Bryan Arends

HYPER REALITY OF TOURISM

Thesis

As an interior architecture student, we are thought to think about space in ways to understand, improve, influence and even manipulate how one approaches and move through these spaces, a specific controlled structure. We research why people behave differently depending on the atmosphere and environment they entered. We look into what draws a visitor’s attention and how do they react to it. May it be an object or something psychological. The feeling of nostalgia or questioning what is to come.

We are curious beings and will always be fascinated by the unknown, the weird, the other. Looking for new discoveries to learn and evolve from.

Browsing through webpages of the internet, I come across several blogs, vlogs, and channels of some of the most extraordinary locations in the world. From people like Drew Binsky and Lost Leblanc, where they visit places you only dream of visiting one day in hopes of experiencing anything and everything it has to offer. Places like Dubai or Las Vegas where there is so much happening, so much movement in one location. These means of advertising forms a hyper realistic world where is to believe that this place is solemn as it is identifying in pictures. It takes thebeautifulideaoftheplaceand exaggerates it to the extent where it is almost completely faked.

Hyper reality is the inability to differentiate reality from fantasy, it is the means to characterize the way consciousness defines what is actually real in a world where a multitude of media can radically shape and filter an original event or experience.

When taking a look at Tourism, in its essence, is the process of attempting to reconcile fantasy with reality. It is through presupposing what a certain location might be like to see or experience, and then visiting there in the hope that this fantasy is accurate.

But Colonization has a greater effect on the development of an island and changes the reality of the authenticity of the place. One’s pre-visit assumption of, say, a tropical beach or a major world city, being based purely from an ‘imitation’ of reality borne from a vehicle of artistic, aesthetic phenomena, can never fully represent the actuality of what a place is/ should be like. How different would that post card really be?

Tourism becomes a big problem for the economic vulnerability of small tropical island destinations. They are characterized by the dominance of the international hotel chains and the high degree of dependence on the tourism sector. It is a seasonal cycle; this actively demonstrates that there is inefficient use of resources and loss of profit for the tourist accommodations or amenities during the low season.

This paper aims to understand the identity of a small local culture and discover the hyper real from its own reality. How does hyper reality within tourism effects a community of people and their ways of being?

Growing up on an island, I got to experience all what nature has to offer, such as the white sandy beaches, clear blue water, the intense sunrays and being able to walk through the nature area called ‘mondi’. Many of the island locals grew up in traditional Aruban houses, each house surrounded by wildlife and nature. During the weekends it is common to get up early and go with the whole family to the beach and spend the entire day there. The great thing about some of these beaches is that you can find many grape, coconut and kwihi trees to catch some shade and set up camp for the day.

Tourism has taken over and many of the beaches have been replaced by hotel chains. There to accommodate the tourists with a place of comfort, with everything they need on their vacation, available right outside their doorstep. A little Utopia if you may, where they can share their experiences with one another. The rise of hotel chains on the island caused for a rise in shopping malls, restaurants and entertainments establishments to open on the long strip from the airport to the high- rise hotel area.

However, the boom of tourism influenced renovations which needed to be made to the island such as repairing broken roads and fixing monumental structures along that boulevard. The dominance of American tourism has made that allot of their culture and habits has come with them to the island.

Tourism has created a hyper reality within the destination itself. This is done through the news and media. Advertising the destination and meeting the needs of the viewer for their special getaway.

Most locals on the island turn a blind eye to the consequences of accepting all these foreign customs. After some time, more foreigners came to visit and decided to stay on the island, causing many land and nature to be sold and build on. Housings were reinvented by those who came to live on the island.

Recently there were flats and tall apartment buildings introduced in small neighborhoods, to create more living space for the immigrants who plan to move and stay on the island. The idea of it is so it is cost efficient and the new way of building, without taking into consideration the damage it can create, and the protection needed of the natural weather.

The identity of the island keeps changing to adapt to the dependent factors of the economy. The diversity and rise of tourists who visit and decide to stay on the island influences the culture with their presence and customs. Growing as a community in the international aspect but losing the national culture in the process.