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the complex situations of the postcolonial encounter (McClintock, 1992; Mishra and Hodge,
2005), as well as failing to recognise the ongoing colonial or neocolonial practices at play
(Spivak, 1999). The second meaning of the term postcolonial is a way of considering the
implications of colonisation (past, present and ongoing) on societies. Third, as informed by
post-structuralist thought, postcolonial studies explore the dominance of Western thought on
ways of knowing and being in the world. Therefore, while postcolonial studies' initial starting
point relied on a binary between self and other or colonised and coloniser (Saïd, 1978), as well
as on a linear point in time at which colonisation ended, the area of study has matured into a
greater engagement with the problems of these binary constructs. It has therefore become an
area of study which addresses the complexities of identity and belonging within the contem-
porary world of increased movement/mobility. As such, the postcolonial informs a considera-
tion of other ways of being and knowing outside of the dominance of Western philosophical
traditions (Young, 2003).
Whilst the discipline of Geography itself was initially conceived on the same principles as
those through which European colonisation controlled the colonised (Ashcroft, 2001), the
discipline has become a critical site to discuss the implications of those principles for the
places and spaces of colonialism. As Blunt and McEwan (2002: 1) state, 'Postcolonialism and
geography are intimately linked'. Diprose (2008) also notes that geographers have usefully
illustrated the constitutive relationship between place and identity, and Ashcroft (2001: 15)
likewise points out that 'The issues surrounding the concept of place - how it is conceived,
how it differs from “space” or “location”, how it enters into and produces cultural conscious-
ness, how it becomes the horizon of identity - are some of the most diffi cult and debated in
postcolonial experience.' Furthermore, Ashcroft argues for the importance of understanding
ways of 'knowing' place other than those informed by Eurocentric views, including 'intuitive
or imaginary forms of cognition' (2001: 127).
In relation to space, Ashcroft (2001: 15) further suggests that ideas of space are under-
pinned by Western ideas and that 'control of space, through its ocularcentrism, its cartog-
raphy, its development of perspectives, its modes of surveillance, and above all its language'
has been a signifi cant part of colonial processes. As such, there are crucial links between space
and place theory and the study of postcolonialism. Space and place theories have also high-
lighted the importance within sites of postcolonial encounters of varied perspectives on
belonging and being within place (Massey, 2005). Tourism is one such site of (post)colonial
encounter.
Postcolonialism within tourism research
Tourism can be considered both as a space of colonialism and as a space of postcolonial poten-
tial. Hence, while postcolonial theory has been critiqued for its failure to deal with the 'reali-
ties' of the material world (McEwan, 2003) (because of its often highly theoretical concerns
of issues of representation), the geography of tourism, in particular, has addressed some of
postcolonial studies' most central questions about the socio-economic implications of tourism
representations, power imbalances, and the transformative potentialities of people and places
through tourism. As such, Tucker and Akama (2009) divide the study of tourism and post-
colonialism into two: postcolonialism meaning 'neocolonialism', in which tourism is im-
plicated in ongoing colonising practices of disempowerment and exploitation of places and
people; and secondly, 'critical postcolonialism', which refers to 'a critical perspective that
draws attention to the discursive aspects of power and control present in “First World”
(Western/European) representations of, and interest in the developing countries, also referred
