Can-Seng Ooi - Cultural Tourism and Tourism Cultures: The Business of Mediating Experiences in Copenhagen and Singapore


This book is available at: amazon.co.uk CBS Press (Denmark) Select Books (Singapore) (Singapore) Search amazon.co.uk Updated, 1 September 2007	Cultural Tourism and Tourism Cultures: The Business of Mediating Experiences in Copenhagen and Singapore Can-Seng Ooi, Ph.D. 2002, Copenhagen Business School Press Paperback, 277pages, 37 illustrations, 13 tables ISBN 8763000911 Latest Review in Tourist Studies From the back cover This book presents a comprehensive and dynamic understanding of cultural tourism. It examines cultural mediators and how they help tourists appreciate foreign cultures. It also shows how tourist experiences are strategically crafted by mediators. The mediation process is complex, and the various products are mediated differently. A number of products are investigated, including destination brand identities, “living” cultures and everyday life, art and history. This book also compares the tourism strategies of Copenhagen and Singapore, and demonstrates how tourism is an agent of social change. It also offers an original and refreshing way to understanding tourist behaviour through the concept of the “versatile tourist”. As a whole, the empirical cases and dialogic framework provide new and deep insights into tourism activities. At the end, as the author reminds us that we are being constantly bombarded by brands, media reviews and advertisements in our lives, the issues raised here inspire us to reflect beyond tourism and onto other forms of mediated consumption. Chapters 1. Introduction 2. Decentring and recentring of culture 3. Dialogic understanding of tourism 4. Mediated consumption and the versatile tourist 5. Tourism economics and strategies 6. Mediated sense of place: identity branding 7. Mediated sense of authenticity: living cultures 8. Mediated sense of space and time: history and art 9. Meaningful products: tourism and beyond Comments ... Cultural Tourism & Tourism Cultures offers an eclectic theory of cultural tourism consumption unflawed by the limitations of both the totalising and individualistic conceptualisations which have dominated tourism discourses to date. Central to Ooi’s theory is the mediation of tourists' experiences and the idea of the versatile tourist, responding to mediations. Ooi recognises both the inherent inconsistencies in tourists’ behaviours and the highly competitive market for mediated product offerings. His theory is encompassing, and incorporates the dynamics of tourism mediation. It is as much a theory for the future as for now. In presenting his theory, Ooi explains and orchestrates complex ideas with clarity and easily understood language. His work is empirically grounded and offers lessons for the tourism industry as a whole, especially in enhancing tourists’ experiences. This is a book for twenty-first century tourism developments. – Richard Prentice, Professor of Heritage Interpretation & Cultural Tourism, University of Sunderland In a remarkable and unique work of scholarship, Ooi has provided a postmodern perspective on the world of tourism. Imbued with the social constructionist point of view, this study of the role of “mediation” as a significant process entrenched within the tourist industry, not only modifies the traditional understanding of that activity, but also – by introducing the concepts “decentring” and “recentring” – shows that the culture of tourism as an industry acts on the original cultures themselves, recasting them dramaturgically into forms and styles that are themselves innovative. With the contrasting societies of Denmark and Singapore as empirical basis for the research, the work bids fair to reshape our understanding of the entire world of global travel. – Stanford M. Lyman, Morrow Eminent Scholar & Professor of Social Science, Florida Atlantic University At the start of his book Ooi asks: “How can tourists know and understand a foreign culture when their visits are short and they do not have local knowledge about the places they visit?” This is a crucial question for all cultural tourism. The author answers this question with an in-depth knowledge of the latest theoretical literature and by analysing and comparing the practice of cultural tourism in the cities of Singapore and Copenhagen. In fact, he gives two answers, one dealing with the theories and the research methodology related to cultural tourism, and the other dealing with the mediation of culture and the tourist's understanding of a city. The contrast between the production and mediation of cultural tourism products in Singapore and in Copenhagen offers an insight into the very different strategies of place construction and destination marketing. For all those who want to understand the background to destination mediation and the big question about the authenticity of cultural tourism products – especially the Scandinavian agents in the field of tourism development – the chapter “Decentring and recentring of culture” should be compulsory reading. – Wolfgang Framke, Professor and Centre Manager Tourism Research Centre of Denmark