Resort Spatiality: Reimagining Sites of Mass Tourism: Reimagining Sites of Mass Tourism

This book theorises resorts as distinct kinds of urban milieux, capturing the complexity of destinations famous for ‘sun, sand and sex’ mass tourism. Drawing on qualitative field research (participant observation, interviews and photography), the book discusses examples from six international resort destinations spread across four continents: the Gold Coast, Australia; Phuket and Koh Phangan, Thailand; Cancún, Mexico; Miami, USA; and Ibiza, Spain.

The book reviews the material and symbolic production of lived spaces in these resorts, considering the mutually constitutive, mutually transformative relations between their spatial formations, built environments, popular imaginaries, representations, narratives of identity, rhythms, and the experiences and practices of both tourists and locals. In doing so, it argues for more nuanced ways of conceptualising tourism, globalisation and spatiality, reimagining how these phenomena unfold in lived spaces.

Taking a cultural studies approach to urban analysis, the book demonstrates the value in embracing complexity, fluidity, partiality and uncertainty. It will be of interest to students and researchers of tourism, geography, cultural studies, development studies, anthropology and sociology.

Zelmarie Cantillon is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the School of Humanities, Languages and Social Science at Griffith University, Gold Coast, Australia. She is co-editor of The Routledge Companion to Popular Music History and Heritage (2018) and has contributed to numerous edited collections and journals.