Impacts of romance and sex tourism on the larger tourism sector in Tunisia Perceptions and interpretations of tourism stakeholders Student: Noura Harrath Stud. Nr 900904 307 030 Wageningen University Department of Environmental Sciences Cultural Geography Chair Group GEO-80436 MSc Thesis Cultural Geography Supervisor: Lauren Wagner Submitted in August 2014 Examiners: Lauren Wagner and Karin Peters SUMMARY In Tunisia, there is not much space for cross-cultural understanding. Combined with the gap of values that are between the local people and the tourists coming from very different so- cial backgrounds, the contact between hosts and guests is sometimes conflictive, and in many cases not even existing. Within the scope of host-guest relations, this study zooms in the sexual and romantic encounters that take place between locals and tourists and sheds light on the impacts of these encounters on the Tunisian tourism industry at large. Findings have shown different impacts of sex and romance tourism on Tunisia's reputation and the tourist experience. However, looking further than sex and romance tourism, there are other impacts on the general tourism industry that cannot be ignored. This study has found the connections between different kind of impacts, whereas conflictive host-guest relations are taking a large space. At the same time, sex and romance tourism has been argued by tour- ism stakeholders to take a place within the bigger scope of host-guest relations as these stakeholders do not perceive sex and romance tourism as an isolated field of practices but rather as part of a range of host-guest tensions and relations that are not desired to be pre- sent and provide alternatives. CONTENT 1. Introduction and problem statement ............................................................................................................................. 5 Problem statement and research questions................................................................................................................... 7 2. Theoretical framework and literature review ................................................................................................................ 9 Possible impacts of sex and romance tourism on the larger tourism sector................................................................ 10 1. A reputation of a sex destination.......................................................................................................................... 11 2. Harming the tourist experience ............................................................................................................................ 12 3. Incongruent to the aspirations of the community ................................................................................................ 13 4. Womanizers stealing the tourism business .......................................................................................................... 13 Other impacts on tourism ......................................................................................................................................... 14 3. Methods ........................................................................................................................................................................ 15 4. Results ........................................................................................................................................................................... 18 Reputation and experience........................................................................................................................................... 18 Reputation .................................................................................................................................................................... 20 Other impacts on reputation and experience .............................................................................................................. 21 Tourist experience ........................................................................................................................................................ 23 Bridges between impacts on the tourist experience .................................................................................................... 25 Profit-making ................................................................................................................................................................ 28 Wider aspirations .......................................................................................................................................................... 30 Value judgments ....................................................................................................................................................... 30 Education .................................................................................................................................................................. 32 Aspirations of alternative types of tourism .............................................................................................................. 33 Profit-making concentration ..................................................................................................................................... 33 Professionalize the sector ......................................................................................................................................... 34 Overview overall results ............................................................................................................................................... 36 5. Discussion ..................................................................................................................................................................... 37 Ambiguous relations, ambiguous impacts .................................................................................................................... 37 Impact on reputation .................................................................................................................................................... 38 Impact sex/romance tourism on experience ................................................................................................................ 39 Blurred impacts on reputation and tourist experience ................................................................................................ 40 Bridges host-guests encounters ................................................................................................................................... 41 Impact on profit-making ............................................................................................................................................... 43 Aspirations tourist stakeholders ................................................................................................................................... 43 6. Conclusion..................................................................................................................................................................... 46 Impacts on Experience and reputation ......................................................................................................................... 46 Other impacts on tourism ............................................................................................................................................. 46 Bridges between impacts ............................................................................................................................................. 47 Wider aspirations .......................................................................................................................................................... 48 Research Objectives ...................................................................................................................................................... 49 References ........................................................................................................................................................................ 51 Appendices ....................................................................................................................................................................... 53 Appendix 1 Map of research location ........................................................................................................................... 53 Appendix 2 Statement of university ............................................................................................................................. 54 Appendix 3 Interview questions in English ................................................................................................................... 55 Appendix 4 Overview of respondents .......................................................................................................................... 57 1. INTRODUCTION AND PROBLEM STATEMENT Tunisia is a country where African, Arabic and European culture meet. This has been found in its history where the original tribes of North-Africa have made space for Roman culture and then Arab colonisation. Later cultural influences were from Turkey and the impact of the colonization of Tunisia by France led to a lot of changes in for example administration, education, language, clothing and architecture. Tunisia therefore can be seen as a mix of several cultures, that each