Myth, national identity, and the contemporary tourism site: the case of Amalienborg and Frederiksstaden

The Amalienborg Palaces and surrounding district of Frederiksstaden are among the sites in Copenhagen marked as ‘must see’ by Danish tourism authorities. Yet, an analysis of its tourism-related materials (guidebooks, websites, and brochures) does not provide sufficient context to understand its national significance. A hierarchical semiotic analysis, inspired by Barthes' concept of myth, suggests that in order to understand the deeper relationships of tourism sites to national identity, we cannot examine them simply as a product of the present-day tourism industry. Rather, we must consider the ideologies and rituals that always already constitute their significance in order to assess why places become marked as tourism sites.