Amie Matthews

Beyond whiteness: a comparative analysis of representations of Aboriginality in tourism destination images in New South Wales, Australia

ABSTRACT Following recent policy statements recognising the need to develop the Aboriginal tourism industry in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, this article examines the extent of Aboriginal peoples’ inclusion in, and contribution to, the destination images for four regional NSW tourism destinations. Taking the destination image for Lake Macquarie, a local government area with the second largest Aboriginal population in NSW, as a starting point, the paper examines how Aboriginal peoples and cultures are positioned in local tourism promotions. Finding that Aboriginal peoples, cultures and heritage are largely absent from the destination image for Lake Macquarie and that the tourist gaze that is encouraged there is one of whiteness, comparisons are then made with other regional tourism destinations in NSW with relatively high rates of Aboriginal tourism, including Brewarrina, the Blue Mountains and Shoalhaven. Aboriginal tourism in these areas appears to provide visitors with multiple ways of seeing and experiencing place. With contemporary as well as heritage linkages, Aboriginal culture is presented as traditional and living, dynamic and innovative. We argue that by incorporating Aboriginal perspectives, destinations can encourage a multiplicity of gazes, disrupting stereotypes and bringing tourism closer to its social development objectives.

Foreign presents or foreign presence? Resident perceptions of Australian and Chinese tourists in Niseko, Japan:

Over the past decade Niseko, a small ski resort in Japan, has experienced rapid growth in international tourism. Informed by a small-scale qualitative study, this article provides an account of Niseko residents’ perceptions of tourism and, more specifically, compares their responses to two key groups of inbound tourists, those from Australia and China. Where increases in the number of Australian tourists and tourism business owners have had significant influence on this previously homogeneous town, the reaction of residents to Australians is generally more positive than the response reserved for the more recent arrival of Chinese tourists. Although the former group is associated with increased living costs, leakage of profits and inappropriate behaviour, Australians were generally characterised by research participants as ‘friendly’ and ‘relaxed’ and relations were typically described as ‘harmonious’. Conversely, Chinese tourists were viewed by residents as being pushy and demanding, and these host–guest interactions were described as ‘difficult’. Drawing on Japanese notions of hospitality and residents’ discussions of cultural difference, this article explores the different reactions engendered by foreign presence, pointing as it does so to the ambivalence and contingency that underpins many host–guest relationships.