Desire at play

Tourism, credit cards and the American Express Money Card travel board game

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2391291
AutoresAimée Plukker (0009-0004-8261-3835, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA, autor de correspondencia)
Año2024
Volumen29
Número3
Páginas333-360
Fecha de publicación2024-09-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of Material Culture (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1359-1835 • E-ISSN: 1460-3586
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/13591835241275876
OpenAlexW4401765994
IdiomaEN
Referencias citadas54

This article analyses the American Express travel board game Money Card (1972) as it highlights the intertwinement between the rise of a distinctive form of tourism as a modern mass industry and the expansion of the capitalist market, the primacy of the dollar, and U.S. hegemony. In a period marked by a shift from paper money to credit cards and global credit markets, American Express was the most powerful and easily identifiable symbol of the new post-war international economic order dominated by U.S. economic and political power. Placing the American Express Money Card board game within the shift from the post-war economy of reconstruction to credit expansion and neoliberalism, brings to the forefront the ways in which the game presented tourism as a ritual in celebration of capitalism. As a form of armchair travel, the board game sold tourism as a re-enchantment of the world. The article explores how the board game framed the American Express Card as fetish object, portrayed Europe as up for sale, and created a desire for the services of American Express and consumerism more generally. It shows how players were trained to use credit cards, be good consumers, and participate in the economy of the tourist industry. By advancing a capitalist tourist dreamworld, Money Card shaped perceptions of travel to Europe and created a religious illusion, offering a re-enchantment of the world through tourism and credit cards

Advertising · Business · Commerce · Consumerism · Credit card · Economics · Economy · Market economy · Political science · Tourism · Diverse Aspects of Tourism Research · Law · Media, Gender, and Advertising · Travel Writing and Literature · Finance