Book Review: The geography of tourism and recreation: environment, place and space

Abstract

ethnic distinctiveness is ‘naturalized’ into the material fabric of place through architecture, in this case through the development of chalet-style buildings. His account of the dismay of Swiss architects at the size and design of some of the chalets and, later, the dismay of some New Glarus inhabitants at a Swiss architect’s modernist ‘Hall of History’ insightfully highlights differing notions of ‘Swissness’ and of ‘authenticity’. While for many Little Swiss, authenticity lies in the reproduction of signifiers of traditional Swissness, for the Swiss architect at least, authenticity is about ‘trueness to materials and an honesty about age’. Richly detailed though this book is, it is not just about ‘Little Switzerland’. The story of New Glarus is woven into a bigger historical account of changing conceptions of American citizenship and of ethnicity, and Hoelscher frequently alludes to comparative (US) examples. Moreover, this is an important theoretical contribution to debates about traditionalization and retraditionalization, authenticity, heritage, tourism and the production of ethnic place. It deserves to be widely read.