Tourism Platforms and the Digital Biopolitics of Nature: An Interface Analysis of TripAdvisor in Patagonia-Aysén, Chile

Abstract

This article investigates how digital platforms are implicated in the neoliberalization of conservation by turning nature and protected areas into tourism commodities. We mobilize Ash et al.’s (2018) heuristic of unit, vibration, and tone to analyze TripAdvisor’s interfaces for contributing, exploring, and reviewing nature-based points of interest in Patagonia-Aysén, Chile. We contend that digital tourism platforms express what we term digital environmental biopower, which designates these platforms’ capacities to enlist digital users as agents who engage in biopolitical practices such as classifying, scoring, and raking natural areas as objects whose value is reliant on their tourism attributes. We argue that these digital modulations both sustain and are sustained by an environmental biopolitical regime in which “pristine” natural areas are “made to live” or “allowed to die” in the global digitally mediated (eco)tourism marketplace.

Key Words:

• commodified nature
• environmental biopolitics
• neoliberalization of conservation
• platform biopower
• tourism platforms

Acknowledgments

We are grateful for the helpful suggestions of the anonymous reviewers. Gratitude is also extended to Dr. Andrés Núnez for his constructive comments and generous encouragement.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 See http://www.ecosia.org.

2 Büscher (2016) identified the like economy as the use of social media platforms to convert social interactivity and user affection into valuable data that can be exchanged. On the other hand, the gift economy refers to the practice of giving without the expectation of immediate or direct return and is often contrasted with market-based or commodity-based economies.

3 See https://ebird.org/home.

4 See https://www.inaturalist.org/.

5 See https://naturebasedtourism.africa/.

6 See https://corporate.deliveroo.co.uk/.

7 This is the lead author’s translation from the original Spanish.

8 There are differences between mobile and desktop versions of digital interfaces that affect user interactions and give rise to different experiences of platforms (see, e.g., Dyer and Abidin 2022). In this study, we chose the desktop version of the interface as it presents most of its units on a single Web page, such that the relationship between the interface and the user (and the strength of these) occur within a clear and identifiable canvas or interaction “space.” This approach led us to interpret vibrations through compositional analysis of the desktop interface (position of units on the interface, their particular design, and effects) and how this influences users to create categories of Things to Do.

9 Beach, beaches, bodies of water, canyons, caverns, caves, deserts, dolphin, whale watching, forests, geologic formations, islands, mountains, nature wildlife areas, parks, points of interest, landmarks, reefs, state parks, theme parks, valleys, volcanoes, water parks, waterfalls.

10 Aisén is the Anglicized spelling of Aysén, which means “fall apart” or “dismember” in the Chono Indigenous language.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Juan Astaburuaga

JUAN ASTABURUAGA is an Assistant Professor of Geography in the Instituto de Geografía at the Pontificia Universidad Católica, Santiago, Chile, 7820436. E-mail: [email protected]. His research is rooted in the intersection between the fields of digital geographies and digital nature, with a particular focus on how digital technologies (re)produce multiple natures and mediate environmental governance.

Agnieszka Leszczynski

AGNIESZKA LESZCZYNSKI is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography and Environment, Western University, London, ON, Canada N6A 5C2. E-mail: [email protected]. Her work is broadly situated in the field of digital geographies, with a particular focus on intensifying intersections of digitality and cities.

J. C. Gaillard

J. C. GAILLARD is Ahorangi/Professor of Geography at Waipapa Taumata Rau. E-mail: [email protected]. His work focuses on power and inclusion in disaster and disaster studies. It includes developing participatory tools for engaging minority groups in disaster risk reduction with an emphasis on ethnic and gender minorities, prisoners, children and homeless people.