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2
'Memory Tourism' and
Commodifi cation of Nostalgia
Roberta Bartoletti
Introduction
by keying in to their emotions. Within this
framework the market plays an important role.
The commodifi cation of nostalgia can indeed
be considered one of these strategies and tour-
ism is one of the most interesting areas where
we can observe this process of commodifi cation
of emotions.
1
From this perspective, I'm going to illustrate
two cases, which I feel to be emblematic of this
new frontier of modern tourism that offers nostal-
gic experiences to consumers: the case of Heidi-
land and Heididorf in the Swiss Alps, and the
case of 'Ostalgia tourism' in the regions of former
East Germany. These cases also illustrate two dif-
ferent examples of memory tourism, with differ-
ent connections to embodied memories and with
the social and media imaginery, that in this
framework plays a very important role. Finally, I
will construct a tentative defi nition of memory
tourism, identifying its main characteristics.
Memory tourism is a quite heterogeneous phe-
nomenon that represents a new frontier in tour-
ism in contemporary society. The social and
cultural context from which this new form of
tourism emerges is late modernity, which is
characterized by a radical crisis of memories -
of both collective and individual memory - that
is connected to the process of modernization
itself. From this crisis of memory, a sentiment of
modern nostalgia arises that can be exploited
by the market in different ways. One of these
ways is what I call 'memory tourism', which can
be understood as a new form of commodifi cation
of emotions that is functional for the reproduction
of both modern society and of the market.
My analysis begins from several basic
hypotheses: fi rst, that nostalgia can be taken as
a symptom indicating that individuals are ill at
ease with the changes in their way of life pro-
duced by modernity, including the dissolution
of founding collective memories; second, that,
when faced with this dissolution of traditional
ties and the loss of a strong sense of 'belonging',
modern society must identify new strategies
able to motivate individuals to participate in its
processes of social reproduction, in particular
The Study Background: the
Modern Crisis of Memories and
Nostalgia as a Modern Illness
Before moving on to illustrate memory tourism,
I need to provide a brief premise regarding the
1
This perspective is coherent with a performative approach to tourism as experiential consumption, beyond the
traditional paradigm of 'sight' (MacCannel, 1999). About the tourist experience as performance, compare for
example Coleman and Crang (2002) and Gemini (2008).
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