ABSTRACT
There are spaces, separate or removed from their surrounding environments, which can be described as tourist “bubbles” or vacation enclaves. Four themes are noteworthy when one explores research that addresses these spaces. First, tourist bubbles include an array of types: beach resorts, theme parks, casino hotels, urban entertainment districts, and cruise ships. They may have shared spatial features but they are most certainly diverse. Second, enclosure in a tourism context is seen to have merits and drawbacks. There are economic benefits—not necessarily widely felt—but they exist in contrast to forms of social polarization reinforced through spatial separation. Third, vacation enclaves are both insular in nature and connected to the wider world. These enclaves are defined, circumscribed spaces and yet reflective of global commerce. Fourth, tourist bubbles are physically bounded, material spaces that are also symbol-infused environments. Walls and boundary fences are sometimes present alongside Disneyfied theming. As simple and as straightforward as they may sometimes appear in terms of their structure and functioning, vacation enclaves are complex phenomena as signalled by the four themes examined in this chapter.
