Tourism and commercial nationalism

Tourism is a place for articulating intercultural exchange and social interaction. Many nations have used tourism as a medium for assertive expressions of cultural authenticity and national identity. This exploratory study applies critical discourse analysis of interviews and icons, images and texts used in the tourism media to examine the discourses that inform the mobilisation of the markers of national identity in tourism. It argues that the use of national symbols in tourism is an example of commercial nationalism in which the ‘nationalist’ narrative is mobilised to challenge the conditions that undermine the perceived national autonomy. The paper provides some useful insights into the tensions of tourism when negotiating the political realms that lie outside the state structure.