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There and Back Again: Mobilising Tourist Imaginaries at the Tower Of

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There and Back Again: Mobilising Tourist Imaginaries at the Tower of London Matthew Hughes Ansell 2014 Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MA in Cultural Heritage Studies of University College London in 2017 UCL INSTITUTE OF ARCHAEOLOGY ‘Those responsible for the brochure had darkly intuited how easily their readers might be turned into prey by photographs whose power insulted the intelligence and contravened any notions of free will: over-exposed photographs of palm trees, clear skies, and white beaches. Readers who would have been capable of skepticism and prudence in other areas of their lives reverted in contact with these elements to a primordial innocence and optimism. The longing provoked by the brochure was an example, at once touching and bathetic, of how projects (and even whole lies) might be influenced by the simplest and most unexamined images of happiness; of how a lengthy and ruinously expensive journey might be set into motion by nothing more than the sight of a photograph of a palm tree gently inclining in a tropical breeze’ (de Botton 2002, 9). 2 Abstract Tourist sites are amalgams of competing and complimentary narratives that dialectically circulate and imbue places with meaning. Widely held tourism narratives, known as tourist imaginaries, are manifestations of ‘shared mental life’ (Leite 2014, 268) by tourists, would-be tourists, and not-yet tourists prior to, during, and after the tourism experience. This dissertation investigates those specific pre-tour understandings that inform tourists’ expectations and understandings of place prior to visiting. Looking specifically at the Tower of London, I employ content and discourse analysis alongside ethnographic field methods to identify the predominant tourist imaginaries of the Tower of London, trace their circulation and reproduction, and ultimately discuss their impact on visitor experience at the Tower. Leite (2014) argues that exceptionally dominant tourist imaginaries have the ability to eclipse competing narratives and effectively block out alternative experiences by creating an overdetermined tourist experience. I argue that a visit to the Tower of London is overdetermined by the prevalence of specific imaginary narrative constructions that leave little room for individuals to carve out their own unique experiences. This dissertation posits the idea that the confirmation of visitor expectations, which leads to satisfaction, is a necessary component to sustain and entrench hegemonic tourist imaginaries. This research traces the relative immobility of the tourist imaginaries at the Tower of London as a result of this process. Finally, this dissertation proposes key areas of study that are undervalued and underrepresented in the existing literature on tourist imaginaries. 3 Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisor, George Alexopoulos, for his support and feedback in preparation of this dissertation. I would like to thank Historic Royal Palaces for the permission to conduct research on Tower of London grounds. Specifically, I would like to thank Ruby McKevitt for her assistance and advice in survey design and invaluable help in obtaining the proper permission to conduct this research. I would also like to extend my gratitude to those people who took the time out of their day to participate in this research. Lastly, I would like to thank my fellow classmates for their unwavering support, ability to answer any and all questions, and for creating joy when the going got tough. 4 Table of Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 8 Positionality............................................................................................................................... 9 Organisation of Dissertation ..................................................................................................... 10 CHAPTER I: Literature Review............................................................................................... 10 Heritage Tourism ..................................................................................................................... 10 Anthropology of Tourism ........................................................................................................ 11 Definitions of Tourism Imaginaries .......................................................................................... 12 Theoretical Framework ............................................................................................................ 15 CHAPTER II: Methodology ..................................................................................................... 16 Studying Imaginaries ............................................................................................................... 16 Case Study Research ................................................................................................................ 17 Reflexive Ethnographic Methods ............................................................................................. 17 Visitor Questionnaire ............................................................................................................... 18 Recruitment ............................................................................................................................. 19 Ethical Concerns ...................................................................................................................... 20 Content Analysis ..................................................................................................................... 20 Discourse/Visual Discourse Analysis ....................................................................................... 20 Chapter III: The Promotional Mix ........................................................................................... 21 Case Study ............................................................................................................................... 21 Historic Royal Palaces ............................................................................................................. 21 The Promotional Mix ............................................................................................................... 22 ‘A contract’ ............................................................................................................................. 22 The Authorised Guidebook ...................................................................................................... 23 Third-Party Ticket Sellers ........................................................................................................ 24 Historic Royal Palaces Promotional Ephemera ......................................................................... 25 Prior Research ......................................................................................................................... 25 CHAPTER IV: Identifying Tourist Imaginaries at the ToL .................................................... 26 Identifying Tourist Imaginaries ................................................................................................ 27 The ToL as a Main Sight .......................................................................................................... 28 The ToL and UNESCO ........................................................................................................... 30 The ToL and the Crown Jewels ................................................................................................ 31 Tourists and the Crown Jewels ............................................................................................. 33 The Crown Jewels and the Monarchy ................................................................................... 34 Embodied Enactment in the Jewel House ............................................................................. 36 5 Visual Imaginaries ................................................................................................................... 36 Execution, Torture, and Imprisonment at the Tower ................................................................. 38 Death and Blood at the Tower ............................................................................................. 38 Torture at the Tower ............................................................................................................ 39 Commercialisation, Commodification, Touristification ......................................................... 40 Narrative ‘Imagineering’ ...................................................................................................... 41 Living Heritage: Beefeaters and Ravens ................................................................................... 41 The Yeoman Warders ........................................................................................................... 41 Yeoman Warder Tour ........................................................................................................... 42 The Tower Ravens ................................................................................................................ 43 (Re)production, (Re)creation, and (Re)imagination .................................................................. 43 The ‘Imaginaire Dialectic’ ....................................................................................................
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