Tourism, Power and Authenticity

In Marakech they sell you this image of Moroccans as generic desert nomads/Arabs even though like all stereotypes it’s largely inaccurate. For example, I bought a hookah even though Moroccans don’t really do sheesha, it’s more of an Eastern Arab and South Asian thing. Djaama El Fna was full of tourist attractions, like the snake-charmers, who speak English and chase after you, just like they did 800 years ago. I bet they also accept visa and MasterCard. In addition, there is the lady who yells out to all of the female tourists for henna tattoos. It’s the kind of commercialization of tradition (completely removed from its cultural context) that just reeks of inauthenticity. But then what is authenticity? Is it just something that’s corny? Some authentic traditions, i.e. not Hallmark made up or pumped up like holiday movies did to the mistletoe for example, are genuinely corny like some Europeans really do yodel. And many “tourist spectacles” have both “authentic” and “inauthentic” components (and now I have to use scare marks) like Brazilian and West Indian carnival celebrations. Moreover, cultures are dynamic and change, and people have been borrowing from each other since some cavewoman discovered fire and others began to replicate her trick, so it’s hard to say what is authentic or not. The issue primarily seems to be about power and how much the host society can define it’s own image and how low it’s forced to stoop for tourist dollars. So that for example, Spain is super-touristy and there they sell a stereotypical image of flamenco, bullfighting and tapas, but the difference is, that Spain can decide how cheesy it wants to be. There you get overcharged too, and in many ways it’s worse cause you are getting robbed in euros. Still, it’s done formally, they announce that you will be paying 30€ for a cheesy flamenco show and therefore everyone get overcharged the same. But Morocco is more desperate, more dependent on tourism (that’s the other issue too, economic diversity, New York City for example probably receives more visitors than all of Morocco every year and definitely pimps them for even more dough and would be seriously in trouble if those folks stop coming and buying Broadway tickets, but there the economy is more diverse, so you don’t notice it as much.) Therefore Morocco gets defined, and they are going to sell you whatever you want. They will be whatever you want them to be. They will cater to your every fantasy and fetish. The poorer the more exploitative and “inauthentic” it becomes. These same dynamics can play themselves out within the same country too obviously, whenever (which is always in our fucked up world) there are serious inequalities. One of the authors of one of the books I read on the subject gives the example of Baltimore, where wealthier white folks redeveloped the waterfront and created their own fantasy of a happy, whitebread Baltimore. Or think of the Native Americans in the Southwest, and the long history of misrepresentation, mythologizing and racism there. Although they are better off in relative terms than Natives in other countries, and have greater power to portray themselves to the world. People should visit each other. They always have, and again in an equal world we wouldn’t have these issues. Tourism can be done right, but that’s hard with so much inequality.