Many times, this blog has mentioned the word “touristify”. But I never tried to define this concept. So, consider this a first attempt to define it; I’m sure it’ll have some flaws you’ll might be able to sort out with your comments and contributions.

When we say “touristify”, we refer to the process by which a historical, social or cultural fact is transformed into a valuable product within the travel market. For this, it’s necessary that this “fact” acquires certain characteristics that allow its commercialization. First of all, it’s evaluated as an opportunity of making money. How far or close it is located from other sites, what infrastructure does it have, how long would the visit last, are some of the variables. If the fact or site appears to be commercializeable, then it’s time to move to the second phase, and configure the space to allow knowing the place in a few hours or days through organized tours or formal visits that will later be actively promoted. This way, a whole chain of sales will be possible to structure for the place or fact so that guides, hotels, travel agencies, transportation, etc. can exploit it.

Of course, there are different visions of the “touristification” process. On one side, there’s those who sustain there’s a “falsification” of traditions and history of touristified locations, by replacing these by a crudely simplified version. In the end, this perspective is rather simplist, since it assumes there are “true facts” that are replaced by other “false” ones. Any constructivist perspective would discard this little comprehensive vision.

But on the tourism field side, there’s also a vision of “common sense” by which the touristification of a fact or place is not a part of a social and historical process, but rather an obvious development from a state of things in the travel market. That is, they conceive “touristifications” as something that has to take place no matter what, and not like an active process by which the Estate and the private sector promote a progressive adaptation of the location to the field’s needs.