• 1 Conference organized by the University of Versailles Saint Quentin (UVSQ), sponsored by the Centre (...)

1The question raised in this issue of Mondes du tourisme focuses on tourist imaginaries and practices in the USA, notably by emphasizing their economic and territorial impacts on the country. This issue results from critical reflections that began during the international conference entitled “Tourist Imaginaries and Mobility in the United States”, organized on February 6-7 20201, in short, and coincidentally only a few weeks prior to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic which led to the border closing, and prevented any kinds of travel, touristic or others, ironically shedding a bright light on the question of tourism. Some of the conference papers led to the publication of an issue of the Revue française d’études américaines (RFEA), entitled “Imaginaires et pratiques touristiques aux États-Unis : enjeux identitaires et mémoriels” (Croisy et al., 2021). As a follow-up to the latter, this issue of Mondes du tourisme provides further insights into US tourism as a field of study, one that has been extensively explored by French academia already but that still deserves more scrutiny.

• 2 Here, “US territory” must be understood in a broad sense: the 48 contiguous continental states, the (...)

5Few studies nevertheless offer a general examination of the economic and geographic dynamics of tourism in the US2; all too often, they rarely attempt to consider the ways in which tourist imaginaries and practices influence such dynamics. In that regard, whether or not there are specific imaginaries and practices in the US compared with Europe for instance, remains undetermined. In other words, why should we examine the issue of tourism in the United States? To what extent does tourism enable the creation of a unique link between nature and the vast American spaces on the one hand, and with objects of memory (notably memory linked to slavery and the Amerindian experience) on the other hand? Meanwhile, in what ways does the American context contribute to the emergence of an original, and truly industrial, form of tourism as an economic sector? More generally, what does the example of the United States allow us to understand about the challenges involved in the rise of tourism on the economy and the geography of the country? By emphasizing the question of imaginaries and tourist practices, this issue of Mondes du tourisme aims to consolidate our knowledge of economic and space dynamics related to tourism in the United States, drawing from this vast literature as well as an interdisciplinary approach, all the while disclaiming to put an end to the eclecticism mentioned earlier.

• 3 Let us note that in France, alongside geography, sociology has played a major role in the developme (...)

6Following the groundbreaking work by Knafou on the development of ski resorts in the Alps (1978), followed in the 1990s by Cazes’s work on the geography of tourism (1992), and Dewailly’s and Flament’s on the geography of tourism and leisure (1993), tourism activity has prompted growing interest in the humanities in France. Along with—and perhaps in the wake of—geographers whose work has played a crucial role in the emergence of tourism as an object of study in the humanities (Stock, 2004; Knafou and Team MIT, 2008, 2011; Violier, 2008; Lazzarotti, 2011; Fagnoni, 2017; Stock et al. 2017; Duhamel, 2018), economists (Caccomo, 2007; Schéou, 2009) and specialists in management (Callot, 2013), sociologists (Viard 2006; Christin, 2014; Cousin and Réau, 2016; Guibert and Réau, 2020)3 and anthropologists (Urbain, 2002), lawyers (Jégouzo, 2018; Lachièze, 2020) and historians (Bertho-Lavenir, 1999; Boyer, 2005; Hagimont, 2022) have all contributed to the understanding of the major issues—whether they may be social, cultural, economic or environmental—raised by the worldwide expansion of this increasingly important aspect of contemporary life. These various works from various fields showcase the diversity of approaches to tourism as a field of study, oscillating between economist, planning, environmentalist or culturalist, and political methods (Stock et al., 2021). The issue of tourist imaginaries has not been neglected in this vast scientific exploration, and has even stood out as an original and necessary approach, since they allow to grasp the socio-cultural mechanisms and the deeply ingrained motivations of tourism practices (Amirou, 1995; Gravari-Barbas and Graburn, 2012, 2016), and as a result, to better make sense of the reasons for the development of a powerful economic sector and the “touristification”—or “touristified places”—of an increasing number of regions.

• 4 See pages 140-146.

7From a meta-cultural point of view, one may consider that tourist imaginaries are integrated into a modern, western “imaginary order” conducive to the commercial development of the tourist experience, associating romanticism and consumerism (Harari, 2015)4; though the recent emergence of a genuine “tourist morality” in the relationship to the “Other”, amends this kind of primal western hedonism (Mostafanezhad and Hannam, 2016). More prosaically, tourist imaginaries in the United States and elsewhere have emerged from material images (maps, advertising posters, magazines and specialized journals, media reports and documentaries broadcast on traditional media, movies and TV series), miscellaneous immaterial forms (travelogues, speeches, fantasies and prejudices, but also slogans, logos and expressions like Only in San Francisco, What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas or The Big Apple, or yet again clichés and stereotypes such as the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, the Eiffel Tower in Paris or the inescapable gondola ride in Venice), as well as new forms whose advent since the second half of the 1990s relies on the creation and the development of the Internet and new technologies. In fine, tourist imaginaries and marketing tools relying on an iterative process shape actual territorial brand names—just like there are commercial brand names—which catalyze the identification and the marketability of tourist destinations in a very efficient way (Keller, 1993; Marchat and Camelis, 2017).

• 5 If New York City stands out as the main urban pole when it comes to international tourist attractiv (...)
• 6 See in particular, among the first amusement parks: The Pike in Long Beach, opened from 1902 to 197 (...)

9Tourist imaginaries about the United States highlight a few rather appealing spaces. Thus, they foster a geography of tourism that brings out four major territories on the map. There are first the large cities including New York5, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington D.C., Boston, Chicago or New Orleans. Second come the vast “wild” open spaces, notably renowned national parks such as Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Yosemite or the Everglades. Also embedded in nature, third come beaches, and especially Hawaii and Florida’s warm waters, which have triggered new body imaginaries resulting from sports practices, such as surfing, and the cult of tanned bodies (Coëffé, 2010). Fourth and finally, prominent are the amusement parks, which symbolize “tourism bubbles”—in other words a form of “enclave tourism”, or, from a different perspective, a pretend tourism (“tourisme de simulacre”, Zaninetti, 2012)—born in the United States, and which may be dated6 or more recent, and are often backed by the sector and territorial strategies of corporations (like Disney, SeaWorld or Six Flags), and casino cities (such as Atlantic City or Las Vegas).

• 7 Source: National Park Service (https://www.nps.gov/)
• 8 However, the 2.9 million visitors in 2020 represent a dramatic decrease, linked to the specific con (...)
• 9 The Yellowstone National Park visitation also decreased (from 4.1 million visitors in 2018 to 3.8 m (...)

10Nevertheless, these names, rooted in a vast diversity of imaginaries, implicitly illustrate that the geography of tourism markets is unbalanced and divided. Hence, tourist imaginaries contribute to structuring mobilities and flows, to produce “empty spaces” and “busy spaces” on the tourist’s map, each with distinct market characteristics. Hence, influenced by global marketing, international tourists, who are drawn to places that benefit from strong media coverage, do not visit the same places as U.S. nationals, whose geographical interests and temporality are more diffuse. Similarly, the latter, who grow up with stories of the American West (Massip, 2018) and its vibrant wilderness (Strigler, 2013), are inclined to practice leisure activities that favor the outdoors, including outdoor tourism, near or far from home. In that regard, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (12.1 million visitors in 2020)7, situated at the heart of the Appalachians and accessible all year long, is ideally located to tap the eastern market of the country and its large cities, and is thus marked by an overwhelming number of national visitors, while, on the contrary, other parks such as the Grand Canyon National Park (2.9 million visitors)8 and the Yellowstone National Park (3.8 million visitors in 2020)9 benefit from a more massive intake of foreign visitors (Billard and Chevalier, 2012).

• 10 To which one may add the turnover of induced activities, meaning 1,182 billion dollars. It represen (...)
• 11 According to our estimate (1,199/19,540 billion dollars, 2017 GDP).
• 12 Source: PopulationData.net (https://www.populationdata.net/palmares/tourisme/)
• 13 Travel exports (255 billion) - travel imports (196 billion) = 59 billion; source: US Travel Associa (...)

11Because of the vastness of their territory, but also the idiosyncrasy of their social and cultural history, the United States offers a wide range of territorial resources that may stimulate imaginaries and tourism practices: natural resources (for instance landscapes, open spaces, ecosystems with often protected endemic flora and fauna); anthropological resources (modern and large cities, small ghost towns of the American West, the countryside of the Old South, heritage sites, iconic monuments and places, cultural spaces like museums and amusement parks). The vast offer, advertised extensively in the media at home and abroad, generates an important economic activity confirmed by statistics. In that regard, in 2019, tourism activity generated about 15.8 million jobs in the United States, among which 9 million direct jobs (about 7.9 million of those are linked to domestic tourism, and about 1.2 million linked to international tourism) and 6.8 million induced or indirect jobs (US Travel Association, 2020). In 2017, the total revenue/turnover from the tourism industry amounted to 1,199 billion dollars10, in other words 6.1 % of the GDP11. The volume of activity is unequally shared between an overwhelming domestic tourism activity (86%) and a minor international tourism activity (14%) whose impact is nonetheless non negligible, not only in terms of jobs and revenues as previously stated, but also in terms of the image and prestige, hence soft power, that is more difficult to assess. Indeed, the majesty and grandeur of the vast American space and large cities have been largely relayed abroad by media like National Geographic in particular and have contributed to bolstering fascination and attraction—and consequently the idea of power and due respect—that the Unites States has sparked in the imaginaries of many people around the world. In the end, in 2018, with 79.6 million international visitors, the United States ranked third behind France (89.4 million) and Spain (82.6 million), and before China (62.9 million) and Italy (58.2 million)12. Additionally, this attractiveness generates a favorable trade balance, worth about 59 billion dollars in 201913.

• 14 The US population amounted to 5 million inhabitants in 1800, 76 million in 1900, 281 million in 200 (...)

12What is more, in a context of economic prosperity and substantial population growth14, the development of the tourism market has led to the successful founding of a few multinational corporations in the hospitality business (Hilton, founded in 1923; Marriott, founded in 1927), the entertainment business (Disney, founded in 1923) and in air transportation (United Airlines, founded in 1926). In other words, as early as the 20^th century, tourism would give rise to an industrial sector whose expansion would only keep growing and a global tourism system which has since gathered many protagonists dedicated to the production and consumption of tourist products.

• 15 However, one needs to be more nuanced as in the United States, the concept of “authenticity” has em (...)

14Derived from the sacred founding document, the Declaration of Independence, the “pursuit of happiness” is at the heart of the American ethos. Focusing on the quest for individual fulfilment, this basic tenet of American identity impacts the tourism and leisure industry by developing a form of tourism based on entertainment, good time and enjoyment, in other words, fun. In that regard, these practices are very different from the French ones for instance, which are usually more culturally oriented and tend to focus on “authenticity”15. This entertainment culture prompted the creation of amusement or theme parks and the development of the territories they are built on, namely Orlando, Florida or, to a lesser extent, Vallejo, California, located north of San Francisco and which hosts a Six Flags amusement park. This hedonic culture also shows in the American yearning for tourism and leisure practices linked to water, a specific kind of outdoor tourism: nautical activities (at Lake Powell for instance), cruising (from Miami, Fort and Port Canaveral more notably), marine wild-life watching (whale watching along the Californian coast), entertaining on parks like SeaWorld (in San Diego for instance), or yet again the practice of some form of scientific tourism (such as the one in the Monterey Aquarium, California), or tourism related to history (the Maritime Museum in San Francisco for instance), hence practices closer to the educational and cultural approach.

• 16 A few indicators allow to compare France and the United States based on differences in labor law (e (...)

15Tourism practices fundamentally pertain to social time that is not subjugated to work. However, as American culture—namely here the Protestant work ethic—establishes work as a fundamental value, labor law tends to limit time outside work, unlike in France for instance, hence reducing the time dedicated to leisure tourism.16 The cultural and legal framework thus exerts a strong pressure on tourism and leisure practices. It results in two trends. The first one is the tendency toward a fragmented practice of tourism, especially when compared with France: it means that American tourists will go on more trips but for a much shorter time, but it also quite possibly means that they will be more inclined to choose entertainment and more playful and/or intense activities. Along with the culture of fun referred to earlier, this trend prompts the development of intra-city amusement parks, located at the geographical core of the market, in the way of the first Disneyland that opened in Anaheim, California, in 1955. The second trend tends to excessively focus on retirement that allows—once one stops working—longer stays outside the daily routine. The phenomenon has led to a migratory movement of retirees known as Snowbirds, who migrate from the north of the United States (and Canada) to the south, and especially Florida or Mount Ozarks, Arizona or southern California. This trend sometimes leads to the creation of specific gated communities, also known as Retirement Communities (Pihet, 1999).

• 17 Forget (2012), ibid.

16The epic tale of westward expansion invigorates imaginaries of a direct contact—and, to some extent, confrontation—with nature and the wilderness, of adventure, discovery and learning about the environment. The relationship between Americans and nature stands out as constitutive of American identity, with rippling effects on tourism and leisure practices as it leads to high rates of trips to natural and wild spaces where “becoming an American” is at stake, and particularly becoming an American man, as it is strongly linked to a manly father-son relationship (Young, 2017). This epic tale also stimulates imaginaries of mobility, travel and nomadic adventures, that stand for the original tourist practices facilitated by the development of Recreational Vehicles (Forget, 2012). The much-talked-about Route 66, linking Chicago to Los Angeles (Santa Monica) has emerged from this unique history, and from the development of wandering, a way of life chosen by a fair number of Americans, and defined by the diversity of its stakeholders and by a codified moving process17. In addition, wandering contributes to the development of stops and stopover towns which are not truly isolated for they are always located near consumption markets scattered along the road and where, as a result, the much-needed tourism infrastructures have developed. Oftentimes, the limited interest of these stopover towns lies in their geographical location between two tourist destinations, such as Lee Vining (Mono County, California), a small town of 200 inhabitants, east of the Sierra Nevada, located halfway from Los Angeles, Yosemite and Mono Lake and as such offers several motels to host tourists passing through. Sometimes, these stopover towns possess a tourism interest of their own. Such is the case of Yachats (Lincoln County, Oregon), a quaint little town of 800 souls, located along the Oregon coast, which connects the city of Portland to the north of California, via a breathtaking scenic road. The town thus offers an impressive number of hotels. Alternately, these stopover towns play the role of a gateway to major tourist attractions, as is the case for Sedona (Arizona, 11,000 inhabitants), which has become a tourist destination in itself owing to its dramatic natural landscapes, but also as a major stopover town located on the main road to Grand Canyon National Park.

• 18 In 1977, Tahca Ushte (AKA John Fire Lame Deer) published his autobiography with the help of histori (...)

17The idea of many American pasts and a myriad of socio-cultural presents, contrary to the monolithic concept of the WASP model, emerged during the protest movements of the 1960s. From integrating “Indian memory” into American history, such as Tahca Ushte’s memoirs18 (1977), to the rise of slave narratives or stories about enslaved people, especially by means of an increased number of feature films, to the historical and literary exploitation of controversial war memoirs (such as the Vietnam War for instance), the fragmentation and complexification of American history have prompted the emergence of a new collective memory (Halbwachs, 1950), which does not stand as a uniform and imposed centralized historical narrative, but rather emphasizes a multifaceted American historical reality, including that of the Amerindian genocide, slavery and racial segregation (legal in Southern states between 1896 and 1954). Consequently, the United States has seen an increase in the attractiveness and popularity of tourist destinations constitutive of this diversity, comprising Southern plantations or recreated Amerindian villages or encampments. The development of these sites of memory (“lieux de mémoire”; Nora, 1997) has contributed to the rise of an idiosyncratic type of tourism, namely memory tourism, which has become a powerful catalyst of American tourist mobility. This form of tourism holds a performative dimension (Connerton, 2004), as visiting a plantation or experiencing a memorial representing long-silenced memories, the mythicized and sometimes distant and fixed past, becomes palpable and flexible. Visits turn into rites and, paradoxically, what used to be fragmented and forgotten reintegrates the national collective memory. Yet, how can these various memories be reconciled, as they simultaneously expose the fractures and falsities of the fundamental values of the United States heralded by the Declaration of Independence, namely “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”? Interestingly, these emerging tourist spaces contribute to that. As these sites of memory have fueled a range of new tourist mobilities since the end of the 20^th century, they have simultaneously posed private, political, and economic challenges. Admittedly, while African Americans were not allowed to travel freely across the American territory during segregation, as illustrated by the “Negro Traveler’s Green book” published between 1937 and 1967, they have benefitted from changes in the tourism industry, which now take into account cultural diversity as well as their representations and their past, as evidenced in the development of sites of memory offering a complex history of the American people. That being said, and as Alderman (2013) argues, the question of the normative power that frames the tourism market (and American society still today) and the under-representation of African Americans and tourism planning still needs to be addressed.

• 19 Because of the transformations they may engender in the areas where they happen, such urban operati (...)

18In the early 20^th century, thanks to the impressive prosperity of the Gilded Age (1865-1901) fueled by a booming industrial growth, the United States was a wealthy nation on the verge of becoming the leading world power. Fueled by the prosperity and the development of big corporations, “business tourism” emerged in the United States. This “business tourism” would continue to develop throughout the 20^th century, leaving its mark on many large cities where convention centers and resorts were built to become an integrating part of the urban landscape, all the while creating financial, urban but also social and political issues19. More importantly, in the wake of prosperity, the demand from the upper middle class of the North-eastern cities stoked the rise of “family tourism”, signaling early mass tourism in the United States. Soon enough, at the end of the 19^th century, the expansion of this market led to the tourism development of new territories: national parks, Niagara Falls, new rivieras (Florida or Southern California); among many other territories, including large cities (Cocks, 2001). This emerging market soon drew the attention of tourism entrepreneurs. The most blatant example is certainly that of Henry Flagler, who, very early on, anticipated Florida’s potential as a land of opportunity for tourism (Violier and Duhamel, 2009). That is why for two decades (1885-1905) Flagler invested in the construction of a railway line (the Florida East Coast) and hotels, thus contributing to the development of Jacksonville as well as the basic installations critical to the cruise business in Miami that would further expand in the first decades of the 20^th century. In addition, the United States superseded Great Britain by becoming the spearhead of international tourism. Driven by the search for their European roots or by an urge to seek out cultural or leisure hubs, Americans did indeed practice early international tourism; thus as early as 1900, 20% of foreign tourists visiting Nice were American citizens (Vanneph, 2017).