Cultures of Mass Tourism (New Directions in Tourism Analysis)

Abstract

"The Mediterranean is often defined as 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 strong statement appears in the introduction signed by the three editors
and leaves little room for doubt as to what approach they intend to take to the Mediterranean tourist reality. Their aim is to make us abandon an antiquated vision that contrasts European modernity with Mediterranean primitivism, a sea that defines a region that, according to this stereotype, can be seen as an ecological and social unit. Based on this vision, a large part of the bi-bliography that attempts to analyse tourism in the Mediterranean is nourished by the Countess' tendency to consider the different local societies as backward entities that, hit by the "golden hordes", 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 editors rightly point out in the epilogue of the book, this mental model has been so well accepted that it has ended up being adopted as a charter among the inhabitants of the Mediterranean themselves, 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.