ABSTRACT
Around the world, tourists are drawn to visit murals painted on walls. Whether heritage asset, legacy leftover, or contested art space, the mural is more than a simple tourist attraction or accidental aspect of tourism material culture. They express something about the politics, heritage and identity of the locations being visited, whether a medieval fresco in an Italian church, or modern political art found in Belfast or Tehran.
This interdisciplinary and highly international book explores tourism around murals that are either evolving or have transitioned as instruments of politics, heritage and identity. It explores the diverse messaging of these murals: their production, interpretation, marketing and – in some cases – destruction. It argues that the mural is more than a simple tourist attraction or accidental aspect of tourism material culture.
Murals and Tourism will be valuable reading for those interested in cultural geography, tourism, heritage studies and the visual arts.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part 1|24 pages
Introduction
part 2|68 pages
Heritage
chapter 2|18 pages
Heritage murals as tourist attractions in Ravenna, Moldavia and Istanbul
chapter 3|16 pages
From ‘sacred images’ to ‘tourist images’?
part 3|53 pages
Politics
chapter 7|17 pages
Murals as sticking plasters
chapter 8|18 pages
Difference upon the walls
part 4|68 pages
Identity
chapter 9|18 pages
A journey through public art in Douala
part 5|58 pages
Northern Ireland
chapter 13|21 pages
State intervention in re-imaging Northern Ireland’s political murals
chapter 15|19 pages
Extra-mural activities and trauma tourism
part 6|13 pages
Future directions