ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the multiple ways that nature is consumed and commodified, which ordinarily entails the consumption of images, representations, experiences, and even simulations of the nonhuman environment in all its forms. It explores the 'tourist gaze' and the fetishization of place is both integral components of our consumption of nature. Tourism is a complex form of consumption which involves a particular way of seeing, therefore, something that Urry terms the 'tourist gaze'. Urry distinguishes between two types of tourist gaze, the 'romantic' and the 'collective'. The virtualization of nature may be more useful in thinking of the consumption of nature as spectacle. The virtualization of nature is a corollary of its commodification. It allows the synergy of an educational discourse along with the corporate attitude. MacCannell, the theorist of post-tourism, assumes that all tourists are in search of authentic experience.
