The book brings together an international array of scholars from anthropology, psychiatry, history, cultural geography and critical tourism studies to explore how the movement to, and through, the realms of exotic people, wild natures, subliminal art, spirit worlds, metropolitan cities and sexualised 'others' variably provoke emotions, peak experiences, travel syndromes and inner dialogues. The authors show how tourism challenges us to engage with concepts of self, other, time, nature, sex, the body and death. Through a set of ethnographic and historic cases, they demonstrate that such engagements usually have little to do with the actual destination but rather, are deeply anchored in personal memories, repressed fears and desires, and the collective imaginaries of our societies.
David Picard, is Senior Research Fellow, CRIA-New University of Lisbon, Portugal and Mike Robinson is Professor, Chair of Cultural Heritage, University of Birmingham, UK
David Picard, Mike Robinson, Nelson Graburn, Elvi Whittaker, Émilie Crossley, Eliezer Witztum, Moshe Kalian, Michael A. Di Giovine, Eddy Plasquy, Jessica Rapson, Bertram M. Gordon, Angelina Karpovich, Jill Steward, Julia Harrison, Pamila Gupta, Valerio Simoni, Kenneth Little.