Phantasmic Destinations

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PHANTASMAL DESTINATIONA Post-modernist Perspective

Bo Wendy GaoHanqin Zhang

Patrick LEspoir Decosta

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong

Abstract: The research outlined in this paper began as a study to explore the meaningattached to the creation of a new type of destination from a postmodernist perspective. Theconcept of the phantasmal destination was derived from the observation of several destina-tions favored by tourists primarily because of a myth associated with them, generally with nobasis in historical reality. Shangri-La in Yunnan, China, was selected for this investigationdue to its unique qualities containing all of the elements of this tourism phenomenon. Thisqualitative study applied the Grounded Theory Method, and uncovered other issues relatedto the perception of other, the effect images created by the media, and commercial consid-erations on development decisions leading to the distortion of cultures. Keywords: phantas-mal destination, human geography, image, post-modernism, Shangri-La. 2011 ElsevierLtd. All rights reserved.

INTRODUCTIONFord (2007) warned that Shangri-La, the inspiration for mythical

accounts of heaven on earth, risks becoming a paradise lost as aresult of the hordes of tourists ocking there. The destination Shan-gri-La was invented by British writer James Hilton in his 1933 novel Lost

Horizon and was further rened in a 1937 lm. The story involves theevacuation by plane of four Europeans from India during the BritishRaj, one of whom is Conway, the main character. During the ight,the plane is hijacked and diverted over the mountains of Tibet. Aftercrashing in a remote corner of Tibet, the four are rescued by a passingconvoy and taken to the valley of Blue Moon, where they are accommo-dated at Shangri-La. Shangri-La is a storehouse of world culture and anearthly paradise that provides not only a complete realm of intellectualand sensual pleasures of modern civilization, but also a secure retreat from its pressures. The inhabitants, who age slowly in the tranquil and

peaceful environment of the valley, hope that the four Europeans will

Bo Wendy Gao is the corresponding author (RM 842, 17 Science Museum Rd., Tsim TsaTsui East, Kowloon, Hong Kong. Email ). Her researchinterest is in the area of imaginary destination planning. Hanqin Zhang: Her research interest is in China hotel and tourism development and policy issues. Patrick LEspoir Decosta: Hisresearch interest is in post-colonial theoretical approach to tourism studies.

Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 39, No. 1, pp. 197220, 20120160-7383/$ - see front matter 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Printed in Great Britain

doi: 10.1016/j.annals.2011.06.003 www.elsevier.com/locate/atoures

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settle in Shangri-La. However, one of them, Mallinson, is restless and wants to leave. Fearing for his safety on the dangerous route home,Mallinson convinces Conway, whom the High Lama wants to appoint as his successor, to escort him out of the valley. At the end of the story,Conway is still desperately trying to nd his way back to the valley of Blue Moon in Shangri-La.

Despite its ctional origins, Shangri-La has become synonymous in Western culture to the idea of a heavenly place on earth, and this im-age has captured the imagination of readers worldwide. Does the placereally exist or is it sheer fantasy? Although many claim it may indeed bereal, Hilton himself stated that his readers would not nd Shangri-Laon any map. Nevertheless, it is now presented as an actual place locatedin Yunnan, China ( Figure 1 ). In December 2001, Zhongdian County,the capital of the Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, was ofcially renamed by the county government and the State Council as Shangri-La County in May 2002 ( Hillman, 2003 ). The promotion of the dis-covery of Shangri-La has signicantly beneted local tourism, andDiqing received over 1.5 million tourists in 2002 following the namechange. Overseas visitors increased from 84,100 in 2001 to 130,000in 2003, and foreign arrivals continued to increase to nearly half a mil-lion by 2007 ( Table 1 ).

This phenomenon has fuelled the authors curiosity about why peo-ple visit such imaginary places. How do they perceive these ctionaldestinations, and on what do they base their perceptions? Are touristsattracted by the myth attached to the destination, by the promotion of the physical place, or both? This unique form of tourism, which in thiscase is an expression of the multidimensional characteristics of humanculture, ts naturally within the postmodern landscape and imagina-tive geography. These two frameworks serve as the theoretical pretext

Shangri-la

Tibet

Sichuan

Yunnan

Figure 1. Location of Shangri-La in Yunnan, China

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for exploring and understanding a form of tourism based on a createdneed for phantasmal origin. Phantasmal is the adjective derived fromthe word phantasm and is dened by the New Oxford American Dictionary as a gment of the imagination; an illusion or apparition. The term phantasmal destination in this study is associated with an individuals per-ception of the world, and represents his or her personal future desiresor past memories, which in turn are based on sociocultural situationand roles.

This study attempts to uncover and explain the meaning attached tothe creation of a new type of destination from the tourists perspective.The description of these new destinations as phantasmal destina-tions and their visitors as phantasmal tourists was derived from apreliminary survey and analysis of travel blogs, travel books and maga-zines, and other promotional materials relating to the chosen destina-tion. The research method employed in this study was GroundedTheory developed by Glaser and Strauss (1967) . The methodology isutilized for developing theory that is grounded in data that are system-atically collected and analyzed ( Strauss & Corbin, 1998 ). The outcomeof a Grounded Theory approach is the creation of a group of probable

correlations proposed among concepts and groups of concepts. Theinductive nature of the Grounded Theory approach and the subse-quent conundrum it creates in terms of the necessity to commenceresearch without preconceived theory, to avoid the prior identica-tion of concepts and themes, highlighted the importance of theoreticalsensitivity in this study ( Strauss & Corbin, 1998 ). Theoretical sensitivity refers to the process of developing a researchers conceptual insight

Table 1. Tourism Statistics for the Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture,19942007

Year Tourists arrivals

(10,000s)

Foreigners (10,000s) Tourism Receipts

(1,000s US$)

Total Growth (%) Arrivals Growth (%) Total Growth (%)

1994 1.50 0.15 0.0191995 4.26 184 1.20 70 0.023 20.591996 17.42 308 2.42 101 0.096 322.021997 54 209 2.80 15.70 0.181 87.911998 65.20 20.74 3.80 35.71 0.229 26.681999 112 71.78 6.30 65.79 0.652 184.182000 106.26 5 6.76 7 0.809 24.12

2001 124.01 16.70 8.41 24.41 1.068 31.942002 150.02 20.97 10.29 22.35 1.372 28.512003 129.70 13.54 13 26.34 1.237 9.862004 194.70 50.12 16.28 25.23 1.607 29.882005 264.44 35.82 20.77 27.58 2.488 54.852006 330.80 25.09 30.80 48.29 3.394 36.382007 410.72 24.16 48.98 59 4.947 45.79

Source: Diqing Prefecture Tourism Bureau.

B.W. Gao et al. / Annals of Tourism Research 39 (2012) 197220 199


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through his or her unique understanding of the meaning and intricacy of the data ( Glaser 1978). This explains the cursory approach in theliterature review on the postmodern view of destinations by acknowl-edging the relevance of varying theoretical views on destination image.In that sense, the emerging thematic categories from the data andtheir relationships reected the sensitized importance of each of theauthors reexivity ( Hesse-Biber, 2007 ).

POSTMODERN VIEW OF DESTINATIONThe growing involvement of postmodernism in tourism studies has

legitimized an increasing tendency to move away from overgeneraliza-tion, as well as the acceptance of multilinear processes that favor

deconstructed and fragmented dynamics of tourism discourse ( Wil-liams, 2006). Reality subsequently collapses to become hyper-reality,a form of the real so diverse that it evanesces into illusion and simula-tion to become hallucinatory resemblance of itself ( Baudrillard, 1993,p. 23). Thus, as a branch of Human Geography, Imaginative Geogra-phy focuses on individual imaginations and fantastic features of geo-graphical reality, and the meanings that create and transform placesand landscapes ( Aitken & Valentine, 2006; Cloke, Crang, & Goodwin,1999). However, our images of the world not only represent individualconstructs; they are also connected to social sources. Imaginings of a

place reect the individuals psychological needs in terms of futurehopes or memories of the past, but personal imagination is heavily inuenced by the values of particular cultures. The individual createsan image based on his or her own personality and life experiences,both of which are formed by the individuals social situation and roles(Caughey, 1984 ). Driver (1999) argues that perception of the world isalso rooted in society in that imaginations are social as well as individ-ual (p. 209). Although an imaginary place may be obscure, peopleneed to nd a physical place for their imaginings, because their imag-ination is inextricably connected to their real-world experiences ( Mal-pas, 1999). It is also one of the key elements in complex belief systems(Tuan, 1977 ). The symbolic difference between the concepts of imag-ination and reality is reconstructed by the human agent. Similarly,meanings are attached to specic places ( Couldry, 2000 ) by humanagency and imagination ( Entrikin & Tepple, 2006 ). For example, a re-gion and a landscape are not simply spatial categories for organizingthe world; they are also a part of the continuous human process of making the earth home and creating worlds out of nature.

Imaginative geographies not only rearrange the individuals under-standing of the world; they also help them to shape their actions ( Dri- ver 1999). In travel, imaginative geographies help to signpost places sothat tourists can nd them as sites and locate them within an imag-inative landscape in which each site has its own meaning ( Gregory,1999, p. 116). This ultimately shapes and controls the expectations andexperiences of future tourists ( Galani-Mouta 2000; Gregory 1999 ).Imaginative geographies become real not because they represent



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the real world, but because they shape the way in which we experienceand interact with places and people ( Driver 1999).

Destinations take on specic imaginative geographies throughselective representation in writing and the depiction of the physicalenvironment and human activities. Books, Web pages, blogs, emailsand personal photo albums realize and distribute the creation or suste-nance of myths and half-truths. This, in turn, encourages and justiesfantasies. The resulting geographies are vague. As Shields (1991, p. 61)puts it, there is both a constancy and a shifting quality to this model of place- or space-myths as the core images change slowly over time, aredisplayed by radical changes in the nature of a place, and as variousimages simply lose their connotative power, becoming dead meta-phors, while others are invented, disseminated, and become acceptedin common parlance.

The past no longer exists and the future has not yet happened. Theimagination creates meaning in the present by combining symbols of the past and the future. This synthesis requires a symbolic conrma-tion of the past and symbolic access to the future, with its Utopian pos-sibilities. An ideological interpretation of the myths and symbols that dene societies leads to the construction of images that challenge tra-dition for individuals who seek a break from their present predica-ment. Imagining utopias motivates action toward change. The tourist recreates the destination in his or her mind based on a subjective inter-pretation of myths and stories fueled by personal desires and hopes.The imaginative geography of a destination is a product of touristsown imagination.

The crucial role that tourist perception plays on the formation of theimage of a destination has been acknowledged as a marketing strategy in tourism studies (e.g. Britton, 1979; Buchmann, Moore, & Fisher,2010; Dann, 1996; Frost, 2006; Hudson & Ritchie, 2006; Iwashita,2003; Squire, 1996 ). In addition, researchers have examined the self-image/destination image congruity (e.g., Beerli, Meneses, & Gil,2007; Chon, 1992; Hunt, 1975; Litvin & Kar, 2003; Sirgy & Su, 2000).

The process of destination image formation has also been comprehen-sively reviewed (e.g., Alhemoud & Armstrong, 1996; Baloglu & McCle-ary, 1999; Chen & Kerstetter, 1999; Crompton, 1979 ). Gartner (1993)proposes that destination image formation goes through two stages:previsit perception (cognitive and affective) and postvisit perception(conative). Tasci (2009) discusses image bias as a result of social dis-tance. All of these destination image studies are partially relevant tothe phantasmal destination study. However, due to the nature of themethod employed in the current study, the Grounded Theory ap-proach, theoretical sensitivity was crucial to avoid the inuence of pre-

conceived concepts, hypotheses, and theories ( Glaser & Strauss, 1967).The review of the literature on destination image studies is addressedin the discussion section of this paper.

Shangri-La , an invented word with no former meaning in any knownlanguage, has entered the English language. The Collins English Dictio- nary denes it as a remote or imaginary Utopia ( 1982, p. 1339),alluding to another word that entered into the English language



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through a celebrated work of ction, Thomas Mores (1516/1988) Uto- pia . A utopia is an imaginary place where an alternative society is pos-sible, visions can be realized, and social experiments can be conducted.Utopias exist above society and implicitly criticize current lifestyles andbeliefs ( Desroche, 1979; Manuel, 1967 ). Shurmer-Smith and Hannam(1994) state that through imagination, particularly the utopian/dysto-pian imagination, it becomes possible to think the unthinkable, tochallenge codes and to deconstruct categories (p. 73). The imaginedutopia offers a healing ction that suggests hope and expectation.Shangri-La, as a concept, is the result of such imagining.

Shangri-La is not the only destination to have sparked tourist interest as a result of an ancient or urban legend without any proven historicaltenet. Another example is the tourism associated with the reportedapparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary, since June 1981, at Medjugorje,a town in western Bosnia and Herzegovina. The site is now visited by thousands of pilgrims from around the world and regarded as a signif-icant Marian shrine ( Jurkovich & Gesler, 1997; Vukonic, 1992 ). Sincethe apparitions began, the inexplicable has become explicable and en-dowed with a sense of divine intervention. Huntsinger and Fernandez-Gimenez (2000) examined tourists behavior at Mount Shasta in Cali-fornia and found that because tourists attached personal spiritual be-liefs to the mountain, they had transformed the destination into aspiritual center. Another case is Alexandria in Egypt, which is con-nected as much to the mind as to the physical world ( Dunn, 2006 ). Alexandria is more mythic than actual in that it is the least tangible his-torical city. Visitors will get the most out of it if they possess lively imag-inations ( Dunn, 2006 ).

The premise of this study is that to a phantasmal tourist, the myththat introduced the place becomes actual history, and the ction that originally created it is accepted either as a fact, or at the very least as arevelation that points to a higher reality. Such imagined places are pre-sented as reality or as reality mythologized through lms and booksthat in turn inuence reality. In the rst instance, myth becomes real-

ity. In the second, reality is replaced by a mythologized (illusory) ver-sion of itself. Often, the resulting structured place or attraction ispresented explicitly or implicitly as a heritage site. Tzanelli (2004) sug-gests that this form of misrecognition of the articial for the real in ur-ban milieus provides another link between the loss of the self inconsumption and modern life in the developed world.

Study Methods As the formation of a phantasmal destination is a continuous process

of the human dynamic of creating worlds out of nature ( Entrikin &Tepple, 2006 ), using a qualitative method allows full understandingof the phantasmal tourism phenomenon. Here, the rationale for thisapproach is the exploratory nature of the study, which examines theimaginative processes involved in the creation of a phantasmal destina-tion and its emphasis on deriving meanings from data on how people



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create, make sense of and maintain their social worlds through thisform of travel. Following the Grounded Theory Method, a theoreticalsampling strategy was applied. Theoretical sampling involves the pur-poseful selection of a sample based on ongoing developing categoriesand emerging theory. The sample was cumulatively collected on the ba-sis of concepts that have proven to be theoretically relevant to theevolving theory ( Strauss & Corbin, 1998 ). Recruiting appropriate sam-ples presents a formidable research challenge. Gobo (2004) arguesthat complete population lists are difcult to obtain, which explains why probability sampling procedures are rarely used even for quantita-tive research. Instead, most research employs non-probability sam-pling, which is also appropriate for the objectives of this study.Hence, all participants that met the sampling criteria were recruited.The criteria were age 18 years or older, a leisure traveler who had vis-ited Shangri-La in Yunnan, the ability to communicate in English,and awareness of the Shangri-La myth.

The data were collected in situ from individual tourists during their visit to Shangri-La. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conductedbetween July 13 and August 28, 2008. In-depth interviewing is a pri-mary data-collection method in qualitative research, which enablesresearchers to gain insight into opinions, experiences, motives, andideas that are not readily obtained through mere observation. To ob-tain data relevant to the phenomenon under study and generate a richdiscussion, several directive questions were used in each interview. Toobtain further information and encourage elaboration on the part of the interviewees, probing questions were also prepared and applied.Each of the in-depth interviews lasted between 20 and 45 minutes.The interviews were digitally recorded and transcribed verbatim. Dur-ing the interviews, the interviewer attempted to maintain neutrality and establish rapport with the interviewees, but also shared personalopinions when appropriate. Opinions gleaned from earlier interviewees were also discussed with later interviewees. For instance, the con-cept of the phantasmal destination, which was raised by some

interviewees, was shared and discussed with others to gain a compre-hensive understanding of the concept.Interviews were initially conducted with 19 tourists, and their re-

sponses displayed some convergence and similarity. Thirteen addi-tional tourists were then interviewed to counteract the possibility of the unintentional collection of poor quality data. In total, 32 tourists were interviewed. Six interviews were eliminated due to poor recordingquality, and 26 interviews were deemed useful and subsequently ana-lyzed. Fifteen of the interviewees were men and 11 were women. They ranged in age between 18 and 65 years, and the majority came from

Europe and North America. Most participants were university studentsor had university degrees. Nine possessed postgraduate degrees. Thedemographic information of the participants is listed in Table 2 .

To establish the trustworthiness of the data, several techniques wereused to minimize possible unintended bias and inadequate recall. Thetravelers were photographed, their on-site activities were videotaped,and the interviews were digitally recorded. To legitimize the external



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validity of the inquiry, the results derived from the data analysis areprovided in the research ndings sections, with verbatim quotes fromthe interviews. The interview transcripts and data interpretation weresent to the interviewees via email for verication, and 14 per cent werereturned conrming the responses. An expert audit review was alsoconducted to judge the quality of the data collection and the analysis.The data analysis for this study followed an inductive approach, asthe purpose of the research was to develop a framework for percep-tions of phantasmal destinations. The authors were conscious of theinductive conundrum that lies within grounded theory ( Hesse-Biber, 2007, p. 326 ) and relied on theoretical sensitivity throughout the research, including the coding process ( Glaser, 1978 ) described be-low. Although the concept of phantasmal destination is based on thetheory of Human Geography, an open-minded approach was appliedto the investigation. The qualitative data analysis software Atlast.ti5 was used during data analysis to organize interview data and managethe codication process. Tools within the software enabled the crea-tion of a category family to illustrate the relationships between differ-ent identied categories.

The authors independently coded the responses based on their ownanalysis of the interview data. Initially, the data were analyzed word-by- word and phrase-by-phrase to highlight the interviewees behavior be-fore and during their visits. Theoretical sensitivity at this initial stageof coding allowed the identication of substantive codes based onempirical data. During different rounds of the coding process, connec-tions among the codes were identied through the process of theoret-ical coding to ultimately result in the production of major themes orcategories. Coding lists were compared after independent coding of the interview data, revealing both similarities and differences in thecoding. The categories identied by the researchers were used to builda composite master list of categories. Based on the results of the data

Table 2. Demography of the Interviewees

Nationality

UK 7 Gender USA 5 Male 15France 4 Female 11 Australia 2 Age Group China/HK 2 1825 (1) 6German 2 2635 (2) 13Canada 1 3645 (3) 4Israel 1 4655 (4) 2New Zealand 1 5665 (5) 1Thailand 1 Education Total 26 Completed secondary/high school (A) 0

Some college or university (B) 7Completed college/university/diploma/degree (C) 15Completed postgraduate degree (D) 4



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analysis, which revealed the participants motivations, expectations,pre-knowledge, and perceptions regarding Shangri-La, three thematiccategories that best described their perceptions of Shangri-Laemerged: an unspoiled natural landscape, mysterious Tibet, and phan-tasmal Shangri-La.

Unspoiled Natural Landscape Tourists who emphasized the natural landscape described their per-

ceptions of Shangri-La constructed on and framed within descriptionsfrom guidebooks and gleaned from pictures uploaded to the Internet by previous visitors. Shangri-La, as a destination, was perceived as a lesscommercial and not highly tourist-oriented; its remoteness and high-altitude location should not attract relatively few tourists.

[ . . .] a fabulous mountain area, a quiet small village, people have a peaceful life there. I can take some good pictures. A less commercialized, simple lifestyle.(Chinese female, 1825)

It was also perceived as natural and unsophisticated at a time whensuch qualities are disappearing from many destinations, allowing theenjoyment of more rudimentary outdoor activities such as hiking, bik-ing and horse riding.

Nature is the main theme. Simple, untouched. Hard to nd places like this in

China. (American male, 3645) I read it in the Lonely Planet and everybody goes here. It is recommended as a good place for hiking and horse riding. (German male, 1825)

The tourists also perceived Shangri-La to be striking in its ordinari-ness. It is essentially a generic name for any remote Chinese townbut nevertheless conveys the possibility of wild adventures.

[Shangri-La is] recommended by other tourists as the place you must go if you like trekking in the wild mountains. (French male, 1825)

A review of the interview transcripts revealed that this type of touristshad heard about or read the story of Shangri-La, but did not believe inthe myth and did not perceive the place to be mystical. Some eventhought that renaming the place was a ridiculous idea. The key imagefor them was a natural environment for adventure in a small Chinesetown with a Tibetan culture. These tourists claimed that they did not select the destination because of its mythical story, but were attractedby the mountainous terrain and the possibility of adventure. However,some of these nature-oriented tourists were so awed by the magni-cence of the landscape that they experienced uncharacteristic mysticalreactions.

I sat on this mountain and caught my breath, observing the wildness around me. This was Shangri-La. This was untouched, natural, and very free. Gazing at a pair of eagles gliding on the horizon I felt a sense of freedom and thought back to Zhongdian. James Hilton hadnt been describing a particular temple,town or valley: Shangri-La caught me by surprise, it was a state of mind. A state of mind brought on by a place like this. (British male, 2635)



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Mysterious Tibet The tourists who traveled in search of Tibetan culture described

their perceptions of Shangri-La by focusing on the authentic Tibetanlifestyle, art and architecture, and religion, and a threatened Tibetanculture and people. Responses from this type of tourists revealed theimage of Tibet to be a community of friendly and religious people liv-ing in a beautiful, remote mountain area. To these tourists, the non-materialistic and spiritually oriented Tibetans have been forced to ac-cept Communism and its values, and a formerly independent paradisehas been invaded by the Han people. At the same time, the area hasnot been modernized and the poor Tibetans have no freedom orhuman rights under the military regime. The following quotationsillustrate these perceptions.

In Tibetan areas, the sightseeing is special. Most of the area has not been inuenced or civilized by other cultures. It is unusual compared to our urban life.(Chinese female, 3546) From what I have heard the Dalai Lama teaches us peace and non-violence.Considering what his people have been through, I think this is very admirable.I want to see for myself if they have freedom, and now China is pressing down on Tibet and this really moved me. People are very warm and peaceful. (Cana- dian female, 2635)

It is clear that the formation of such images has been inuenced by the Western media and the Dalai Lamas speeches. An examination of Tibetan history shows that Tibet has long symbolized a sacred land of extraordinary scenery and imagined geography in Western fantasies(Bishop, 1989 ). Bishop (2000) draws attention to the roots of Westerncommitment to the Tibetan struggle and states that the Westernromanticization of Tibet began with the exile of the Dalai Lama in1959 and the subsequent settlement of many Tibetans in Westerncountries. He further claims that support for Tibet from Western celeb-rities and media personalities has reshaped its image to t the device of Western media and has transformed Tibetan cultural symbols intoinfotainment (p.646). Bishop (1992) , along with Daniels (1989) ,suggests that it is no longer possible to distinguish the real from theimaginary. The traditional veritiesobjectivity, the natural, morality,historyseem to be falling away, to become just one image or domainof image-making, of ctionalizing, among many ( Bishop, 1992 , p. 6).

Lopez (1998) notes that Tibets image as a mysterious land is deeply rooted in the history of the Wests relationship with Tibet. Tibet, pro-tected from free trade with the West during the age of imperialism, wasthe last unconquered and unpolluted land. That image was rmly xedby the time the Chinese invaded the area in 1950 ( Shakya, 1991).Shakya (1991, p. 22) further argues that Tibet was being re-createdand re-formed into Western imaginations and enthused with psyche-delic experiences . . .Tibet has become a Disney World for the Westernbourgeois. Tibet possesses all the thrills and adventure of a customizedfantasy world: danger, romance, magic and cuddly natives, since theopening of Tibet to mass tourism in the 80s. This criticism is consis-tent with that of Tibetan author Alai. (2008) , who points out that Tibet



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has been misunderstood by both Chinese and foreigners because it hasbeen closed to the outside world until recently. Tibet has been mysti-ed, and changed from a noun to an adjective. It is perceived as theopposite of the modern world: if we are civilized, then Tibet is relatively wild; if we are corporeal, then Tibet is incorporeal. Tibet is an imag-ined and solemn image of heaven because of its geographic loca-tion, which is generally considered to be at the ends of the earth.

These views reect Saids (1985) argument against the underlyingassumptions of Orientalist thinking. From the 19th century onward, Western scholars, artists, and intellectuals came to believe that truecolonialism required knowledge of the colonized. As a result, they con-structed the Orient, transforming a vast region comprising a multi-tude of cultures and countries into a single object. By gainingknowledge of the Orient, the West assumed ownership of it. Accord-ing to Said (p. 3), Orientalization is a Western style for dominating,restructuring, and having authority over the Orient. More impor-tantly, Said emphasizes that by becoming the object that is studied,the Oriental became the Other against the Us of the Western world. Other is represented and reconstructed by Us through theuse of various powers: political, intellectual, cultural, and moral. TheUs travel to the Others place seeking a battery of desires,repressions, investments, and projections (p. 8), rather than theempirical reality of the Other. Said, among others, criticizes the wide-eyed, uncritical admiration shown by tourists drawn to Tibetanculture. In this respect, these tourists also fall into the category of phantasmal tourists, but their journey involves a different phantas-mal destination.

Phantasmal Shangri-La For the tourists interested in the myth, Shangri-La was perceived as

a place where you can hide yourself from the outside world anda state of mind. However, in Lost Horizon , Shangri-La refers to ahub of world cultures and religions. None of the interviewees men-tioned this point. The responses suggest that phantasmal tourists ac-cepted the concept of Shangri-La as given, and reinterpreted it basedon their own value systems. The story attracted them because they be-lieved that this place must be found on earth, and yet only about half of them had read the novel and only one had watched the movie beforetraveling to Shangri-La. Further analysis of the data revealed that per-ceptions of Shangri-La fell into six predominant subcategories: (1)challenging but accessible; (2) a natural air of mystery; (3) a place that inspires spirituality; 4) remote and primitive aspects that are particu-larly appealing; (5) a landscape unspoiled by development; and (6) asimple, peaceful lifestyle in a small village.

Challenging but accessible was perceived to be the outstanding charac-teristic of this type of destination. Market access can measure the com-petitiveness of a destination in terms of the relative difference in time,cost, distance or effort required to reach a destination ( Pearce, 1989 ).



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Easy market access is considered a competitive advantage for a destina-tion. Deng, King, and Bauer (2002) argue that the accessibility of nat-ural attractions is an important element in tourism. However, in thecase of Shangri-La, it is viewed as a disadvantage. The intervieweesemphasized that Shangri-La should not be an ordinary tourist placeof easy access, but rather should be a hidden place somewhere out there, waiting to be discovered through good fortune. This denitionis clearly related to the description in the novel. In Lost Horizon , Shan-gri-La is hidden high in the snowy mountains and is difcult to nd.The following statements underscore this perception.

It should be located at a place that it is hard to reach and shouldnt have tourists,because tourists would destroy the original culture. (Hong Kong male, 1825)

A place with a good balance that is not easy to nd. (French male, 1825)

A Natural Air of Mystery. The perception of mystery is one of the Shan-gri-Las dening attributes. According to one of the interviewees,Shangri-La sounds mythical; it gives you a feeling of beauty. A mythor a story as a stimulus introduces a place and creates its collective pub-lic identity. In other words, myths or stories often provide clues to thespiritual potentialities of human life, with each story being embodiedin a particular community and environment. However, although suchstories introduce tourists to a new world, its precise meaning is dened

by each individuals personal identity in relation to the physicalenvironment. James Hiltons Lost Horizon introduces Shangri-La as a Utopian world,

unknown to the outside world, and somewhere far out in the Himalayas.The atmosphere of mystery is the core contextual setting for the noveland its lm adaptation. More recently, travel agencies and tourists whohave visited Shangri-La have published on the Internet and in travelmagazines numerous thematic photos and videos that purport to reect this atmosphere. The themes include splendid snowy peaks, wild gorgesinviting adventure, and exotic Tibetan architecture. These visual images

display physical attributes that further reinforce visitors perception of the locations mystery gleaned from the original story. The perceptionof mystery is thus based on insufcient and remote information, and isan attribute of the degree of involvement in the landscape ( Lynch &Gimblett, 1992 ). Shangri-Las physical attributes, including snowy mountains, waterscapes and open areas, reinforce the perception of mystery (Dolnicar & Huybers, 2007 ). Bishop (1989, p. 43) suggeststhe Landscape Mountains have been imagined as the dwelling-placesof both malevolent and benevolent supernatural beings.

I have an interest in history and maybe some myths and legends. Those things are kind of linked together. So, a lot of places I like to visit because of history and maybe because of myths and legends as well. This is probably the rst one that Ive come to. (New Zealand male, 2635)

A Place that Inspires Spirituality. Tourists attracted to the Shangri-Lamyth expect it to engender spirituality. Interviewees elaborated that



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the term Shangri-La connoted Asian myth, an intellectual and phys-ical paradise, a liminal space, and evoking indescribable feel-ings. The expression of spirituality varied among the participants.For some, it referred to the spirit of the Tibetan religion and its rituals, which were seen as very impressive. Tibetans are viewed as notably devout, as revealed in their prayer rituals. They are believed to live ina non-materialistic world, which visitors interpreted as innocence.Other participants referred specically to the spirituality of the settingin the novel; its harmonious and peaceful ambiance had captivatedtheir minds, and they expected the actual Shangri-La to match thosedescriptions. Photos of mountains posted in the Internet by other tour-ists also evoked in them a spiritual feeling about the place. To one tour-ist, the high altitudes made one feel very close to the sky and abovethe clouds. The following statements further illustrate this point.

I perceived this place as a spiritually more inviting place. (French female, 36 45)

Every time you get into a high place or such a beautiful mountain area, it seems as if you are closer to heaven. (American female, 2635)

Balance was also viewed as imbuing the spirit of Shangri-La. Theinterviewees dened balance as harmony manifested in the interactionof human beings with their natural environment. When describing theimage of Shangri-La, they perceived it to represent untouched nature without the presence of modern civilization, which would destroy it.They acknowledged, however, that it would be boring without any people.

Anywhere people live in harmony with nature, I think is pretty much Shangri- La. Living with nature in a beautiful place, youre coming closer to the idea. If you are high up, then that adds to it. (American male, 3645)

The perception of a spiritual place is similar to pilgrimage tourism tosacred lands. Pilgrim tourists perceive places and shrines as collectivesymbols rooted in mainstream religions. In contrast, tourists in theShangri-La region are not there for known religious activities or beliefs. As Shurmer-Smith and Hannam (1994) proposed, Shangri-La wasmore than a distinctly mythical place, however. It was a travellers story about pilgrimage and liminality, the sacred journey which takes theindividual dangerously far from the home structure and then eitherdestroys her in the normlessness or returns her, renewed and wiser(p. 62). These visitors are like ordinary leisure tourists, except for theircredence in the Shangri-La myth and other personal beliefs. Myths andstories, which add symbolism and meaning, play a signicant role inphantasmal destinations. The original use of the term sacred placerefers to sites with paradoxical powers of destruction and renewal,inspiring a sense of both fear and tranquility.

Remote and Primitive Aspects that are Particularly Appealing. Remotenessand primitiveness are the expected natural qualities of Shangri-La.The interviewees hoped to encounter a remote and unspoiled villagein the mountains. Despite globalization, a place that has retained its



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unique and primitive character is indeed rare. Shangri-La is promotedas the discovered paradise on earth. This evokes the expectation of an innocent world. In a chaotic and modern global society, people of-ten long for simpler, non-materialistic lifestyles. The interviewees be-lieved that the inhabitants of such a remote place would retainpositive human qualities, such as delity, happiness and industrious-ness. They expected Shangri-La to come close to its description inthe novel and imagined that the high mountains would make residentsfeel closer to heaven.

I think of a place where people live very simply, not materialistically, just a small village in the middle of nowhere. I think there are many Shangri-Las.People search for it. I desperately want to go to Fiji. My friends think Fiji is the image of Shangri-La, because people there are simple and happy. (Cana-

dian female, 2635) Landscape Unspoiled by Development. Natural landscapes invariably at-tract tourists, and the scenery and natural attractions are key drawsof a destination. In this study, participants were not only expectingbeautiful scenery, but also extraordinary and unspoiled landscapes.In their mind, Shangri-La represented a virginal land unspoiled by modern development, as evidenced in the following statements.

I dreamt that this place was on the top of mountains, that there were lots of peaks. (British male, 1825)

An extraordinary landscape, a simple and less commercial atmosphere, a different culture. (American male, 1825)

Cosgrove (1993) and Bender (1993) describe landscape as a signify-ing system with multiple, and sometimes conicting, sets of sharedmeanings. Tourism uses natural landscapes as another process to con-struct identity within the imagination. For example, a study examiningthe role of landscape as a key element in the construction of the Israelinational identity argues that metaphors drawn from the landscapeconstitute part of the moral discourse which is used in the wider distinc-

tions we make between us and them ( Selwyn, 1995, p. 119). Duncanand Duncan (1988) state that landscapes can be read like literary texts. What they convey relates to the social, cultural, and historical val-ues of those that prepare them for interpretation ( Palmer, 1999 ).

The romantic imagination of a landscape depends on a sense of nat-ural power ( Bishop, 1989 ). Nineteenth-century artists and poets of theRomantic Movement emphasized the solitary delights of nature, oftenchoosing untouched natural attractions over those groomed by humanbeings. Later, Urry (2002) called this the romantic gaze, with anemphasis upon solitude, privacy and [a] personal, semi-spiritual rela-tionship with the object of the gaze.

A Simple, Peaceful Lifestyle in a Small Village. Some interviewees referredto the idealized Shangri-La as a dreamy Utopia derived from the novelLost Horizon . The tourists expected to nd the real-world destinationthat most closely approximated the novels description of Shangri-La.



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They considered the simple, peaceful lifestyle of its small community and its hidden quality as important attributes of the ideal Shangri-La.

Only a few people know about it . . . The way it is described before is like a small

town, a small village, hidden by the mountains. (New Zealand male, 2635) The phantasmal tourists were tired of the crowded and complex rela-

tionships in urban areas and fantasized about living, or at least tem-porarily hiding, in a Utopian world. In the industrialized world,individuals have become fragmented due to the erosion of their bond with nature and other people. An emphasis on rationalization and self-discipline prevents the redemption of a unitary self. The need to es-cape this harsh reality becomes a romantic project. Searching for asimple and peaceful lifestyle becomes an ideal, and tourism provides

a medium for this escape.

DISCUSSIONThis study reveals that perceptions of Shangri-La t into three cate-

gories. First, it is perceived as a geographic Himalayan mountain area with a spectacular natural landscape (NL). Second, it conveys an imageof mysterious Tibet (MT) due to its close proximity to the Tibet region.Tourists can experience Tibetan culture there without having to deal with the complex and expensive bureaucratic process to visit Tibet,although the area is in fact home to a mix of ethnic groups. Finally,it is a phantasmal site (PS) created from a phantasmal allegory. Although each of these perceptions is presented as a distinct category,they overlap, as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2 shows that the phantasmal Shangri-La is embedded in thephysical Himalayas, and is perceived as the actual location of a phantas-mal destination. Conversely, the physical Tibet is mystied as a phan-tasmal destination by the Tibetan government-in-exile and by thespeeches of the Dalai Lama in Western countries. Most of the touristsinterviewed perceived Shangri-La to be an actual place and an irrele- vant fantasy, although all of them admitted to a sense of profoundadmiration when faced with the magnicence of the landscape. Theoverlapping areas show that some of the tourists perceived a link be-tween the actual place and its phantasmal quality before or duringtheir visit, but did not fully subscribe to the idea. This nding conrmsthat destination image is a result of the process of tourists perceptionformation and not of reality ( Gartner, 1993 ) because they cannot sam-ple the tourism product prior to the actual experience.

Gartner (1993) proposes the image formation process as a contin-

uum from conventional forms of advertising, documentaries, movies,and news articles to information gained through previous travel tothe area. Fakeye and Crompton (1991) also assert that, upon visit-ing . . .selected destinations, a tourist will develop a more complex im-age resulting from actual contact with the area (p. 11). Thissuggests that a phantasmal destination can be created by the media,but pursued and recreated by individual tourists. This leads many



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tourists to believe that such physical locations actually exist and encour-ages them to seek these places out. The interviewees who were eitherseeking Shangri-La or had a passion for unspoiled nature feared that development would ultimately destroy the places pristine nature. How-ever, what they really feared might have been the destruction of theirown belief in a phantasmal destination that they would have readily created if they had discovered it elsewhere. The data suggest that thesetourists were not only searching for the natural and cultural features of the region, but also for unique attributes that they had created in theirown minds.

The manifestation of a phantasmal destination in a tangible geo-graphic space is likely based on human feelings and emotions. Tourismis referred to as an experience industry, and tourists generally maketravel decisions irrationally in most circumstances ( Bettman, Luce, &Payne, 1998; Sirakaya & Woodside, 2005 ). Emotions have the ability to strengthen or repudiate ideas, create truths, and destroy realities(Frijda, Manstead, & Bem, 2000 ). Emotion also plays a signicant rolein producing belief systems. Individual needs, wants and desires alloperate with different forces and aims, shaping who we are and what we believe. People perceive things not based on their individual ele-ments but as a whole, tending to group things that are determinedby the intrinsic nature of the whole. Changes in external conditions,

Figure 2. Conceptual Framework for the Perception of Shangri-La as a Phantasmal Destination



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such as time, can signicantly affect how internal conditions, suchas meaning, are enacted ( Graham, 2008 ). In the case of phantasmaldestinations, people hoped to locate an imagined place in a geo-graphic location where the topography of the place is negotiated withdisparate topographies of the mind: I wanted to check the similarity of the reality to the myth (German male, 4655). The destination is,therefore, framed ideologically by marketers and tourists that arrive with a set of preconceived ideas, which Urry (2002) calls the tourist gaze.

A phantasmal destination thus emerges as an imaginary geography existing in tourists minds and greatly affected by the popular media.The paradise-like Shangri-La is imagined as a space where ones selfcan be joined with itself. It is a celebration of individualism and thequest for ones own truth. The interviewees believed that the myth be-hind Shangri-La either had some basis in history or was based on an-other myth with a basis in history. The Tibetan-oriented tourists weremotivated by a conviction that the inheritors of the ancient cultureof Tibet were a non-materialistic, deeply spiritual people that, in many ways, were closer to universal truths than people in more industrially and technologically advanced nations. Another common convictionamong these tourists was that the invaders of Tibet, the Chinese gov-ernment, were eroding its culture and turning the region into a neo-colony of China through repopulation and oppression of Tibetans.Regardless of the realities of regional politics, one conclusion emerges:these convictions are based on half-digested historical, anthropologi-cal, and sociological arguments that have been simplied and popular-ized to suit the assumptions of their intended audience. Thus, Tibetan-oriented tourists are an offshoot of phantasmal tourists, as most wereless interested in the real lives of Tibetan people and their history thanin their own interpretation of Tibetan reality, which include only infor-mation consistent with their preconceptions and ignoring other facts.These interpretations carry the inherent dichotomy of power andknowledge through the representation of cultures, histories, texts

and contexts reminiscent of Saids works on Orientalism (1985). Shan-gri-La appropriately restates the division between history, which usesnature as proxy, and modernity, with the Chinese intervention that inuenced the interpretation and articulation of the Orient ( Bryce,2007; Hollinshead, 2004 ). Ultimately, Tibetan-oriented tourists wereseeking the same self-actualization sought by phantasmal tourists. They hoped to achieve it instantaneously by immersing themselves, albeit fora brief time, in the lives of the people whom they idealized.

The nature-oriented tourists who visit Shangri-La initially appearedrealistic in their expectations. They were not interested in the assumed

mythical qualities of the destination and carried no sociopoliticalassumptions about the Tibetan people. They came for adventure andperhaps expected an escape from the mundaneness of their everyday lives. However, some of them were profoundly affected by the naturalbeauty and otherworldly quality of the sparsely populated remotenessof Shangri-La and confessed to experiencing mystical feelings that went against their character. The meaning of a destination is formed



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in the visitors mind, and not in the objects and displays encountered.This is a poststructuralist perspective, which suggests that meaning isnot inherent in the text but is generated outside of it ( Voase, 2002).Tourists create meanings of experiences based on their desires, mem-ories, and needs, which sometimes have little relation to the reality of the attraction they encounter ( Campbell, 1994; Voase, 2002 ).

These ndings indicate that the three types of tourists to Shangri-Lashare romantic traits, either created in advance or developed as areaction to the pristine and authentic natural environment that has es-caped the ravages of modern development. This is consistent with ear-lier studies showing that romanticism is a key element in therelationships certain tourists form with the physical environments they visit. Imagination and feelings are connected with romantic ideals andrefer to landscapes and scenes ( Furst, 1976). Trauer and Ryan (2005)suggest that romantic encounters are key components of the travelexperience and epitomize exploration of the self. They contend that an intimacy exists between tourists and physical destinations. In thetourism context, romanticism connotes spiritual intimacy, with peoplesharing values and beliefs. The natural environment, which is symbol-ized as a holy temple, becomes a place for intimacy, with associatednotions of wildness, originality, virginity, and romantic ideals ( Hull,2000; Trauer & Ryan, 2005 ).

This study shows that each type of tourist is seeking a paradise in which they believe their fantasies can be indulged and satised. Eachbelief represents a distortion of reality in which the perception of a des-tination is more important than the reality. These ndings are sup-ported by the postmodernist argument that different touristsperceive the same destination differently based on the power of theirintellect and imagination ( Nuryanti, 1996 ).

CONCLUSIONThe research outlined in this paper began as a study to explore the

meaning attached to the creation of a new type of destination from apostmodernist perspective. The concept of the phantasmal destina-tion was derived from the observation of several destinations favoredby tourists primarily because of a myth that generally has no basis onhistorical reality. Shangri-La in Yunnan, China, was selected for thisinvestigation due to its unique qualities containing all of the elementsof this tourism phenomenon.

Shangri-La is an imaginary place described in the novel Lost Horizon as being located somewhere in the Himalayas. Human Geography and

postmodernist concepts provide the theoretical underpinning for thisstudy. They were necessary to preserve theoretical sensitivity to counter-act the inductive conundrum inherent in the qualitative GroundedTheory Method employed. The research relied on the analysis of 26in-depth interviews that revealed three distinct perceptions of Shan-gri-La: an untouched natural landscape, mysterious Tibet, and a phan-tasmal destination.



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The analysis and interpretation of the data highlight this studys rel-evance to the theory of Human Geography and destination image. It suggests the possible inuence of tourists preconceptions and impres-sions on the formation of an imaginative space. This study is informedby prior inquiries on destination image, including movie-induced tour-ism (e.g., Hudson & Ritchie, 2006; Tasci, 2009 ), destination image cre-ation as a social (and cultural) construction ( Iwashita, 2003; Young,1999), and the destination image formation process (e.g., Gartner,1993). This study, however, is distinct in several respects. First, it fo-cuses on an imaginary instead of a physical destination. In addition,the inductive processes unfold based on how the tourist-intervieweesconstruct their perception and understanding of a phantasmal destina-tion, which has been overlooked in past tourism studies. In addition,myth as the liminal ground of research is generally employed in the do-main of cultural branding ( Holt, 2004 ), while tourist research on des-tinations has focused on destination image creation (e.g., Iwashita,2003; Selby & Morgan, 1996). Finally, this paper shows how the processtakes place by giving voice to the tourists, ultimately revealing that themeaning of a place is constructed through the tourists preconceptionof phantasmal ideals and wishes. What distinguishes this paper is that it takes the emic approach from below, showing the construction of theimaginative space based on cultural or otherwise psychological funda-mentals, of which phantasm is a major dimension.

Tourists carry with them the usual human political and sociologicalconcerns to the places they visit. However, these concerns are by naturequickly formed and relatively transient. In that sense, this study is novelnot only in its approach, but also in the implications of its ndings forboth academia and industry. Reviewing the literature of the last 20 years on the concept of the destination, Framke (2002) found noclear geographic denition of destination or a delineation of itsboundaries, despite the fact that a destination must be a geographicspace in which tourism occurs. This implies that tourism is a dynamicforce, premised on and sustained by differences over space. It takes

myths and dreams and ascribes them to physical places. Tourism desti-nations are thus transformed from ordinary geographic spaces throughthe perspective of tourists themselves and the continuous invention of landscapes of symbolic consumption ( Young, 1999 ). Youngs (1999, p.389) reference to the transformation of ordinary places into tourist destinations on a prodigious reinventing landscapes of symbolic con-sumption mentions the manipulation of physical and cultural land-scapes for destination planning purposes, but stops short of identifying the increasingly common phenomenon of creating imagi-native geographies based on the perception of what tourists want to

see.It is doubtful that a 30s English novel would have captured the atten-tion of Chinese scholars and destination planners under ordinary circumstances. However, the possibility of a space that could attract Western tourists mesmerized by Shangri-La and Tibetan culture mythsled to a manufactured reincarnation of the myth. Neither the Shangri-



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La myth nor the consequent name change of Zhongdian to Shangri-Lameans anything to the local denizens of this Chinese-Tibetan bordertown, composed of a variety of ethnicities. However, it is likely that their children will be brought up believing that Shangri-La is the reality of their region. The interaction between the transient visitor seeking apreconceived destination for individualistic fulllment and the oppor-tunistic planner creating a stage to serve the needs of the customerleads to the distortion of culture and the blurring of the boundary be-tween reality and ction, and creates a cultural space that has little rela-tion to the regions true culture. This phenomenon deserves furtherexploration.

Another noteworthy outcome of the research is the realization that Saids (1985) concept of Orientalism is still alive and relevant.The tourists in this study idealized the locals and their culture, yet theirperception of the culture often had little to do with the local reality.Their comprehension of Buddhism and their perception that Tibetanpeople had a deeper insight into the nature of the universe was not based on actual evidence. The Book of Living and Dying , a highly praisedguide to the profound questions of existence, is seen as a distillation of Tibetan spirituality. However, few people had heard of the book in Ti-bet before it was brought there by Westerners ( Lopez, 1998 ). As sug-gested by scholars adopting the Orientalist discourse, the East isrecreated in the imagination of its observers. This study reveals that the concepts of Us and Other are still valid. However, the oldlines of demarcation have become blurred by the effects of globaliza-tion. Westerners are not alone in dening the Orient due to intrinsicopposition: some Orientals themselves are now revisiting the con-cept and giving it a new twist. Educated young Chinese from the east-ern Chinese states view the western Chinese states as Other andascribe to them qualities similar to those used by Westerners, as epito-mized by Edward Said. Interestingly, the concept is no longer dividedalong geographic (West versus East) or strictly cultural lines, but alongsocioeconomic lines (i.e., rich Western-educated Asians versus poor or

non-educated Asians). Although distinct patterns have emerged from this study, each worthy of further enquiry, it nonetheless has certain limitations. Thispaper conrms the potential challenges of a qualitative researchapproach, especially in terms of interpretation. Moreover, Shangri-La is well established as a Utopian Asian destination in the collective Western imagination and culture. However, the concept of the phan-tasmal destination is an emerging phenomenon, and a broadly accepted research methodology has not yet been developed for itsfurther study. Furthermore, multiple comparative case studies of this

type of destination are needed to achieve statistical credibility andreliability. A more comprehensive review should include a broadersampling of respondents from a variety of cultural and linguistic back-grounds. These barriers, however, should not prevent researchersfrom delving into this little-known and potentially rich niche areaof tourism research.



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Submitted 14 May 2010. Resubmitted 3 January 2011. Resubmitted 17 April 2011. Final version 6 June 2011. Accepted 12 June 2011. Refereed anonymously. Coordinating Editor: Honggen Xiao


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