Finisterre: being and becoming a myth-related tourist destination

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe phenomenon of travelling to myth-related places has had a revival in recent decades, warranting an investigation of how such places are perceived by today’s tourists. While established myths and the specific places they are associated with have been extensively researched, there is as yet relatively little research on how tourists appropriate and rework conventional myth-based place meaning and identity. The aim of this article is to contribute to wider debates on place, meaning and identity in tourism studies particularly as regards myth-related tourist destinations. Relying on theories of place and identity, we highlight how mythical places and their identities are appropriated and consumed by and made part of individual tourists’ experiences. Drawing on qualitative interviews with tourists journeying to Finisterre in Spain, this article shows how tourists rework the classical symbolism surrounding mythical places and imbue these with new meanings and identities. Based on Finisterre as a case, our study found out that myth-related places have become tourist-driven attractions: at present it is tourist flows that shape traditional myth destinations.