After the Tourists Depart

Abstract

This chapter explores multiple aspects of image–space relationship in Ladakh in particular. It analyzes the role of photographic practices behind branding of an aspired tourist destination. It makes a case for image–destination inseparability and argues that it is the constructed image of the destination which attracts collective tourist gaze. It focuses on the evolution of Ladakh as a hyper tourist destination in the last two decades. It asserts that the consumerist trajectory or tragedy of Ladakh in the post-liberalization period as a destination for adventure and exotica is visually negotiated through imageries. It also highlights some of the material leftovers of the tourists. Through a visual exploration of material remains, it documents reckless consumerist obsession with packaged tourism.