Description
In the context of neoliberal colonial capitalism, many countries are economically dependent on tourism and compete fiercely for international (often Western) tourists. Consequently, diverse tourism stakeholders represent, restructure, and manage ‘their’ territories and citizens as desirable/safe ‘tourism destinations’ and ‘touristic figures’ to attract/satisfy international tourists. This, we argue, is indicative of a mode of governance that harks back to the colonial practices of zoos and human zoos, what we call ‘touristic zoopolitics’ (Becklake and Wynne-Hughes 2023). Drawing on ethnographic research in Egypt and Guatemala, and engaging with theories of bio/zoo/necropolitics, along with the work of critical migration/mobilities, post/decolonial, and black studies scholars, this paper theorises and interrogates the logics, relations, and practices underpinning touristic zoopolitics. Starting from specific geographic, cultural and historical contexts, we show how this contemporary mode of governance is hierarchically reordering and reproducing places and people, in (de)humanising ways, often with nefarious consequences.
