Tourism is the same in every country; a person goes to see the history of the country they are visiting and are willing to submerge themselves in a culture that is not completely theirs, to begin with. The article "Social Non-Conformists in Forster's Italy: Otherness and the Enlightened English Tourist" makes it a point to compare the Italian culture to British culture as a way of showing the people the differences. This reference deals with nationality, race, gender, and class issues that are compared in other countries. It is stated that in England there is an assumption that all of the “Latin” nations and ethnic groups are seen as inferior to countries like England mostly because of the language barriers. The Italian novels that are discussed in the source are used to deal with all of their issues as well as point out where there are faults in the society that existed back then. This source is an analysis of Italian novels written by one man who questioned the way society was functioning in England and compared it to the community in Italy. These books describe a period where tourism was also crucial, but it was more of the economy than it is now. Before the economy was held up by the tourism and the agriculture but in the present day, most of Italy’s economy is still based on travel but not as much as it previously was. This source, in the end, discusses the differences in the culture and is indirectly promoting Italy as a place to visit. Usually, people want to take vacations to escape their current lives, and there would be nothing better than going to a whole other country that has different culture and tradition than the country the tourist has come from.
|
Tourists have always been attracted to the Italian culture but for different reasons than the landscapes and the traditions. With the start of the Hollywood era of movies, the Italians were being stereotyped in a way that made Italians enjoyable to watch on the big screen. As soon as Hollywood started using Italian actors in movies or at least anyone who had a good Italian accent, the tourism in Italy raised significantly. The only problem with that is the fact that before arriving in the actual country, people already had an expectation based on the movies. Those expectations were not met because all of the movies were stereotyping the culture when in reality not all Italians are like the movies. Not all Italians are part of the Mafia, and not all Italians are violent enough to kill. Other stereotypes include the fact that they don’t all eat pasta and pizza all of the time. The food changes depending on where the tourist is in the country but all of the ingredients are always fresh. Hollywood gave the people of the United States false hope about what Italy and the Italian people are about which in turn could have made their trips disappointing if they were expecting what was seen in the movies.
|