Tourism, Hybridity, and Ambiguity: the Relevance of Bhabha's ‘Third Space’ Cultures

Abstract

This paper critiques the contribution which Bhabha (1994) has recently made to cultural theoretical thought on historical and temporal forms of ethnicity under the post-colonial moment. Since tourism is frequently dubbed the business of ‘difference’ and ‘the other’, par excellence, it synthesises not only what tourism researchers can learn from Bhabha's powerful contemporary analyses of identity and alterity, but also how Bhabha could fruitfully explore tourism as an important ‘location’ for cultural production and emergent belonging. In interpreting Bhabha's highly problematic notions (such as ‘hybridity’, ‘ambiguity’, and ‘interstitial culture’), the paper challenges the field of tourism studies to develop more vigorous interrogations of the everday performative activities which tend, ethnocentrically, to essentialise people, places, and pasts through tourism.

KEYWORDS:

• Emergent ethnicity
• halfway populations
• restless locations of culture
• enunciation
• new narratives of travel
• new vocabularies of identification