Joseph Martin Cheer

Colonial heritage and tourism: ethnic landscape perspectives

The revival of colonial heritage is a particular feature of former British and French colonies in Pacific and Asian settings. This is exemplified by the redevelopment and rejuvenation of what were exclusive ‘comfort zones’ for the ‘colonial classes’ and is central to the consumption of colonial nostalgia via tourism. The political and semiotic implications of renewing colonial era constructions for tourism are manifold. The key argument is that this can re-politicise what was hitherto benign colonial heritages. Furthermore, this can aggravate tensions within what are already fragile ethnic landscapes. This is especially so when the setting is one where the various publics have been steeped in economic, cultural and sociopolitical changes, and where political and civil upheavals are recent occurrences. If the restoration of colonial heritage for tourism (in this case for heritage hotels) in former colonies is conducted oblivious to the legacies and meanings instilled in such heritages, the exacerbation of social and political sensitivities is likely.

Roots tourism: blackbirding and the South Sea Islander diaspora.

Roots tourism and diaspora travel are inextricably aligned and embody more than just another avenue for the expansion of tourism. This article, using Vanuatu as the context, argues that roots tourism has far broader implications for diaspora, especially in so far as geopolitical relationships between colonial powers and their former outposts are concerned. The return sojourns of Australias South Sea Islander diaspora are used in this article to highlight the phenomenon of roots tourism. The circumstances surrounding the arrival of the first islanders during what became known as the blackbirding era, beginning in the 1860s through to the early 1900s, is subject to contestation as to whether this constituted free or forced labor. Such narratives are common among diaspora when evaluating the legacy of colonialism, particularly when the specter of exploitation and mistreatment resonates. Roots tourism and the travel of diaspora are aimed at reconciling the ensuing questions of identity, culture, and place. This article argues that roots tourism offers personal relief and restitution as well as contributes to broader sociopolitical advancement between the descendants of the colonized and present-day institutions.

Geographies of marginalization: encountering modern slavery in tourism

At first glance, relating modern slavery to tourism might seem excessive and an exaggeration to what are seemingly unrelated concerns. While modern slavery practices in the global textiles, mining, agricultural, domestic services and sex industries have been on the receiving end of much critical research and mainstream commentary, the global tourism supply chain has not faced the same extent of investigation and critique. Even the UNWTO, the globes tourism industry cheerleader, has so far avoided making such explicit linkages and has mostly celebrated the sector’s potential to contribute to development, and in isolation to how this manifests in the global tourism supply chain. However, TUI the world’s largest consolidated travel company has taken the lead on formally acknowledging the reality that modern slavery exists in the tourism supply chain with their Modern Slavery Statement. In their statement, TUI (2018) declares:

Examining Vanuatu's World War II memorial places and events

Keir Reeves holds a chair in regional engagement at Federation University, Australia. Prior to this he was the director of the Australian and International Tourism Research Unit at Monash University, Australia. Geoffrey Bird is Associate Professor at the School of Tourism and Hospitality Management at Royal Roads University in Victoria, BC, Canada. Laura James works as a researcher in the National Centre for Australian Studies at Monash University Birger Stichelbaut worked at the Research Foundation Flanders (2005-2009) and his general research interests are archaeological prospection, aerial photography for archaeology and conflict archaeology. Jean Bourgeois is professor at Ghent University and Head of the Department of Archaeology

Tourism and the neotraditional: an ethnography of tourism and traditional culture in Vanuatu

That tourism development imbues productive grassroots outcomes in less developed countries is widely contested. Proponents laud its economic impetus, while critics bemoan its tendency to be neocolonial, fostering monopolistic and oligopolistic interests and generally paying scant regard to local-level concerns. Malcolm Crick (1989) refers to tourism as “conspicuous consumption in front of the deprived” and captures the reality of the host-guest interface in Vanuatu. Assessing tourism’s efficacy is problematic, imprecise, complex and vastly neglected. Consequently, analysis of tourism tends to be contentious and premised on weak empirical bases, dominated by economic concerns and with little regard to non-economic matters. In Vanuatu, traditional culture exemplifies the essential character of people and place and as well as offering ni-Vanuatus fortitude, is a drawcard for international tourists. This thesis is an ethnographic examination of the tourism-traditional culture nexus as personified in the tradition-modernity binary. Kastom (tradition) and the kastom ekonomi (traditional economy) frame traditional culture and local socialities, give people resilience and in a classic Polanyian (Polanyi, 1957; Dalton, 1968) sense, is embedded in society and social relationships. The transition from the traditional to the modern is denoted as the neotraditional by Marshall Sahlins (2005). Sahlins’ (ibid., p. 23) theoretical notion developman, articulated as the “indigenous way of coping with capitalism” is applied in this thesis. In Vanuatu, tourism has significant presence within the kastom ekonomi and is a key agent in the emergence of the neotraditional. This research argues that establishing a harmonious relationship with traditional culture may make way for improved tourism outcomes. At a local-level there is tacit acceptance that the diminishment of traditionalisms is offset by gains made in the neotraditional. Reconciling the tensions of the tourism-traditional culture interface holds theoretical and practical implications concerning how tourism and other non-traditional industries may provoke more fecund and enduring grassroots outcomes.