Visiting Africa: Constructions of Nation and Identity on Travel Websites

Abstract

In this textual analysis, we investigate the official travel websites of African countries. Our study examines where travel and tourism fit into agendas of nationalist constructions. Whose vision of nation is being served by these constructions? How does this “image-work” by developing nations reconcile the paradoxes between modernization, authenticity, and change? Do host nations sustain earlier or develop new authenticities as they become “tourist-nations”? We find that this official travel publicity often denotes a struggle to create a cohesive national identity to be sold to Western tourists while constructing a problematic discourse of cultural distinction and self-exotication.