期刊名称：Recreation and Society in Africa, Asia and Latin America
印刷版ISSN：1916-7873
出版年度：2011
卷号：1
期号：2
语种：English
出版社：Sustainable Programs to Reduce Educational and Avocational Disadvantages (SPREAD)
摘要：Like many other nations around the world, Colombia is currently pursuing increased international tourism as a strategy for (sustainable) development. Yet while the nation possesses numerous attributes, both natural and cultural, conducive to tourism development, its ability to capitalize on this potential is presently compromised by the legacy of its protracted internal conflict, which has solidified its global reputation as an extremely hazardous destination and led to numerous international warnings against traveling in the country. In an effort to ostensibly end the conflict and restore order to society, the Colombian government has engaged in an aggressive internal security campaign intended, in part, to make the country safe for foreign tourists. In conjunction with this effort, Colombian tourism authorities recently launched a new media campaign centered on the ingenious slogan “Colombia, the only risk is wanting to stay.” In this representation, I suggest, the tourism bureau is attempting to construct a “public secret” (something generally known but not explicitly articulated; Taussig, 1998a) enabling tourists to feel simultaneously safe and at risk without acknowledging the inconsistency between these perceptions, a dynamic that elsewhere I de scribe as intrinsic to the successful delivery of commercial adventure tourism in general (Fletcher, 2010). The relative success of this effort, as evidenced by the dramatic growth in international tourism arrivals to Colombia over the last several years, has important implications for our understanding of tourism marketing in general, as well as for other conflict-ridden nations also seeking to harness tourism development in the interest of economic recovery.
