IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/anture/v87y2021ics0160738320302590.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Selling Authentic Happiness: Indigenous wellbeing and romanticised inequality in tourism advertising

Author

Listed:
  • Phillips, Tarryn
  • Taylor, John
  • Narain, Edward
  • Chandler, Philippa

Abstract

An international campaign launched in 2019 encourages tourists to visit Fiji, where the locals may not be wealthy yet are ‘rich in happiness.’ Drawing on critical discourse analysis, this paper investigates the history and implications of commodifying economic assumptions about indigenous happiness and wellbeing. Invoking contemporary neoliberal approaches to ‘positive psychology’, the campaign repackages historically-entrenched colonial stereotypes about the ‘happy native’ while ostensibly inviting reflexivity about the negative impacts of Western capitalism on human wellbeing. In doing so, it problematically romanticises poverty and rationalises continued labour exploitation in tourism. We argue that commodifying anti-monetary logics about subjective wellbeing in the Global South paradoxically serves to justify and further entrench objective economic inequalities.

Suggested Citation

  • Phillips, Tarryn & Taylor, John & Narain, Edward & Chandler, Philippa, 2021. "Selling Authentic Happiness: Indigenous wellbeing and romanticised inequality in tourism advertising," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:anture:v:87:y:2021:i:c:s0160738320302590
    DOI: 10.1016/j.annals.2020.103115
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160738320302590
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.annals.2020.103115?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kay Smith, Melanie & Diekmann, Anya, 2017. "Tourism and wellbeing," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 1-13.
    2. David Harrison & Biman Prasad, 2013. "The Contribution Of Tourism To The Development Of Fiji And Other Pacific Island Countries," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Clement A Tisdell (ed.), Handbook of Tourism Economics Analysis, New Applications and Case Studies, chapter 32, pages 741-761, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    3. Des Gasper, 2005. "Subjective and Objective Well-Being in Relation to Economic Inputs: Puzzles and Responses," Review of Social Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 63(2), pages 177-206.
    4. Harald Strotmann & Jürgen Volkert, 2018. "Multidimensional Poverty Index and Happiness," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 167-189, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yang Gao & Mengmeng Li & Qingning Li & Keji Huang & Shiwei Shen, 2022. "Inheritors’ Happiness and Its Relevant Factors in Intangible Cultural Heritage," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-17, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Uglješa Stankov & Ulrike Gretzel, 2020. "Tourism 4.0 technologies and tourist experiences: a human-centered design perspective," Information Technology & Tourism, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 477-488, September.
    2. Zins, Andreas H. & Ponocny, Ivo, 2022. "On the importance of leisure travel for psychosocial wellbeing," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    3. Hunter-Jones, Philippa & Sudbury-Riley, Lynn & Al-Abdin, Ahmed & Menzies, Laura & Neary, Katie, 2020. "When a child is sick: The role of social tourism in palliative and end-of-life care," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    4. McCabe, Scott & Qiao, Guanghui, 2020. "A review of research into social tourism: Launching the Annals of Tourism Research Curated Collection on Social Tourism," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    5. Matthys, Marie-Luise & Acharya, Sushant & Khatri, Sanjaya, 2021. "“Before cardamom, we used to face hardship”: Analyzing agricultural commercialization effects in Nepal through a local concept of the Good Life," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    6. Gasper, D.R., 2009. "Understanding the diversity of conceptions of well-being and quality of life," ISS Working Papers - General Series 483, International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam (ISS), The Hague.
    7. Çalişkan, Uğur & Gursoy, Dogan & Özer, Özgür & Chi, Oscar Hengxuan, 2022. "Effects of Tourism on Local Residents’ Quality of Life, Happiness and Life Satisfaction: Moderating Role of the COVID-19 Risk Perceptions," Journal of Tourism, Sustainability and Well-being, Cinturs - Research Centre for Tourism, Sustainability and Well-being, University of Algarve, vol. 10(4), pages 274-291.
    8. Paul N. Acha-Anyi & Simplice A. Asongu, 2022. "An analysis of the relationship between leisure participation and perceived quality of life," Working Papers of the African Governance and Development Institute. 22/069, African Governance and Development Institute..
    9. Long Yang & Haiyang Lu & Sangui Wang & Meng Li, 2021. "Mobile Internet Use and Multidimensional Poverty: Evidence from A Household Survey in Rural China," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 158(3), pages 1065-1086, December.
    10. Cong Fan, 2024. "Empowering Excluded Groups: a Multi-dimensional Analysis of China’s Anti-poverty Policies Through the Lens of Amartya Sen’s Capability Perspective," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 15(3), pages 14969-14997, September.
    11. Gill, Chelsea & Packer, Jan & Ballantyne, Roy, 2019. "Spiritual retreats as a restorative destination: Design factors facilitating restorative outcomes," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    12. Marymagdaline Enowmbi Tarkang & Uju Violet Alola & Yurdanur Yumuk, 2022. "Growing together! Unmasking the intelligence behind the satisfaction of holiday couples," DECISION: Official Journal of the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, Springer;Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, vol. 49(1), pages 13-27, March.
    13. Yurong Yan & Yuying Deng & Juan-José Igartua & Xiagang Song, 2023. "Does Internet Use Promote Subjective Well-Being? Evidence from the Different Age Groups Based on CGSS 2017 Data," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(4), pages 1-14, February.
    14. Joe Baldwin & Claire Haven-Tang & Steve Gill & Nigel Morgan & Annette Pritchard, 0. "Using the Perceptual Experience Laboratory (PEL) to simulate tourism environments for hedonic wellbeing," Information Technology & Tourism, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-23.
    15. Uglješa Stankov & Ulrike Gretzel, 2021. "Digital well-being in the tourism domain: mapping new roles and responsibilities," Information Technology & Tourism, Springer, vol. 23(1), pages 5-17, March.
    16. Monica Guillen-Royo, 2019. "Television, Sustainability and Subjective Wellbeing in Peru," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 141(2), pages 895-917, January.
    17. Gasper, Des, 2010. "Understanding the diversity of conceptions of well-being and quality of life," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 351-360, June.
    18. Sterchele, Davide, 2020. "Memorable tourism experiences and their consequences: An interaction ritual (IR) theory approach," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    19. Hughes, Emma & Scheyvens, Regina, 2021. "Tourism partnerships: Harnessing tourist compassion to ‘do good’ through community development in Fiji," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    20. Bui Hoang Ngoc, 2022. "Do Tourism Development and Globalization Reinforce Ecological Footprint? Evidence From RCEP Countries," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(4), pages 21582440221, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:anture:v:87:y:2021:i:c:s0160738320302590. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/annals-of-tourism-research/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.