Paper long abstract:

Eco- and agro-tourism constitute two of the most popular forms of alternative tourism. This paper focuses on web representations of eco- and agro-tourism to show how in the particular context 'rurality' and 'nature' are constructed as re-signified commodities. The analysis of these websites will show that these forms of tourism construct essentialized nostalgic 'rural' and 'natural' spaces, which are commodified almost as endangered species. While these naturalized and a-historical narratives of eco- and agro-tourism build themselves around the rural/urban and past/present dichotomies, where the rural past homology signifies eternal past cultures that disappear in the appearance of modernity, they are themselves constructs of a key symbol of post-modernity, the Internet.