1983) The Eiffel Tower, New York: Hill
and Wang. �Analyses the Eiffel Tower as a
totemic object for both Parisians and tourists.)
Dufour, R. �1978) `Des mythes du loisir/tourisme
de weekend: alienation ou liberation', Les Cahiers
du Tourisme, Serie C, No.47, Aix-en-Provence:
Centre des Hautes Etudes Touristiques. �Examines
links between weekend tourism in France
and ancient mythological themes.)
Selwyn, T. �1996) The Tourist Image, London: Wiley.
�Offers a collection of largely anthropological
essays on the subject of tourist mythology.)
TOM SELWYN, UK