Remoteness and Myth Making: Tourism Development on Pitcairn Island

Abstract

Remote islands pose particular challenges for tourism policy and accessibility to tourism markets deemed crucial for their economical survival. As competition for the travel market in the Pacific region intensifies, “microstates” such as Pitcairn Island encounter particular obstacles as destinations on the “periphery”. This paper examines issues faced by Pitcairn, the last remaining Pacific British overseas territory and the unique heritage that underlies its inception and image. In the wake of increasing globalization and as a society and culture located in a geographically and economically peripheral region, the study identifies the role of “myth making” as a key determinant of specialist rather than generalist mass tourism strategies for Pitcairn. A qualitative research approach reveals the “power” of myth lies in its resiliency, durability, malleability and persistence in its ability to both organize the tourist “gaze” and the institutions, policies and workings of the community/place/space that is being gazed upon. Thus, myth becomes the vehicle through which Pitcairn may create a sustainable tourism economy.