ABSTRACT
Rio can lay claim to fame as one of the most celebrated spaces in the global imaginary of tourist pleasure sites. The beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema, the dramatic landscape into which a modernist city appears to have grown as abundantly as the tropical vegetation, the Art Deco Christ the Redeemer statue on Corcovado mountain that looks out over the city, samba dancing, night life, and especially Carnival, are all used to signify Rio as a desirable tourist place to play. As with all other cities whose images spark global recognition, Rio has accumulated its own repertoires of cultural invention and myth. Most typically, the image of the city is largely exported as a sensual and exoticized sun-drenched landscape of the body and of sexualized pleasure.
