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From heritage to hyper-reality? Tourism destination development in the Middle East between Petra and the Palm

From heritage to hyper-reality? Tourism destination development in the Middle East between Petra... Tourism destination development in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has been remarkably strong in the last few years, but different types of destinations vary in terms of degree of success. While classical European-centred heritage tourism destinations, such as the Nile valley in Egypt and Petra in Jordan, have been stagnating, other destinations, such as Egypt's coastal resort of Sharm El-Sheikh and the emirate of Dubai, are booming. The expansion in the latter destinations has been enhanced by the construction of new development projects such as El Gouna, Ibn Battuta Mall, Burj Al Arab, and The Palm Islands. Drawing on the work of Eco and Baudrillard, this article interprets these new tourism spaces as ‘hyperrealities’. By developing a theoretically informed, postmodern interpretation of the symbolic value and the global competition advantages of these hyper-real places, the article presents a new perspective on the transformation of tourism spaces in the Arab world. The resulting explanation of the success of hyper-real destinations provides the suggestion that the hyper-realisation of tourism spaces will be a major model of future destination development in the MENA. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change Taylor & Francis

From heritage to hyper-reality? Tourism destination development in the Middle East between Petra and the Palm

Steiner, Christian
Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change , Volume 8 (4): 14 – Dec 1, 2010
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References (73)

Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Copyright
Copyright Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
ISSN
1747-7654
eISSN
1476-6825
DOI
10.1080/14766825.2010.521245
Publisher site
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Abstract

Tourism destination development in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has been remarkably strong in the last few years, but different types of destinations vary in terms of degree of success. While classical European-centred heritage tourism destinations, such as the Nile valley in Egypt and Petra in Jordan, have been stagnating, other destinations, such as Egypt's coastal resort of Sharm El-Sheikh and the emirate of Dubai, are booming. The expansion in the latter destinations has been enhanced by the construction of new development projects such as El Gouna, Ibn Battuta Mall, Burj Al Arab, and The Palm Islands. Drawing on the work of Eco and Baudrillard, this article interprets these new tourism spaces as ‘hyperrealities’. By developing a theoretically informed, postmodern interpretation of the symbolic value and the global competition advantages of these hyper-real places, the article presents a new perspective on the transformation of tourism spaces in the Arab world. The resulting explanation of the success of hyper-real destinations provides the suggestion that the hyper-realisation of tourism spaces will be a major model of future destination development in the MENA.

Journal

Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change – Taylor & Francis

Published: Dec 1, 2010

Keywords: hyper-reality; symbolic capital; heritage; Middle East; Dubai; political economy

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