Tourism, Magic and Modernity by David Picard

Author:David Picard [Picard, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Anthropology, Cultural & Social, Travel, General, Nature
ISBN: 9780857452023
Google: -tMTyydZqUkC
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Published: 2011-09-01T02:51:37+00:00

Tourism and the Culture of the Kartié

The young men consistently emphasised that the aim of their work at the site was to project ‘a good image’ of La Réunion to visiting tourists, and explained the good image this would consequently reflect well upon their own residential quarter. The act of working on the site, visible to tourists and local audiences, therefore seemed to be underpinned by a communicative function similar to the one implicit to the culture of the kartié (explained in the previous chapter). The morning programme of activity normally consisted of the cleaning of the site and the nurturing of plants, while the afternoons were mostly used for the building of heavier infrastructures, including anti-erosion measures along the paths, benches made of bamboo poles, etc. All these activities were performed in view of the many tourists and local visitors that made their way to the pools. Tourists often engaged the men in conversations, telling them how much they appreciated the beauty of the site and sometimes asking for more details. The men were rather shy about these interactions; in many cases they asked me to explain to the tourists what they were doing at the site. They said they let their gardening work talk for them. While only rarely directly engaging with the site’s visitors, they often commented on them once they had left. They talked about their bodies, especially those of the girls, but also of particularly corpulent or sunburned tourists; ‘they like to eat a lot in their country’ or ‘his wife must be a good cook’ were common comments. When young girls and women passed by, the men would invariably follow them with their eyes while loudly inhaling. Once the girls had gone, the men normally looked at each other, acknowledging the ‘beauty’ of these girls. For several weeks, while they were waiting for the building materials for certain infrastructures to be delivered, the young men did not know what to do. They spent most afternoons down by another pool, the one most popular with tourists, talking, sleeping, picking fruits, watching the girls and making comments.

The site can be seen as a large social stage which different actors entered and where, whether they wanted it or not, they became part of the settings and interactions that unfolded. From the perspective of the young men, tourists were acknowledged here as welcome outsiders, as important visitors who needed to be treated well, who needed to be enchanted by the site. The rationale of this enchantment strategy seemed initially quite straightforward; ‘we try to do something for the tourists, because tourism brings money into La Réunion’, Ploner explained. Tourism seemed to be thought of in terms of an economic sector that enabled the creation of jobs and wealth in the island. At the same time, tourists acknowledged the efforts made at the site, by publicly praising the work carried out by the young men. Simoni explained that ‘when the tourists come here, they say: “Oh, it is so beautiful!” and we are happy then.

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