Performing Mountains: General Conclusion

Deploying Cultural Knowledge of Nature to Construct the Nature Sports Experience

“…In an extension of this research, Ponting and McDonald (2013) study how the tourism industry, surf tour providers, and surfers construct the surf-tour space by co-producing myths associated with “nirvana.” While they offer some explanation of how cultural knowledge is created, they do little to examine how tourists assign it to their experiences. This and other research that considers the construction of nature in the nature sports context (Pitches, 2020; Preston-Whyte, 2002; Rickly-Boyd, 2012a) fails to explore culture-in-action (Swidler, 1986) in terms of how the tourist’s cultural knowledge of nature can bring meaning to the experience.…”

“…A common way the tourism industry appropriates nature in the nature sports context is to draw on notions of masculinity (Pitches, 2020; Wheaton, 2003). Sometimes labeled the anthropocentric perspective, this includes depicting nature as a force to be conquered (Shoham et al, 2000).…”

“…For example, the mountains that host the Tour de France are sacralized based on the professional cycling events held there and the fact that these mountains have been the subject of powerful myths and imagery for over a century (Lamont, 2014). Tourism agencies also generate cultural knowledge by promoting iconic natural environments as places that offer extraordinary sports experiences (Brookes, 2001; Pitches, 2020).…”