Gazing or Performing?
- 29 June 2001
- journal article
- Published by SAGE Publications in International Sociology
- Vol. 16 (2), 185-204
- https://doi.org/10.1177/0268580901016002004
Abstract
This article develops a critique of aspects of Urry's `tourist gaze' through an analysis of contemporary tourism in New Zealand. We argue that the metaphorical basis of the gaze seems to lie in the experience of tourism in Europe among particular classes of tourists. In that situation, tourists spend a considerable amount of time looking at historical landscapes and related interpretative sites/sights. By contrast, both international and domestic tourists in European settler societies such as New Zealand participate in active forms of touristic recreation; thus gazing is only one component of the tourist experience. This leads us to suggest that a better metaphorical approach to tourism is to talk about the tourist performance, which incorporates ideas of active bodily involvement, physical activity and gazing.Keywords
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