The making and consuming of tourism takes place within a complex social milieu, with competing actors drawing into the ?product' peoples' history, culture and lifestyles. Culture and people thus become part of the tourism product. The implications are not fully understood, though the literature ranges the arguments along a continuum with culture being described on one hand as vulnerable and fixed, waiting to be ?impacted' by tourism and on the other being seen as vibrant and perfectly well capable of dealing with globalization and modernity trends. Some of the answers are likely to focus around ideas of social identities. The intention of this book is to make a contribution to the theoretical framework of tourism through a series of international case studies. The overall purpose of the edited book is to assemble a series of essays enabling the dissemination of ideas on the critical discourse of tourism and tourists as they relate to social and cultural identities.

Contents

Tourism and social identities: Introduction; Social identities and the cultural politics of tourism. Section 1 – Global Frameworks: theoretical and comparative perspectives The Politics of Negotiating Culture in Tourism Development; Sizing up the World: Scale and Belonging in Narratives of Round-the-World Travel; Close Encounters: The Role of Culinary Tourism and Festivals in Positioning a Region; The Ghost Host Community in the Evolution of Travel Law in World Trade Contexts: A Pragmatic Cosmopolitan Perspective; Cultural identities in a globalizing world: conditions for sustainability of intercultural tourism; Tourist Constructions and Consumptions of Space: Place, Modernity and Meaning. Section 2 – Local Realities: post-industrial world and transitional economies Power, resources and identity: The influence of tourism on indigenous communities; The Development of Cultural Iconography in Festival Tourism; Reconciliation Tourism: On Crossing Bridges and Funding Ferries; Sustainable Tourism and National Park Development in St. Lucia; Identity and Interaction: gazes and reflections of Tourism; Television Travels: Screening the Tourist Settler.