Title: The media or the message? An examination of myths as resources to understand the tourism phenomenon

Authors: Maximiliano E. Korstanje; Babu P. George

Addresses: Department of Economics, University of Palermo, Buenos Aires, Argentina ' Swiss Management Centre, SMC University, Zurich, Switzerland

Abstract: The present paper discusses the histories of tourism knowledge. The authors argue that tourist travel should be considered in the perspective of broader institutions enrooted into the mythical structures of cultures. The inadequacies of some of the previous attempts to understand tourism from various methodological perspectives are noted. Then, myths are introduced as offering alternate explanations of the tourism phenomenon. Myths have two pronged advantages in understanding tourism: they contain our collective historical understanding about tourism; also, they are a methodological solution to tap into the wealth of tourism knowledge hidden in expressive artefacts. These claims are verified by presenting and analysing a sample of well-known myths.

Keywords: myths; tourism knowledge; history; culture; religion; exegesis; self; mythical structures; collective understanding; historical understanding; methodological solutions; expressive artefacts.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTA.2015.070055

International Journal of Tourism Anthropology, 2015 Vol.4 No.2, pp.122 - 141

Received: 27 Nov 2013
Accepted: 29 Mar 2014

Published online: 26 Jun 2015 *

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