My Two Cents

Hi, all. This is fantastically helpful, Alexis, thanks! And thanks, too, for setting up the blog.

I hope everybody is enjoying Reading Week. I just wanted to stop by our blog briefly and add that I'm gathering some books for more context about our topic and will try to post info from them that may also be helpful to you in your analysis, etc.

One of these ideas is that of the "tourist gaze," and another is that of "the Other," which I'm hoping to tie in to some of the consumer motivations stuff we've been reading about in class. I think we'll need to make links between these very cool topics re: tourism and selling a destination, and the theoretical stuff re: consumption we've covered.

I will make some more detailed notes once I have the rest of the books in my hot little hands. Talk to you soon,

J.

Hi guys,

So far here is how the presentation is breaking down. Here is what group members will be responsible for:

Breakdown

Part 1 = Jane/Alexis (5 mins)
Part 2 = Jane (5 mins)
Part 3 = Mohammad, other group members (5 mins x each group member)
Part 4 = Alexis (5 minutes)
TOTAL: 20 - 30 mins
Presentation: Mohammad has awesomely offered to put together the slide show, bonus: he's in graphic design

1) short raising-hands survey about which students in the class have traveled, what were they looking for when they traveled, what types of images resonated with them (excitement, relaxation, etc.)

2) Origins of tourism. How colonialists used images of excitement and exoticism to promote travel to the Caribbeans when travel was still considered very dangerous.

3) Deconstructing the advertisement, looking at tourism advertisement for Mexico and discussing the ways in which it is neocolonialist (see below for useful points you will want to talk about)

4) What happens when reality impedes on fantasy: Mexico's current reputation for being dangerous, how their current PR campaign ties into the first segment; how the media has constructed two binary definitions of mexico, "Good" and "Bad".

Part 3: Deconstructing the Advertisement

You guys are responsible for dividing this section up amongst yourselves into two or three 5 minute segments (depending on how many extra group members there are).

Writer Kelly Caton writes in her paper Images of the Other: Selling Study Abroad in a Post Colonial World that there are three unmyths perpetuated in tourism-media, the myth of the Unchanged, the myth of the Unrestrained and the myth of the Uncivilized:

o   Unchanged: destinations firmly fixed in the past; built structures are characterized as extravagant and exotic, surrounded by mysterious legends never allowed to change, they remain relics for the pleasure of tourists; polarizes West and the Rest into changed/unchanged, modern/ancient, advanced/decaying

o   Unrestrained: presentation of destinations as luxuriant natural paradises, where sensuous, exotic and entertaining people were happily waiting to cater to every tourist need; submission and servitude, resurrects relationships b/t former colonizers and colonized, master/servant (Caton, 294)

o   Uncivilized: landscapes portrayed as savage, covered with inhospitable and bizarre vegetation that harbors rare, often dangerous animals; highly nostalgic version of the era of colonial exploration; by presenting destinations as exotic, primordial and untamed, awaiting “discovery” by Western tourists (Caton, 294)

Watch the advertisement - how does it perpetuate these unmyths? For instance, how does an image of Mexico's indigenous people perpetuate the Unmyth of Mexico remaining Unchanged? Are there images of waiters, hostesses, etc. in the advertisement and if so how does this perpetuate the Unmyth of Mexico being Unrestrained? Does the relationship between Mexican people whose job it is to serve and cater to tourists and the tourists themselves recreate the colonialist master/slave relationship in a contemporary setting?

First post!

Hey guys,

This is our group blog. Send me your email to be added as an admin, that way you can post!

Here is the advertisement we are going to deconstruct:

http://www.youtube.com/embed/xiQcXWACYd4

Alexis