Illusion and reality in Tahiti's tourist cocoons

Bibliographic Data

ID12724245
AuthorsM Kahn (0000-0003-1608-7772, University of Washington, corresponding author)
Year2011
Volume9
Issue3
Pages201-216
Publication date2011-09-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Tourism and Cultural Change (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1476-6825 • E-ISSN: 1747-7654
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14766825.2011.620119
OpenAlexW1986307912
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited25

This paper explores the idea of tourist ‘cocoons’ – carefully managed spaces of illusion – in Tahiti/French Polynesia. Using the concept of heterotopia, I focus on resort hotels, where 90% of tourists stay. In Tahiti, these include ‘natural’ landscapes (white-sand beaches, turquoise lagoons, and colorful fish darting through tropical coral), hotel architecture (with its neo-Polynesian structures and overwater bungalows), and hotel employees (with island-style clothing, crowns of leaves on their heads, and smiles on their faces). These cocoon-like environments are settings of total control. They are highly effective strategies for coping with the disjuncture between the larger reality of Tahiti (with its pesky mosquitoes, ordinary buildings, and everyday Tahitians) and the Tahiti of tourists’ imaginations. These fanciful cocoon-like heterotopias are far from static; they are constantly being spun in never-ending webs to provide the recognizable place markers of ‘Tahiti’ that communicate exactly what tourists expect

Aesthetics · Archaeology · Art · Biology · Clothing · Geography · Heterotopia (medicine · Illusion · Tourism · French Urban and Social Studies · Island Studies and Pacific Affairs · Psychology · Travel Writing and Literature · Architecture

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub