Have you ever been to Vanuatu? Most people when thinking about the country would picture the beautiful ocean and outdoor adventures. Looking at Instagram posts of people who visit, you’d see images of its natural beauty most often. Many of us would have an immediate image of palm trees and sunny days, Vanuatu is filled with beautiful landscapes but the media and tourism marketing strategies can be one sided. This is a similar case for many of the Pacific Islands and the issues surrounding place essentialism is comparable.
As more people want to visit the islands but there are misrepresentations and stereotypes to be mindful of. This can have potential issues since it can create false representation of the country, culture shock may occur with tourists and most importantly, many people could become unaware of the issues that surrounds the country and the island’s vulnerability can be hidden.
The HDI rank is currently 118 making it the third poorest country in the Pacific Islands. Although there is a lack of information on the income distribution since subsistence income is difficult to measure, the economy is struggling and relies on tourism as a source. The Human Poverty Index (HPI) can suggest that it is still a poor country and face many problems in certain areas which can include education, health, poverty and more. The country also suffers form climate change and countless natural disasters each year.
Image of downtown Port Vila City Centre in Vanuatu
Image of a market town
Vanuatu consists more than the outdoor adventures and staying in bungalows and resort hotels. I have chose to uploads those images that are not images you would see in any tourism marketing.
Although it has become a popular destination place and tourism has had a positive impact on the economy, we must be aware of the problems surrounding the country and not be blinded by the beauty of the country.
I believe it is important to research the country before visiting as it has already allowed me to broaden my perspective and plan for a better trip.
Comments
12:01pm 07/09/20: Jaylea Jin
The writer was able to carefully select impactful images that strongly demonstrated the complete opposite to what the “media and tourism marketing strategies” have shown. This was well done, as the images portrayed the misinterpretation or stereotype of the country- apart from the luxurious resorts and majestic sceneries of Vanuatu, the country is rather ravaged by poverty and natural disasters. The blog to a moderate extent reads as being informed and informative. Although the writer has incorporated a statistic and citation to support what the stereotypes are, this may have been improved if a few more links leading to the sources were used. As well as, maybe providing an external link or some simple statistics about Vanuatu and the “many problems” that the country faces, then just simply brushing over it. In addition, this post could be improved by engaging more with the questions and concepts of this week. The question about “why place essentialism is problematic in this context” could be further explored. Although the writer did mention that it can bring false misinterpretation of the country and culture shock, it was unclear how that may have been problematic.
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