Not another Waikiki? Mobolizing topophilia and topophobia in coastal resort areas

Daniel O'Hare, Bond University

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Interim status: Citation only.

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2007 HERDC submission. FoR Code: 1205

© Copyright Routledge, 2007

Abstract

Extract:

This chapter explores international discourses of love and aversion relating to the development of coastal tourism areas throughout the twentieth century. Particular attention is paid to the way that urban planning, design and development decisions relate to the broader discourse. Examples from Australia, Thailand, Spain and the United States are used to support an argument that topophilic and topophobic attitudes, in relation to some of the world’s best-known coastal mass tourism resorts, are used to inform development decisions in less developed coastal settlements. In this chapter, a discourse is understood as "any discussion or exchange of ideas, expressed through conversation and dialogue... and/or writings that treat a subject systematically and at some length."¹ The formal and informal narratives of coastal resorts reveal patterns that arguably constitute systematic discourses. In the discourse of place, a process that employs national and international narratives of comparison and contrast, "meanings are produced, connected into networks and legitimized."²

¹ ² See notes in chapter.