“Ordinary” vs. “Attractive”: How Stories on the Way of Life Become a Part of Tourist Offer Cover Image

“Obično” vs. “atraktivno”: kako priče o načinu života postaju dio turističke ponude
“Ordinary” vs. “Attractive”: How Stories on the Way of Life Become a Part of Tourist Offer

Author(s): Sanja Lončar, Petra Kelemen
Subject(s): Anthropology
Published by: Sveučilište u Zagrebu, Filozofski fakultet
Keywords: tourist offer; creation of heritage; “tourist attraction”; “ordinary life”; stories of the masons and stone-cutters of Vinodol

Summary/Abstract: The article discusses the possibility of including stories on the way of life, documented through ethnographic research, in tourist offer. Starting from a concrete example based on the stories of masons and stone-cutters from the region of Vinodol, and, on the other hand, from tourist promotion materials, the authors list the ambiguities surrounding the term “tourist attraction”, which is commonly used in the projects of cultural tourism. The authors use the corpus of the documented stories of Vinodol region, which they have recognized as powerful elements of cohesion of the local community, simultaneously aware of the process of extraction of heritage, to suggest a pathway for creating tourist offer: from ethnographic research as a starting point, through recognition, extraction and nomination of cultural elements as heritage, to its usage under the frameworks of cultural politics. In doing this, they suggest the acceptance of the value of “the ordinary”.

  • Issue Year: 2011
  • Issue No: 23
  • Page Range: 183-214
  • Page Count: 31
  • Language: Croatian