Paper short abstract:

This paper discusses the problematic nature and gendered differentiation of tourist-local encounters in Goreme, central Turkey. It thus highlights the importance and politics of access to 'touristic knowledge' and the associated ability to anticipate tourist desire.

Paper long abstract:

That the meeting of tourists and local 'hosts' is a complex phenomenon raises questions both about how 'hosts' acquire knowledge concerning tourists' expectations and desires and about what occurs in their attempting to meet those desires. This paper discusses the gendered differentiation of these encounters in the touristed village of Goreme in central Turkey. The discussion begins by describing one particular encounter between a village woman, a German couple and me, a female New Zealand-based researcher with previous ethnographic research experience in the village. The Goreme woman, like other women in the village, regularly invites passing tourists in to look at her cave-house in the hope of selling them handicraft items. The problematic nature of the encounter exposes the limited ability of Goreme women to understand the desires and expectations of the tourist 'other', an understanding that would enable them to successfully meet the tourists', as well as their own, desires. The Goreme men, in their tourism entrepreneurial activities, have been interacting with tourists and each other in the tourism spaces of Goreme for twenty years and are thus rich in knowledge concerning tourists' imaginings of themselves. They are therefore not only highly competent in playing to those imaginings, but they are also able to play with them by engaging in ironic performances and caricatures of the tourists' images of them (Tucker 2002; 2003). In comparison, the women of Goreme are relatively isolated in the confinement of their tourism entrepreneurial activities to domestic space and hence are far less able to acquire knowledge of tourist culture. This discussion highlights the importance of access to 'touristic knowledge' and the associated ability to anticipate tourist desire. The paper thus raises issues concerning the politics of success in the tourist-local encounter, the commodification of tourist interaction and also the ethnographer's place in this touristic milieu.

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