The “identity” of ethnic groups has been a topic of debate in the field of social studies on tourism, particularly since Dean Maccannell’s last decades contributions. We’ve already discussed this author in “Authenticity as an explanatory concept“. But there’s an interesting assumption behind: even when it’s quite possible that it prejudices them, groups that classify themselves or are classified as “ethnic” are interested in obtaining some kind of monetary income from tourism. That is, “selling” the difference.

But, what happens when a group has suffered real abuse from part of the tourism industry and the commercialization of its identity? This case is boarded by Jonathan Friedman at “Globalization and Localization”, included in his book Cultural Identity and Global process. The case chosen by Friedman is what’s known as “hawaian cultural movement”. Few cities have been so popular around the world through travel market’s proposals and the touristification of many of its dances and practices. Facing this, it’s understandable that this movement keeps an obstinated opposition to tourism.

After more than a century of american domination, hawaians have become a minority in a land they consider their own and only acquired certain visibility through touristic representations. That is, the problem is not the difussion of their “identity”, but rather how to present it to locals and foreigners ignoring the huge difussion power of the tourism media and industry. Such operation requires that what the media present as “hawaian identity” can be seen as something foreign and imposed, and possible to be reconstructed from outside the rules of the tourism field. That is, to conceive that the “authentic” quality is something that can not be “commercialized”. A task hard to carry out in a market society, where everything that may have some kind of attractive can always be reached by market insertion strategies.

Bibliography

Friedman, Jonathan (1994) “Globalización and localización” en Identidad Cultural y Proceso Global. Buenos Aires, Amorrortu, 2001.