Du guide bleu au routard. Métamorphoses touristiques

Abstract

The tourist-traveller, this nomad who seeks no place of refuge, has become an everyday figure. These last hundred years, guide-books have generated this travel culture. In museums, castles and churches, the tourist has venerated lifeless reliquaries. But the new guide-books aim at introducing the tourist to the present day world. Plain events, like eating, drinking, looking around neutralize conflicts, pacify objects and reduce oppositions. The cheaper a foreign country is, the more open it becomes to everyone's pocket. Poverty, a tourist consumable, makes it even more attractive