Architecture + Tourism Conference

Mar 19, 06:58 pm

Architecture + Tourism Conference

George moderated and presented at the Architecture + Tourism Conference, IAU Dubai Campus, 2 March 2007

George’s presentation focused on the making of the current urban landscape for millions of tourists who head for Dubai’s exotic urbanism searching for both fantasy but also familiarity.

Motivated by a desire for authentic experience for exotic places, for escape or spectacle, or simply by an urge for new knowledge, the tourist leaves a familiar environment to view other locations. Today, as places increasingly get restructured as spaces of consumption, tourist activities merge with other mass-consumption practices.
Historically, the origin of modern vacation time can be traced back to the 1930s, when workers in France, for the first time, were given the right to twelve paid vacation days. Today, tourism has become a “total lifestyle experience.” The modern tourist resort is by definition a constructed one. The tourist’s perception seems to have shifted away from the pictorial 18th century: there is no longer the desire for the panoramic view. The excessively visual contemporary culture has made everything look familiar. Contemporary tourists are looking for familiarity: they want to feel at home in a strange place.