Performing a Young People's Package Tour of New Zealand: Negotiating Appropriate Performances of Place

This paper focuses on the negotiation between tour producers and tourist consumers concerning appropriate tourist performances in the context of packaged coach tours of New Zealand. The myth of New Zealand as a clean and green ‘natural utopia’ is not only used to seduce international tourists but is also the key narrative upon which the production of coach tours is based. This paper questions the extent to which such key myths are constructed and consumed by tourists themselves. The paper addresses this question by drawing on observation and interviews conducted with tourists on a packaged sightseeing tour for the 18–35 age group to look at tourists' nuanced ways of performing and giving meaning to their on-tour experiences. The discussion shows that, even in the packaged tour context, touring experiences and toured places are mutually constituted in ongoing negotiation between normalizing processes and elements of performative resistance. By focusing on the negotiations of appropriate tourist performances in this way, the paper furthers understanding of the relationship between tourism production processes and tourist consumption practices.