ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the process by which the body of the disabled tourist disrupts taken-for-granted assumptions about the representation of tourism spaces and places. The tourism industry continually tries to create in every holidaymaker’s mind the image of a desirable and idyllic earthly paradise. However, might the image of a disabled person’s body as a tourist and its associated symbolic burden be disruptive and, consequently, ignored or even become rejected by other tourists, hospitality managers and tourism developers? Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, the emergence of and the practices that sustain what is referred to as aesthetic prejudice are discussed. Emerging out of ‘the gaze’, this aesthetic prejudice acts as a powerful yet silent agent that works to prevent the integration of the embodiment of disability in the touristic setting.
