Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
the imaginary of 'America' as a society, created by a complexity of sub-systems of reputation that
include fi lms, oral family traditions, advertising campaigns and literature. Indeed, the emergence
of international Expos, for example, and the provision of entrepreneurial and investment opportu-
nities at a particular time and place that is reconstructed (and subsequently re-marketed) as a
destination event play a crucial role in terms of propagating the idea of an event-place as a secure
place to do business, while selling the notion of open market and globalization. Those who visit
these expos perform as businesspeople looking for connections and to take advantage of commer-
cial networks established in those event-places. However, those who visit the Expos also do this as
tourists, whose experience will be defi ned by their expectations, which is why we need to study
the interrelation between tourism and PR in more critical terms (Lee
et al.
2008).
In the United Kingdom, royal event-places such as weddings, jubilees, coronations are all
public events that are the focus of inward tourism to the UK and 'mega-media events' (Roche
2000). Royal funerals are the object of thanatourism, probably the most famous example being
Princess Diana (Marriott 2007). The fact that the costs of such events are paid from the public
purse is often justifi ed on the basis of tourism and national promotion. However, these are seen
as centrally organized by the state and fundamental to establish discourses of social cohesion;
tourism in these cases is understood only as a by-product but not as a main objective. Nonetheless,
let us reiterate that these events are only catalysts; none of these media-events operate in a
vacuum nor are able to establish dominant discourses in their own. To do that, they need
orchestrated complexity; one that can mobilize, activate or relate to a variety of elements
encompassed within the tourism-reputation systems by evoking time and connexion in a way
in which the different parts of the system feel willing and able to be involved as a community
of stakeholders (such as the community celebrations of the Queen's Jubilee).
Globalization: risk, crisis and CSR
Tourism necessarily impacts upon natural, socio-cultural, economic and political environments
and some of its side-effects are controversial and contested. For example, sports tourism has
become a focus for inquiry into its relationship with a variety of issues such as sex tourism and
disinvestment in local communities (one of the main criticisms of the Commonwealth Games
in Manchester 2002 was that several local sport amenities were closed down in order to fund and
sustain the main facilities of these games), highlighting it as both a reputational risk and a policy
issue for future host cities (Matheson and Finkel 2012).
Indeed, tourism-reputation systems are vulnerable to risk partly because of their intangibility
and complexity; therefore they are highly dependent on public relations and media discourses.
As well as studying tourism, public relations assesses from a communicative action point of view
the diversity of threats to safety and security such as crime, illness or kidnapping which is
endemic in some locations such as Brazil and South Africa or terrorism threats in London or
NewYork. It also needs to examine its impact in terms of local politics and culture. For example,
tourism impacts on the natural environment, particularly in sensitive areas, and may threaten the
very object of tourism or its authenticity. Adventure tourism results in human waste in remote
locations, damaged coral reefs from recreational diving, rock faces damaged with permanent
metal pegs, noise pollution (jetboating and speedboats). As much as we want to think of these
activities as low impact because they are practised by few or because they are imagined to be
'clean and neat', the truth is that taking into account displacement, waste left behind and usage
in general of the environment, these events can be as bad as the overuse of beaches in the south
of Portugal. The effects at the end upon the tourism-reputation system can be devastating once
a particular catalytic event is set in motion.
