Providing a unique analysis of current multidisciplinary research on the complex relationships between tourism and the imaginaries of tourist destinations, this book traces the links between tourism imaginaries and their religious (heaven) and political (utopia) antecedents. The substantive chapters are organised into three main thematic sections, the first explores the touristic production and consumption of place imaginaries, the second analyses the way places are practiced through imaginaries and the role imaginaries play in the tourist experience and the final section explores the way images and the media participate in the creation of tourism imaginaries.

Introduction, Nelson Graburn and Maria Gravari-Barbas. Part I Producing/Consuming Place Imaginaries: Images, imaginaries and imaginations: French notes, Saskia Cousin; Imagining Goa: tourism development and state formation in postcolonial Goa, Raghuraman S. Trichur; Reinventing and reshaping Gaudi: from nation and religion to tourism. Architecture, conflict and change in Barcelona's tourist imaginary, Josep-Maria Garcia-Fuentes; `What happens in Vegas doesn't stay in Vegas': when tourism imaginaries fashion the scientific discourse, Pascale Nedelec; Evangeline, Acadians, and tourism imaginaries, Rita Ross. Part II Tourism Practices and the Imaginary: Tourism imaginaries and political discourses of Mayotte Island, Madina Regnault; Fair tourism and the `authentic' encounter: realization of a rite of recognition in the context of the myth of authenticity, Alain Girard and Bernard Scheou; Crafting archaism, cultural entrepreneurs, indigenous masks and the political and touristic imaginaries of heritage in Central America, Julien Laverdure; Spending holiday in Japan, falling in love with Japan: from pop culture to tourism imaginary, Clothilde Sabre; `Like nowhere else': imagining Provincetown for the lesbian and gay family, Liz Montegary. Part III Media and Imaginaries Reflexivity and Performativity: The marvel of tropical waters: the invention of an imaginary at the pace of technological advances, Luc Vacher; From the invention of an imaginary to the promotion of tourism: Greece through the lens of the photographer F. Boissonnas (1903-1930), Estelle Sohier; Beyond imaginary of place: performing, imagining, and deceiving self through online tourist photography, Iris Sheungting Lo and Bob McKercher; The tourism websites of metropolitan areas: between the image and the imaginary, Philippe Viallon; Transportation catastrophes and travel imaginaries in the French mass illustrated press, 1890-1914, H. Hazel Hahn; Conclusions - at the crossroads, Nelson Graburn. Index.

Maria Gravari-Barbas is Professor of Geography at the University of Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne. She is also in charge of the IREST (Institute of Research and Higher Studies on tourism) and EIREST (Interdisciplinary Research Group on Tourism Studies). She leads the UNESCO Chair "Culture, Tourism, Development" and coordinates the UNESCO UNITWIN network of the same name.

Nelson Graburn is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of California Berkeley. He is a founding member of the International Academy for the Study of Tourism, the Research Committee on Tourism (RC-50) of the International Sociological Association, and the Tourism Studies Working Group at U C Berkeley, and serves on the editorial board (for anthropology) of Annals of Tourism Research.