This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
|
Identity tourism refers to the ways in which travel ties into different dimensions of identity. It covers travel motivated by interest in ones own or others' racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, sexual or gender identity. It also concerns the construction of cultural identities and re-examination of one's ethnic and cultural heritage via tourism. [1] </ref>
Research on the topic of identity and tourism dates back to a 1984 special issue of Annals of Tourism Research guest edited by Pierre L. van den Berghe and Charles F. Keyes. [2] This volume examined the ways in which tourism intersects with the (re-)formation and revision of various forms of identity, particularly ethnic and cultural identities. Since that time, various scholars have examined the intersection between dimensions of identity and tourism. For instance, anthropologist Edward Bruner wrote extensively about tourism and personal identity change in a key article published in the Annals of Tourism Research (See Bruner, Edward M. 1991. “The Transformation of Self in Tourism.” Annals of Tourism Research 18 (2): 238–50).
The way people construct and re-examine their ethnic and cultural heritage can also occur through the internet. [3]
Early contributions of identity tourism allowed scholars to examine the intersection of tourism and identity. Early scholars conducted investigations regarding the influence of the locations of tourism and how the culture portrayed influenced the visitors' images and cultural stereotypes (see work by Pierre van den Berghe, Edward Bruner and others).
An important early contribution to the study of identity tourism was Lanfant, Allcock and Bruner's 1995 edited volume International Tourism, Identity and Change. [4] [5] [6] As with the Keyes and van den Berghe special issue of Annals of Tourism Research, this volume moved the field away from studying the impact of tourism on identity to investigating the intersection of tourism and identity in more dynamic ways, among other things looking at how "local" and "tourist" identities are mutually-constructed. Likewise, Michel Picard and Robert Wood's who edited volume Tourism, Ethnicity and the State in Asian and Pacific Societies (1997, University of Hawaii Press), examined the ways in which tourism intersections with ethnic, cultural, regional and national identities, as well as with the political agendas of Pacific island and Southeast Asian states. [7] [8] [9] [10] Abrams, Waldren and Mcleod's 1997 volume Tourists and Tourism: Identifying with People and Places [11] also offered case studies examining issues surrounding the construction of identity in the context of tourism. [12] [13] [14] [15] Among other things, the chapters in their volume investigated tourists' views of themselves and others in the course of their travels, the relationship of travelers to resident populations, and the ways in which tourists' quests for authenticity are entangled with their own sensibilities about their own identities.
Case studies of tourism and identity include Edward Bruner's [16] 2001 article "The Masai and the Lion King: Authenticity, Nationalism and Globalization in African Tourism", [17] which examines how various Kenyan tourist sites entail displays of particular identities ("Masai" "Colonialist" etc.) and how tourists' engagements with these identity displays are varied, nuanced and complex, articulating with their own narratives, sensibilities about African heritage and quests. Kathleen M. Adams' 2006 work on tourism, identity and the arts in Toraja, Indonesia illustrates how tourism is drawn upon by different members of the community to elaborate different dimensions of identity. In "Art as Politics: Re-crafting tourism, identities and power in Tana Toraja, Indonesia", [18] Adams documents how tourism challenges older elite identities in the community, reconfiguring artistic and ritual symbols once associated with elites as broader symbols of Toraja ethnic group identity. Amanda Stronza's [19] 2008 work on tourism and identity in the Amazon has illustrated how tourism appears to be causing new differentiation of identities within the community she researched (see "Through a New Mirror: Reflections on Tourism and Identity in the Amazon"). [20] A 2011 edited volume by Burns and Novelli also offers a number of case studies on the topic of tourism and social identities. [21]
Alyssa Cymene Howe studied how identity tourism interacted in the San Francisco queer space in the 90s. She found that tourism created, for both tourists and residents of San Francisco, a sense of group identity. The creation of the "Queer Homeland" of San Francisco owes part of its identity to tourism as a practice itself. [22]
Identity is not static but a dynamic concept that is determined by development, culture, and the society that an individual is exposed to. Cyberspace, which allows individuals to interact with other people from different cultures can allow people to expand their identities. [23] In 2011, an edited volume on Tourism Social Media: Transformations in Identity, Community, and Culture by hospitality and business school scholars highlights some of these issues. Today, locations can now attract people from all over the world through smart tourism. These tourists could use sensors, scanners, and other smart devices to interact with these culturally rich places. Such initiatives have been used to manage tourists during peak season. [24] Moreover, there are various programs and applications, such as chat rooms, forums, MUDs, MOOs, and MMORPGs, among others where a user is allowed to establish an identity in that particular space. This online identity could be different from a user's physical identity in race, gender, height, weight or even species. People create profiles online to interact with online. Such an identity could be completely random and friend interacting with this new identity will be exposed to maybe the fictional name of the participant. [25] In these chat rooms and forums, a user creates their identity through text and the way they interact with others. In MMORPGs, users create a visual representation of their identity through an avatar. This allows users to easily tour more than just ethnic and cultural identities. So, the emergence of the internet as a venue of identity expression is also relevant to the theme of tourism and identity.
Identity tourism in cyberspace is facilitated by the ontological discussion that challenges the perspective of space and place to include the cyberspace. [26] Cyberspace is then equivalent to real other real physical spaces offline. Therefore, the same way people today use cyberspace to shop, entertain and date, Ziyed Guelmami and François Nicolle state that it can also be a platform to construct identity. [26] The construction of identity online is equated to identity tourism because it fits the definition of tourism that defines it as people traveling and staying in places outside their usual environment for various purposes.
With the development of the internet and virtual reality, identity tourism can become more salient than previously thought. With virtual reality, for example, transgender individuals can control their own gender presentation in an MMORPG or forum. Lisa Nakamura [27] has studied identity tourism in cyberspace, using it to describe the process of appropriating an identity involving another gender and/or race than one's own on the web. Keller (2019) also states that the youth, especially the young modern women uses the internet to explore feminist activism. [28] An individual may also come from a very conservative family but through social media platforms like Twitter, they are able to explore various conversations like those related to dressing choice, something that she might not be able to access in her real life. Therefore, through cyberspace, they are able to explore a certain identity and even adopt it as theirs. [28] Another unfortunate phenomena explored on the internet is Jihadi ideologies. Prucha (2016) reveals that extremist groups have used social media to create a wealth of information on Jihad. Through cyberspace, curious individuals have been able to access the information, adopted extremism as their identity and even traveled to the Islamic State to live the Jihad life. [29] This kind of cyber-identity tourism mainly refers to the web but also touch other media forms, such as video games. [30] Being able to 'tour' the internet with a new identity opens the possibility of the net being an identifiable space.
Nakamura also mentions the popular cartoon "On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog", in her journal "Race In/For Cyberspace: Identity Tourism and Racial Passing on the Internet”. This image portrays an aspect of identity tourism and how on the internet anyone can describe their physical selves in any way; “on the internet nobody knows you’re a dog”, it is possible to portray yourself as a different race, gender, age, sexuality, etc., in other words “computer crossdressing”. The internet allows people to communicate in real time all while controlling their image and the conditions which people perceive them. Nakamura describes the cartoon as celebrating the internet's ability as a social leveler, which allows anyone, even dogs, to freely self-represent themselves in any way, shape or form. [31]
Tourism through the Internet of Things (IoT)
With the internet of things, the inter-connectivity presented in the internet allows users to interact with a chosen environment than it was ever possible in the past. Platforms that are often used for social identity tourism include Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube, Instagram, and Pinterest. [32] Different age groups may prefer different platforms. For example, today, an interface can be built and allow more direct interaction of users with facilities and other services or product offered by the tourist destination. [33] The action can be achieved through sensors and smart products that have the ability to sense actual physical actions that are translated to the digital form creating an embodied interaction. [33] The electronic identification system also allows cross border authentication for online cross-border services that may be needed for internet users to access tourism online. [34]
The study of online identity tourism draws attention to important considerations about how individuals allow virtual reality to shape their identity. [35] However, Ruangkanjanases et al. (2020) reveals that the reshaping of identity affects the individual perceives themselves as useful. [36] This way, people can also quantify the success of social media and justify its use. [37] Unfortunately, due to the temptation that people have on social media to compare themselves with others, they might find their new identity unsatisfactory. [38] The result is lower identity clarity and overall self-esteem.
A virtual community is a social work of individuals who connect through specific social media, potentially crossing geographical and political boundaries in order to pursue mutual interests or goals. Some of the most pervasive virtual communities are online communities operating under social networking services.
Passing is the ability of a person to be regarded as a member of an identity group or category, such as racial identity, ethnicity, caste, social class, sexual orientation, gender, religion, age and/or disability status, that is often different from their own. Passing may be used to increase social acceptance to cope with stigma by removing stigma from the presented self and could result in other social benefits as well. Thus, passing may serve as a form of self-preservation or self-protection if expressing one's true or prior identity may be dangerous.
Internet culture is a quasi-underground culture developed and maintained among frequent and active users of the Internet who primarily communicate with one another online as members of online communities; that is, a culture whose influence is "mediated by computer screens" and information communication technology, specifically the Internet.
Cultural identity is a part of a person's identity, or their self-conception and self-perception, and is related to nationality, ethnicity, religion, social class, generation, locality, gender, or any kind of social group that has its own distinct culture. In this way, cultural identity is both characteristic of the individual but also of the culturally identical group of members sharing the same cultural identity or upbringing. Cultural identity is an unfixed process that is continually evolving within the discourses of social, cultural, and historical experiences. Some people undergo more cultural identity changes as opposed to others, those who change less often have a clear cultural identity. This means that they have a dynamic yet stable integration of their culture.
In computing, an avatar is a graphical representation of a user, the user's character, or persona. Avatars can be two-dimensional icons in Internet forums and other online communities, where they are also known as profile pictures, userpics, or formerly picons. Alternatively, an avatar can take the form of a three-dimensional model, as used in online worlds and video games, or an imaginary character with no graphical appearance, as in text-based games or worlds such as MUDs.
The Torajans are an ethnic group indigenous to a mountainous region of South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Their population is approximately 1,100,000, of whom 450,000 live in the regency of Tana Toraja. Most of the population is Christian, and others are Muslim or have local animist beliefs known as aluk. The Indonesian government has recognised this animistic belief as Aluk To Dolo.
Internet identity (IID), also online identity, online personality, online persona or internet persona, is a social identity that an Internet user establishes in online communities and websites. It may also be an actively constructed presentation of oneself. Although some people choose to use their real names online, some Internet users prefer to be anonymous, identifying themselves by means of pseudonyms, which reveal varying amounts of personally identifiable information. An online identity may even be determined by a user's relationship to a certain social group they are a part of online. Some can be deceptive about their identity.
Digital anthropology is the anthropological study of the relationship between humans and digital-era technology. The field is new, and thus has a variety of names with a variety of emphases. These include techno-anthropology, digital ethnography, cyberanthropology, and virtual anthropology.
Online ethnography is an online research method that adapts ethnographic methods to the study of the communities and cultures created through computer-mediated social interaction. As modifications of the term ethnography, cyber-ethnography, online ethnography and virtual ethnography designate particular variations regarding the conduct of online fieldwork that adapts ethnographic methodology. There is no canonical approach to cyber-ethnography that prescribes how ethnography is adapted to the online setting. Instead individual researchers are left to specify their own adaptations. Netnography is another form of online ethnography or cyber-ethnography with more specific sets of guidelines and rules, and a common multidisciplinary base of literature and scholars. This article is not about a particular neologism, but the general application of ethnographic methods to online fieldwork as practiced by anthropologists, sociologists, and other scholars.
Tongkonan is the traditional ancestral house, or rumah adat, of the Torajan people in South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Tongkonan has a distinguishing boat-shaped and oversized saddleback roof. Like most of the Indonesia's Austronesian-based traditional architecture, tongkonan is built on piles. Its construction is a laborious task, and it is usually built with the help of all family members or friends. In the original Toraja society, only nobles had the right to build tongkonan. Commoners live in smaller and less decorated homes called banua.
The online disinhibition effect refers to the lack of restraint one feels when communicating online in comparison to communicating in-person. People tend to feel safer saying things online that they would not say in real life because they have the ability to remain completely anonymous and invisible when on particular websites, and as a result, free from potential consequences. Apart from anonymity, other factors such as asynchronous communication, empathy deficit, or individual personality and cultural factors also contribute to online disinhibition. The manifestations of such an effect could be in both positive and negative directions; thus, online disinhibition could be classified as either benign disinhibition or toxic disinhibition.
Cyberethics is "a branch of ethics concerned with behavior in an online environment". In another definition, it is the "exploration of the entire range of ethical and moral issues that arise in cyberspace" while cyberspace is understood to be "the electronic worlds made visible by the Internet." For years, various governments have enacted regulations while organizations have defined policies about cyberethics.
Lisa Nakamura is an American professor of media and cinema studies, Asian American studies, and gender and women’s studies. She teaches at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where she is also the Coordinator of Digital Studies and the Gwendolyn Calvert Baker Collegiate Professor in the Department of American Cultures.
Heritage commodification is the process by which cultural themes and expressions come to be evaluated primarily in terms of their exchange value, specifically within the context of cultural tourism. These cultural expressions and aspects of heritage become "cultural goods," transformed into commodities to be bought, sold and profited from in the heritage tourism industry. In the context of modern globalization, complex and often contradictory layers of meaning are produced in local societies, and the marketing of one's cultural expressions can degrade a particular culture while simultaneously assisting in its integration into the global economy. The repatriation of profits, or "leakage", that occurs with the influx of tourist capital into a heritage tourist site is a crucial part of any sustainable development that can be considered beneficial to local communities. Modern heritage tourism reproduces an economic dynamic that is dependent upon capital from tourists and corporations in creating sustained viability. Tourism is often directly tied to economic development, so many populations see globalization as providing increased access to vital medical services and important commodities.
Tau tau are a type of effigy made of wood or bamboo. They are particular to the Toraja ethnic group in South Sulawesi, Indonesia. The word "tau" means "man", and "tau tau" means "men" or "statue".
Kathleen M. Adams is a cultural anthropologist, Professorial Research Associate at SOAS, University of London, and Professor Emerita at Loyola University Chicago,. Adams is known for her research on cultural transformations in island Southeast Asia,, and her contributions to critical tourism studies, heritage studies, Indonesian art, and museum studies. Her award-winning books include Art as Politics: Re-crafting Identities, Tourism and Power in Tana Toraja, Indonesia and The Ethnography of Tourism: Edward Bruner and Beyond. She has written four other books, co-edited special journal issues and published articles on topics ranging from tourism research ethics to globalization and the politics of Indonesian arts.
New media studies is an academic discipline that explores the intersections of computing, science, the humanities, and the visual and performing arts. Janet Murray, a prominent researcher in the discipline, describes this intersection as "a single new medium of representation, the digital medium, formed by the braided interplay of technical invention and cultural expression at the end of the 20th century". The main factor in defining new media is the role the Internet plays; new media is effortlessly spread instantly. The category of new media is occupied by devices connected to the Internet, an example being a smartphone or tablet. Television and cinemas are commonly thought of as new media but are ruled out since the invention was before the time of the internet.
Public rhetoric refers to discourse both within a group of people and between groups, often centering on the process by which individual or group discourse seeks membership in the larger public discourse. Public rhetoric can also involve rhetoric being used within the general populace to foster social change and encourage agency on behalf of the participants of public rhetoric. The collective discourse between rhetoricians and the general populace is one representation of public rhetoric. A new discussion within the field of public rhetoric is digital space because the growing digital realm complicates the idea of private and public, as well as previously concrete definitions of discourse. Furthermore, scholars of public rhetoric often employ the language of tourism to examine how identity is negotiated between individuals and groups and how this negotiation impacts individuals and groups on a variety of levels, ranging from the local to the global.
The relationship between race and video games has received substantial academic and journalistic attention. Games offer opportunities for players to explore, practice, and re-enforce cultural and social identities. Because of the multifaceted cultural implications of video games, there may be issues of race involved in the player base, the creative process, or within the game's universe. Video games predominantly created and played by one racial group can unintentionally perpetuate racial stereotypes and limit players' choices to preconceived notions of racial bias, and issues of representation and harassment may arise in the industry and the player community.
Online hate speech is a type of speech that takes place online with the purpose of attacking a person or a group based on their race, religion, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, disability, and/or gender. Online hate speech is not easily defined, but can be recognized by the degrading or dehumanizing function it serves.