ABSTRACT
This chapter works through the concept of ideology using concepts theorized by a number of scholars to consider ideology's implications for tourism. It suggests a considerable difference in the ability of tourism sites as signs to hail domestic versus international tourists. The chapter attends to a greater sense of agency while still supporting the ideological assessments of tourism sites it suggests tourism sites are not simply empty symbols for tourist's projections of meaning, but are chosen and framed to encourage quite specific interpretations. While tourism marketing is aimed at eliciting curiosity and interest through engagements with potential tourists' associations with abstract signs, such as aesthetic modes of the beautiful, sublime, and pastoral, on-site promotional materials work to limit the possibilities of interpretation and meaning-making. It is the use of Master Signifiers which comprise the substance of promotional materials. The chapter turns our attention to the relationship of tourism performances to tourism places.
