Tourism Imaginaries and Mobilities: Dutch and Belgian Intern Tourists in Suriname and the Unpacking of a 'SU Fantasy'

Abstract

This ethnography explores the dynamic and relationality between tourism imaginaries among Dutch and Belgian intern tourists in Suriname and manifestations and practices of mobility, shaping Suriname as a tourist destination. I explore hegemonic tourism imaginaries, and the subsequent creation of a 'SU fantasy' and 'bubble in the jungle', by which connections are made between circulating tourism imaginaries and concrete activities and performances of intern tourists in Suriname. I analyze how mobility practices, structured by tourism imaginaries, establish the tourism experience and tourist destination, and reproduce idealizations of it through embedded representations that are trapped in privilege and power. Furthermore, how this also relates to spatial and social imbalance in Suriname as mobilities are determined by its connections to the bubble and flows of the fantasy.