Paradise ph(f)antasies: A phenomenological exploration of touristic heterotopia on Roatán, Honduras

• Main Author: Hintlian, Persephone
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 01.01.2011
• Subjects: Cultural anthropology; Epistemology; Gender studies; Recreation
• ISBN: 9781124659930; 1124659935

This dissertation seeks to explore the intersection of paradise and place on Roatán, Islas de Bahia, Honduras. Place and paradise are constructed and constructing of individual experience on Roatán, a small island undergoing rapid transformation due to tourism. Roatán is paradise—a place to get away from it all for some and a place to 'make it' and directly engage with global capitalism for others. Place on Roatán, as in all locations, is both a physical reality and a phantasm; as a specific location exists in a defined locus as well as an imagined realm mediated by memory and experience for those who have been, and by expectations and prospects for those who have never been. The intersection of place and paradise underlie the essential aspects to most tourism endeavors, with their focus on vacation destinations, touristic offerings, and leisure-time activities. Attracting tourists, fostering tourism and developing a tourism economy all hinge on elements of place and paradise. A place must offer those elements that will attract specific tourists with shared ideas of paradise. Furthermore, the unique aspects of memory, experience, and imagination of place and paradise are essential components to attracting return visitors and long-term investors. Vacation homes and expatriate relocation are motivated by a fundamental perception of the placeness of Roatán, which centers on the idea of experiencing and possessing a piece of paradise. On Roatán, part of experiencing paradise is about falling in love, at the most basic level, with the place itself, but also with the people of Roatán, and for some individuals with a specific person. Thus, as part of my exploration of tourism on Roatán, and of the intersection of place and paradise, I will include a discussion of the romance of place as well as actual transnational romances that frame individual perspectives of place, which for many individuals are motivating factors in making Roatán their personal paradise. The basis of this dissertation is six months of traditional ethnographic fieldwork and 12 months of hybrid ethnography with Internet-based discussion lists.