Orientalism, Balkanism and Europe's Ottoman heritage

Abstract

Orientalism' has been used as a lens to understand consumption of heritage sites in non-Western contexts. Through the supplementary lens of 'Balkanism', we examine a European region with a significant heritage reflecting the c.500 year rule of the Ottoman Empire. Bosnia and Herzegovina, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Albania are selected for study given their concentration of Ottoman heritage sites. We note first that these countries' heritage tourism sectors anticipate and modify interpretation to accommodate 'Western' tourists' affectation of 'surprise' and 'delight' at a 'remarkable' crossroads between 'West/East' or 'Christendom/Islam'. To understand why Ottoman heritage is often understood to be in but not of Europe, our analysis draws on scholarship interrogating 'Europe's' longstanding discursive erasure of its Ottoman-Islamic-Oriental 'self'.

Promoting postcolonial destinations: Paradoxical relations between decolonization and ‘East meets West’

“…Teo (2003) looked at residents' dissatisfaction with the imagineering of Penang (Malaysia) to reflect its British, Chinese, Indian and Malay cultural heritages. In contrast, critical postcolonial researchers argue that the promotion of postcolonial destinations is transnational in nature and should really move beyond a simple dichotomy between tourists from former colonial powers and formerly colonized countries (Bryce & Čaušević, 2019). One way to do this, especially in Asia, is by understanding the complex and contradictory relations between popular 'East meets West' imagery and the decolonization process.…”

“…Often the decolonization process must contend with this colonial discourse. More recent studies in tourism (see for e.g., Bryce & Čaušević, 2019) have moved Said's Orientalism beyond geographical limitations and placed its exploratory power in researching how Eurocentric power influences tourism practices and marginalizing the 'others'.…”

“…Numerous studies (e.g., d ' Hauteserre, 2011;Hall & Tucker, 2004;Henderson, 2002;Bryce & Čaušević, 2019;Zhang et al, 2019) have highlighted how the postcolonial character of destinations has become the focal point of their tourism promotional strategies. 'East meets West' tourism promotion is often used to promote both indigenous culture and Western traditions and becomes a unique selling proposition, which then appeals more to Western tourists (Carrigan, 2011;McKercher & Decosta, 2007).…”

“…Many questions remain unanswered, including: is 'East meets West' tourism promotion the same for all postcolonial destinations; what are the relationships between 'East meets West' and decolonization projects; and most importantly, what has been (re)produced and maintained to support the 'East meets West' promotion, and what has been silenced during the decolonization process? By focusing on the idea of 'East meets West' as both popular tourism promotion and one of history's grandest narratives (Bryce & Čaušević, 2019), this study investigates the extent to which the (re)production and maintenance of 'East and West' heritage discourses during the decolonization process explain the discursive identity-making and rationale behind the use of such tourism promotion. Heritage tourism has become the primary medium to showcase unique stories of people and places, largely due to the strong connections between heritage, identity and tourism (du Cros & McKercher, 2020;Frew & White, 2011;Palmer, 1999).…”

“…Indeed, many destinations have combined their indigenous culture with an imposed Western culture as unique selling points to attract affluent tourists, mostly from former colonizers (e.g., McKercher & Decosta, 2007;Carrigan, 2011). Recent critical postcolonial tourism scholars (e.g., Bryce & Čaušević, 2019;Chambers & Buzinde, 2015) have argued that past studies primarily focused on understanding colonial heritage as a static phenomenon consumed by tourists from Western colonizers; hence, they fail to decolonize Western epistemologies in knowledge-making. Beyond the binary between the colonizer and colonized, it is necessary to view cultural heritage as transnational and trans-spatial in nature (Zhang et al, 2018).…”