“Salaamu’alaikum,
are you a Muslim?”
Almost two
times a day I got these type of questions from Jordanians that I met. At first,
they looked uncertain about me when they saw my appearance, however when I gave
them a nod, their confusion turned into a smile. As a Muslim traveling with a
group of many Caucasian students, I experienced a mixed feeling. Although I am
part of the group of “tourists”, I felt that I am more connected to the local
culture, including its atmosphere and the people.
A (typical) touristic activity
It is clear
that the connection that I felt is largely because of the same religion that we
share. However, in this case I also play a role as a tourist; a person who
typically wants to find exotic experiences and to gaze upon others. It brings
me to a question, what are the
factors that influence the tourist’s identity? To what extent a tourist can be
defined as such, when there is a significant connection between the tourist and
the destination place? According
to Jacobsen (2000), tourist roles, experiences, meanings and attitudes are more
important than the reductionist notion of tourists which describes that “a
tourist is a person who travels outside for more than 24 hours”. It means that,
using postmodernism approach, the motives behind someone’s visit to a
destination becomes salient. As for myself, I found that what I experienced was
a “role distance” (Jacobsen, 2000); I was attached and committed to a role as a
tourist, however I also want to distant myself from the tourist stereotype in
order to get to know the local better in relation to the Islam. This is because being perceived
as tourists may lead to a social stigma. Nevertheless, the dichotomy between ‘tourist’ and ‘traveller’
might not be very useful to determine the tourist identity, rather, a
comprehensive view of the values, meanings and attitudes that the tourist show
might help in unveiling the tourist’s identity.
Tourists or travelers?
Our (touristic) activity in Umm Rassass
References:
- Jacobsen, J. K. S. (2000) ‘Anti-tourist Attitudes:Mediterranean Charter Tourism’, Annals of Tourism Research 27(2): 284–300.
What about your position as a student of tourism? How has this played a role in the connections and divisions you felt with fellow group members/students, on the one hand, and locals, on the other hand?
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