Popular Culture Review Vol. 10, No. 2, August 1999 | Page 22

16 Popular Culture Review the tourist establishment in the production of their own deception” (184). In this context, tourism is ritualized behavior, a series of obligatory acts derived from devotion-however reluctant-to established conventions. Some tourists may alter the form and diverge from the masses, but they are part of the ritual nonetheless. If a few tourists seek to reject the cultural production, they are put in a difficult position; there are few sights off the beaten path. What are their options? Should they avoid the battle re-enactment in Concord, the Statue of Liberty in New York, the Sphinx in Egypt-all highly ritualized sights? Even if these tourists avoid such well-marked sights, the question remains: why? Are they rebelling against pro grammed travel? If so, the program, nonetheless, shapes their itinerary as they consciously (desperately) try to avoid it. Or there may be another way to avoid the program. For example, a tourist may live with a family in the Yucatan-eat, sleep, and work with them. She may be like a chameleon and change-she feels-from tourist to guest to friend, in the process coming much closer to an authentic Yucatan experience, but one day-two weeks, two months, two years-she will return home. She knows this all along the way, and so do her hosts. This knowledge alone alters the experience, differentiates her from everyone else. Because tourists, by defini tion, are outsiders, they can never meet pure authenticity. The recognition of the essence of any touristic experience-that it is ultimately a temporary conditionwill inevitably re-enter her consciousness, and the illusion of authenticity, how ever strengthened by extended personal contact, will be and must be shattered. Although Percy is optimistic about our innate ability to escape the beaten path and find our own moments of pure discovery, we should acknowledge that the “symbolic machinery” of the Tourist Age is comprehensive and overwhelm ing, and our only refuge is in the play and in our touristic faith. Fortunately, rarely do we have authenticity as our only goal. If we do, however, we will always meet with disappointment and failure, and that failure will be absolute. We have forever enjoyed travel as a metaphor for life, one in which we move through an often strange landscape and in the process we see, hear, smell, and touch new experi ences. We learn and grow wiser. Ostensibly, that is why we want to travel, whether we move across oceans or ponds. We all want, at least aesthetically, to suck the marrow from life. Implicit in this desire is the false assumption that all experi ences, due to the nature of this symbolic travel, are authentic. Perhaps it is time to review this “life” metaphor for travel in order to reflect the Age of Tourism and then, at last, admit its failures. Tourism is a cultural production, staged in varying forms around the globe, that promises authenticity but at the same time remains unable to provide it. Whether outfitted with Thoreau and knapsack or camcorder and MasterCard, we all search