Nature, History, and Culture as Tourism Attractors: The Double Translation of Insider and Outsider Media

Abstract

Since the 1992 cod fishing moratorium, the province of Newfoundland and Labrador has redefined social-environmental relationships with coastal landscapes in pursuit of tourism development. We explore how coastal landscapes are defi ned for tourists through traditional and digital media produced by Newfoundland-based tourism operators and the provincial government. We examine how these discourses are then translated by "outsider" mass media in Canada, the US, and the UK, thereby connecting local environments to global flows of tourism. To understand this process of translation and circulation we analyze television ads, websites, and newspaper articles. Additional insight is provided through interviews with tourism operators and promoters about their media work. Drawing on a co-constructionist approach and tourism mobilities literature, we argue that the post-moratorium shift toward tourism has resulted in the packaging and insertion of Newfoundland landscapes into global tourist/travel discourses in multiple ways that depend on medium of circulation and target audience.