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The Power of Place: Tourism Development in Costa Rica
- Source :
- Tourism Geographies. 15:88-106
- Publication Year :
- 2013
- Publisher :
- Informa UK Limited, 2013.
-
Abstract
- Full-text, in-print version here: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14616688.2012.699090Citation: Nost, E. 2013. The Power of Place: Tourism Development in Costa Rica. Tourism Geographies. 15(1): 88-106.In this paper, I question how representations of tourist destinations color and are colored by development. Presenting the results of ethnographic fieldwork conducted on the southern Caribbean coast of Costa Rica, I find that the authenticity of portrayals of place is important not for its veracity, but for the social work it performs. Authenticity is not merely socially constructed but expressive of social relations which value people and places. Tourist perceptions of the caribe sur as genuinely underdeveloped—gauged by an analysis of photos and guidebooks as well as surveys—produce an approach to resource use within the community that is limiting. Because the value of the place is its underdevelopment, development itself constrains the possibility of sustaining further growth. Ultimately, reading development via place can be a guide for critically appreciating contemporary patterns of tourism and sustainable development in the caribe sur and elsewhere.
- Subjects :
- FOS: Social and economic geography
Sustainable development
Value (ethics)
Geography
Social work
Geography, Planning and Development
Media studies
Gender studies
SocArXiv|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Geography
Destinations
bepress|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Geography
Human Geography
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Social constructionism
bepress|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Geography|Human Geography
Underdevelopment
Tourism, Leisure and Hospitality Management
Sustainability
bepress|Social and Behavioral Sciences
SocArXiv|Social and Behavioral Sciences
Sociology
Tourism
SocArXiv|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Geography|Human Geography
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 14701340 and 14616688
- Volume :
- 15
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Tourism Geographies
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....113e25a2d59ac3ad78abe9e430533147