Courses

Tourism has been described as the largest peaceful movement of people. It also plays an important economic function in many societies. But tourism is never simply about travel and economics. It both reflects and influences identity, culture, society, urban planning, politics, and history. National or local identity, for example, is often forged though images produced or reproduced for tourists, while tourism often represents how a place views itself, how it is viewed by others, and how it wants to be viewed. This course considers these issues by examining a range of works on tourism worldwide and asking how they apply to tourism in Hong Kong since the mid-1900s. The course examines both the outward-facing aspects (a place presenting itself to the world) of tourism and the inward-looking aspects (convincing the local public that it should open that place to tourists).