Číslo 4, roč. 107 (2020)

In May 1909, Ferdinand Krackowizer (1844–1933), an archival councillor from Linz, took a trip to the spa in Karlovy Vary. He kept a travel diary as well as a memory album where he stored all sorts of documents: postcards, concert programmes, tickets, menus, a report from his attending physician, etc. By analysing these documents we are able to reconstruct in detail Krackowizer’s stay at the spa and gain deeper knowledge of the everyday spa culture in Karlovy Vary at the turn of the century. In addition, the analysis takes into account the opinions and assessments provided by the traveller himself in his travel diary. The diary further facilitates reconstructing Krackowizer’s networks and understanding different aspects of cultural practices connected to spa travel. Finally, these primary sources show the importance which Krackowizer attributed to his spa trip as a form of external representation.

The study focuses on a specific type of tourism (the so-called Heimattourismus) whose main aim is to visit countries, or better said, localities, which expelled and displaced Germans had to abandon after the end of World War II due to forced migration and which they consider(ed) as one of their ‘homes’. After the first unofficial trips, it is possible to observe a gradual increase in organised and individual tourism of displaced Germans to Czechoslovakia since the second half of the 1950s. In this article, we focus on one of the many topics related to Heimattourism, namely reflections of the local population in the former homeland and the stereotypes constructed about locals by Sudeten German tourists. We examine the topic by analysing ‘travel reports’ published by displaced persons and expellees in their journals since these trips had begun until mid-1960s.

Spomenik is the Serbo-Croatian word for monument. Internationally, the term is used for the partisan monuments that were erected throughout the former Yugoslavia to commemorate events of the Second World War. With the wars in the 1990s that led to the disintegration of Yugoslavia, many of these objects became detached from their original function, and thus became a dissonant heritage between differing nationalist narratives of the past. With their modernist architecture, the Spomeniks have become, since the late 2000s, popular internet motifs, and tourists are now showing growing interest in visiting the monuments. In order to capitalize on and institutionalize this increasing attention, a cultural route for tourists has recently been established. In this process of valorization, presenting the condition and decay of the monuments and characterizing them as “lost” places, which has become a decisive aesthetic in their circulation online, plays a large role in the constitution of these sites of memory (lieux de mémoire). This picturesque image practice as a phenomenon of cosmopolitanism will be exemplified by online representations of the Tjentište Monument in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The Austrian Alpine Association created the brand of Mountaineering Villages to promote a sustainable development of tourism and protect the entire mountain range. The idea of the Mountaineering Villages is the result of the cooperation of alpine associations with local tourist organisations and communities, with hoteliers and committed members of the population. In its policy, the initiative Mountaineering Villages outlines ideas about the ideal guest. It connects the tourists through publications, forms, structures and everyday practices to the villages. The article asks how this relationship develops and what ideas about the guests are created.

An indigenous Shuar community in Ecuador have been hosting tourists seeking retreats that feature traditional medicinal plants such as ayahuasca and tobacco. The community has provided individual ceremonies with the plants, or more complex rites such as Natemamu. Natemamu is a rite that is comprised of repetitive ceremonies lasting ten to twelve days, which involves drinking large quantities of Ayahuasca.
The author primarily focuses on: 1) the commodification of the Shuar Natemamu rite as a product that is offered on the global market; and 2) the impacts of this commercial trade on the hosts and visitors. This article is based on data collected by means of participant observation, interviews, and audio-visual documentations.
The findings imply that the introduction of western tourists to the Shuar community and its rites has contributed to processual changes to the rite and to ideational and material changes on both sides. Furthermore, the findings suggest that while the tourists experienced more ideational changes, the impact on Shuars was more material. This seems to be in accordance with the respective expectations of the encounter of both groups.

Zpráva z konference.

Recenze knihy Předkřesťanské náboženství severních Indoevropanů.