The exotic veil: Managing tourist perceptions of national history and statehood in Oman

Abstract

This article explores how and why some national governments seek to manage and control tourist-oriented narratives about historic sites and artefacts. Discussing ethnographic research among tour guides, tourists and government representatives in Oman, the paper reveals how the country's historic sites are overwhelmingly staged and presented without historical information. Instead, history is displaced by sanitised presentations of cultural heritage, the display of which draws an "exotic veil", crafted to enchant and deflect tourist attention from politically sensitive historical events and legacies. The study examines reasons for this policy, and its implications for tourists and those working in the tourism industry. Many of Oman's tour guides and site representatives are from marginalised groupings, experiencing inequalities due to historical family, tribal and former slave status. The state-sustained exotic veil on history means that such workers are obliged to collude in denying the historical reasons for their own experiences of injustice and inequality.

Visitors and Their Agendas in Myanmar: George Orwell (Author), Emma Larkin (Journalist), Hillary Clinton (Politician) and me (Social Researcher)

“…The diverse attractions require full travel days, for example for a night or two in Bagan, the temple landscape; and to Lake Inle, the highlights for most visitors. The 'exotic veil' [6] is enchanting: visitors enjoy a liminal world of glorious temples, colourful monks, fascinating markets, docile service staff, and delicious, exotic food. My appraisal (today, while writing this paper) of 20 random blogs about travel in Myanmar reveals repeated references to these features.…”

“…Brutal history is displaced by sanitised displays of cultural heritage, which draw an exotic curtain, fashioned to enchant and deflect tourist attention from atrocious historical events and legacies Hosting tourists involves processes of staging and performing a form of authenticity to charm guests, persuading them that this is the real country, and this it genuine fascinating culture. Like the tour guides investigated in Oman, they must 'obscure a violent history, a police state, censorship, corruption an social inequality, by weaving a fragrant veil of Orientalist spells around the visitors' [6].…”

“…The sheer beauty and 'exotic' nature of Myanmar are seductive distractions from anything objectionable. These are not 'value free expressions of place identity, but, to varying degrees, are influenced, managed and sustained' [6] by a need to not rock any political boats.…”

“…She had previously visited in 1995, amazed that the 'postcard-perfect scenes of bustling markets, glittering pagodas an faded British hill stations…(concealed) one of worst records of human rights abuse in the world…the oppression of an entire nation of some 50 million people..(was) completely hidden from view' [2]. As for any tourist, the 'exotic veil' shrouded what lay beneath [6]. For present day visitors, history is told through pretty pagodas; narratives of vicious events are hidden.…”

Evaluating the Application of Lean Six Sigma in the Creative Industry: The Case of a Spanish Company in an Islamic Country

“…Ahmad et al (2013) point out that this kind of creative industry is one of the most important cultural industries worldwide and their relevance in economy and society has been growing since the last two decades. For example, in Paris The Louvre Museum evidenced in 2000 about 6.1 million of visitors, in 2011 approximately 8.8 and 10.2 in 2018 (Pallud and Straud, 2014;Causevic and Neal, 2019).…”