Cultures of Mass Tourism. New Directions in Tourism Analysis

Abstract

"The Mediterranean often appears to be a wounded region subject to the impact of external forces, a region that must be preserved from external invasions. This book responds to our dissatisfaction with that assessment."

This forceful affirmation appears in the introduction signed by the three editors and leaves little room for doubt about the approach with which they intend to approach the Mediterranean tourist reality. Their aim is to make us abandon an antiquated vision that brings European modernity to the primitive Mediterranean, a sea that defines a region that, according to this stereotype, can be seen as an ecological and social unit. According to this vision, much of the literature that attempts to analyse tourism in the Mediterranean is fed by condescension, by considering the different local societies as backward entities which, hit by the 'golden hours', have sold their original cultural values for a plate of lentils. The key word in this romantic mental model is dependence: the backward Mediterranean countries have been invaded by foreign companies that have designed their future from the north, without any consideration for the economic and cultural needs of the 'natives'. As the publishers rightly point out in the epilogue to the book, this mental model has been so well accepted that it has ended up being adopted as a charter among the very people of the Mediterranean, who thus reject their responsibilities, since most of the process has actually been managed (we believe it would be unfair to say that it has been directed) from the south.