Spain Is (Still) Different: Tourism and Discourse in Spanish Identity

Spain Is (Still) Different addresses both theoretical perspectives on the study of tourism in Spain and specific cases of the cultural impact of travel and tourism on Spanish culture in the late eighteenth to early twenty-first centuries. With contributions from experts in leisure and culture studies, literature, film, and art historians from Spain, the UK, and the U.S., this innovative multi-disciplinary volume introduces readers to methodological and practical issues concerning the cultural function of tourism in Spain. The main body of contributions comes from the area of cultural studies. In the introduction, Afinoguenova and Marti-Olivella provide a comprehensive overview of the problematic of tourism in Spain and of diverse approaches to the study of tourism in its relation to Spanish culture. Unlike other collections on tourism studies, this book is aimed to bridge the gap between the social sciences and the humanities. It is structured to provide an example of how experts in different fields can use each other’s work in order to achieve a multi-faceted understanding of the phenomenon of tourism and its implications.