ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the Las Vegas tourism imaginaries, its stereotypes and its clichs, are found in scientific discourses. It examines academic theorizations of Las Vegas, using a bottom-up approach, highlighting perceptions and representations produced by tourism, but also from a top-down point of view. Thus, he offers an ideal case study on the relations between production and reception of tourism imaginaries within a specific social group that is the researchers in human and social sciences. The chapter explores the 'tourism imaginaries' are defined as a collection of images and representations initially produced and used within the tourism sphere and then spread to the rest of society. A scientific discourse is also supposed to be as neutral and objective as possible based on facts and thorough investigation, constituting an argued demonstration. Thus a scientific discourse offers a mediation of a reality into an analytical framework.
