Kozorog, Miha. 2009. Antropologija turistične destinacije v nastajanju: prostor, festivali in lokalna identiteta na Tolminskem. Ljubljana: Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete. 258 pp. Pb.: €20.00. KBN: 9789612373429.
Anthropologists' particular contribution to studies of tourism lies in their signature approach to tourism as a social process that hinges on looking beyond the polished photos of tourist brochures and on linking these images to the social actors and social processes that create them. In his Slovene language ethnography, whose translated title is Anthropology of an Emergent Tourist Destination: Place, festivals and local identity in Tolmin, Miha Kozorog focuses on an emergent tourist destination, which provides him the opportunity to engage a number of questions that have as yet not been fully researched in the anthropology of tourism, including inhabitants' reasons for transforming their homes into tourist destinations. The author advocates looking beyond the economic factors and benefits of global tourism as the central reasons for the development of tourist destinations. While he does not ignore the reality of tourism as an economic practice, he himself is interested in how identity politics motivate social actors to become tourism service providers. Aligning himself with analysts such as Marie-Francoise Lanfant, who defines tourism as a form of communication (p. 18), Kozorog argues that tourism can empower people to claim a space for themselves in the globalised world: 'As an anthropologist, I was interested above all in exploring the dynamics of identification on the part of local inhabitants who strive to make a place different, a place that stands out among others. I believe that in this context it is tourism that allows inhabitants to effectively place "their" location on different maps' (pp. 57-58).
Given the central question that drives this ethnography, it is not surprising that Kozorog's theoretical approach to the study of Tolmin is primarily place-based, meaning that he engages Tolmin as a social landscape shaped by the discourses and practices of a range of tourism actors striving to turn it into a tourist destination. Upon situating his approach among the existing work of anthropologists of tourism who have incorporated a geographical dimension to their tourism research, Kozorog outlines his particular understanding of a tourist landscape: 'A tourist landscape can thus be defined as a matrix for the geographical arrangement of elements relevant to tourism [...] of a particular place where these elements are physically present. On the one hand, this matrix represents a framework for thinking about tourism in a particular place; on the other, it is also a framework for social action' (p. 54).
Upon outlining his theoretical framework, the author explores the history of tourism in the region of Zgornje Posočj e, in which Tolmin is based. The author outlines the main factors and actors that have structured the broader tourism landscape from which Tolmin's tourism actors draw as they strive to put Tolmin on the touristic map. What is particularly interesting in this chapter is that Kozorog outlines the roots of the use tourism as a strategy of identification in Tolmin, portraying the way that reading rooms were employed in the 19th century to promote tourism among Slovenes, encouraging them to visit this particular region so close to the Italian border during a period of nascent nationalism.
The second half of the monograph is dedicated to the present situation in Tolmin, its tourism actors, and the dynamics of identification through tourism. The author focuses primarily on two tourism actors: the Local Tourism Office (LTO), and young tourism actors. While both of these actors play quite different roles in Tolmin's tourism landscape, they do have one thing in common: they are both emergent tourist actors.
In his study of the LTO, Kozorog focuses on the institutional development of tourism in Tolmin in accordance with national tourism legislation, focusing on the mechanisms the LTO employs in its endeavours to assume the central role envisioned for it in Slovenia's national legislation.
The following chapter is focused on young tourism actors: a group of social actors that is often overlooked in studies of tourist destinations. Kozorog argues the significance of these young social actors, given their role in organising and bringing festivals to Tolmin and the potential that festivals have for Tolmin as a tourist destination. Having spent many years observing and actively participating in the organisation of these festivals, Kozorog outlines the development of festivals as an emergent tourism practice, portraying the extent to which the young people of Tolmin identify with festivals and the role that festivals plays as a marker of identity among the youth beyond the borders of Tolmin.
Researching emergent tourist destinations can be both a privilege and a challenge: this can represent an opportunity to witness firsthand the practices of tourism actors transforming a place into a tourist destination, yet exploring such places requires dealing with emergent processes that may be difficult to capture ethnographically. Kozorog's role as an active participant in Tolmin's festivals provided him with special access to a particular set of emergent tourism actors and practices. While this enabled him to put forth an ethnographically grounded argument for treating the youth and festivals as important elements of Tolmin's developing tourism landscape, it did not facilitate his discussion of the ways in which Tolmin residents relate to these festivals as a potential marker of local identity. This would have enabled Kozorog to complete the arc of his argument and provide the reader with a broader perspective on the emergent role of festivals in Tolmin's tourism landscape.
In this ethnography, Miha Kozorog explores a number of important issues, including the research of emergent tourism destinations, the role of the ethnographer as an activist in the field, the role of young tourist actors and the significance of tourism in the politics of identity in a globalised world. Kozorog's serious engagement of these issues renders his ethnography an important contribution to the anthropology of tourism as well as to broader discussions concerning the practice of anthropology in a global world.
TATIANA BAJUK SENCAR Scientific Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Slovenia