Landscapes and imaginaries in tourist’s perceptions of Andalusia

Abstract

Cultural tourism is mainly based on the appreciation of the urban landscape of cities, featuring historical and artistic monuments and buildings that in many cases have been clustered in urban perimeters or historical centers "emptied of their social reality" for their hiper-specialization to the tourism enjoyment. However, in recent years, tourists have begun to claim experiences that include immersion in singular ways of life, traditional activities, and scenarios where they are held. This claim is related to social movements that demand new values and new ways of understanding life into the context of globalization (ecologism, fair trade). Thus, spaces that were never understood as tourism resources are now likely to be considered within the tourist offer. These new scenarios -which are open to different tourist experiences- are reinterpreted by tourists, and also they are given new meanings by the native people themselves. In this sense, the imagination of the Andalusian landscape is a case in point. The rural landscapes ("agrocities") and its environs have grown into an iconic reference to represent Spain long before the emergence of local initiatives to get it stands as a tourism resource. Taking as reference the specific experience of Japanese tourism, we are going to discuss how this appraisal of the Andalusian landscapes is related to particular interpretations.