Neokolonializm turystyczny w Indonezji

Tourist neocolonialism in Indonesia

This book is devoted to the issue of tourist neocolonialism. Based on current postcolonial theory research on imperialism and colonialism, and based on research on dysfunctions of tourism, while omitting on purpose the current research describing the phenomenon of tourist neocolonialism itself, this paper proposes its own normal definition of the term “tourist neocolonialism.” According to this definition, “tourist neocolonialism” is the asymmetrical relationship between the world of tourists and the world of inhabitants, resulting in the dependency and/or marginalization of the world of inhabitants by the world of tourists. In addition to the proposed definition, the paper analyses its individual elements and indicates the possible path for researching the phenomenon of tourist neocolonialism broken down into its specific contexts corresponding to the various types of geographical and social expressions.

The proposed definition is verified in practice in Indonesia. 15 issues that can be viewed as case studies are described in total. They are devoted to various expressions of tourist neocolonialism, such as spatial exclusion, economic dependency, and the commercialization of culture. To this end, several months of field studies were conducted over four research ranges: near the Borobudur Buddhist temple in Java, near the Tanah Lot Balinese Hindu temple in Bali, in the Prawirotaman tourist district in Yogyakarta, Java, and on the Mentawai Islands. In addition to field studies, several dozen in-depth interviews were conducted as well. Furthermore, 13 data collection techniques were tested while studying individual contexts of tourist neocolonialism.

Keywords: tourism neo-colonialism, Asia, colonialism, tourism, Indonesia, tourism space.