Tzanelli, R and Korstanje, M (2016) Tourism in the European economic crisis: Mediatised worldmaking and new tourist imaginaries in Greece. Tourist Studies, 16 (3). pp. 296-314. ISSN 1468-7976
Abstract
The paper interrogates the rationale and origins of changing imaginaries of tourism in Greece in the context of the current economic crisis. We detect a radical change in the ‘picture’ of the country that circulates in global media conduits (YouTube, Facebook, official press websites and personal blogs). We enact a journey into past media representations of Greece as an idyllic peasant and working-class site, but proceed to highlight that such representations are being recycled today by Greeks living and studying abroad. This stereotype, which focuses on embodied understandings of happiness and well-being is being challenged by the current economic crisis. In its place, we detect the emergence of a new dark and slum imaginary, propagated by both native and global intellectuals-activists. The new imaginary both tests in practice and bears the potential to re-invent Greece as a tourist destination. Not only is the change informed by the European histories of art, slum and dark tourism focusing on middle-class refinement and philanthropy, it also bears the potential to promote Greece as a cultural tourist destination in global value hierarchies in controversial ways.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Editors: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2016. This is an author produced version of a paper published in Tourist Studies. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy |
Keywords: | activism; dark tourism; epistemology; Europe; Greece; migration; mobility; tourist imaginaries; well-being; worldmaking |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Education, Social Sciences and Law (Leeds) > School of Sociology and Social Policy (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 28 Apr 2016 13:51 |
Last Modified: | 16 Jan 2018 04:47 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1468797616648542 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | SAGE Publications |
Identification Number: | 10.1177/1468797616648542 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:89737 |