ABSTRACT
In tourism discourses, the site of the Tulum ruins have become an icon of Mayan culture. “Maya” is often used as a sales strategy to evoke potential tourists’ excitement for the “glorious past” or the “Exotic Other.” However, I argue that the site of the Tulum ruins evokes opposing narratives. Primarily characterized as “Mayan” in tourist text, my Mayan informants identify the Tulum ruins as “a place for foreigners.”
