A discursive analysis of natural area destinations is presented in this article, where it is argued that the management and use of natural areas for (eco) tourism is influenced by economic and institutional practices that contribute to rationalizing ‘Nature’ and the visitor experience. A brief look at some historical influences on nature-based tourism development in (post)-modernity sets the context for illustrating paradoxical discourses (e.g. neo-liberalism, ecological modernization and globalization) that structure and instrumentalize human relationships with the natural world. Viewing these natural areas as performance spaces helps to show how the multiplicity of discourses plays out and how nature and tourists are performatively engaged in these spaces. A conceptual analysis of performativity in relation to touristic spaces is presented and its potential to enable resistance to the rationalizations outlined in the article is examined. The possibility of a performative tourist ethic is discussed, based on a notion of reflexive praxis. Implications for (eco-) tourism research and practice are offered.
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