Liminal Tourism Cultures: Externalities and Vulnerabilities in the World of the Tuluminati

• In Event: Urban-Environmental Futures in the Global South

Abstract

Concerns about violence and tourism decline in the Mexican Caribbean have increased, despite state-led development projects and campaigns in recent years. In this paper, I engage with unequal exchange theory and liminality studies to examine emerging leisure niches and their role in the production of externalities and vulnerabilities in this region. Through the analysis of 37 in-depth interviews with tourism workers in Tulum, Mexico, the study finds that a growing market of “Neoliberal liminality” consisting in the production of hypercommodified, immersive experiences that use symbols of nature, spirituality and indigeneity while amplified by opioids. These markets clash with offers of ecotourism and ethnic tourism, transforming spatial dynamics and the already vulnerable seasonal tourism flows. Although many entrepreneurs and businesses benefit from this tourism niche, it is associated with the intensification of drug-trade related violence, organized crime and militarization. This paper questions the global organization of leisure experiences in which Global South destinations increasingly provide natural and human resources, as well as forms of deregulation for liminal tourism cultures involving illegal economies to operate. These create disproportionate externalities endured by communities, heightened vulnerabilities and a sense of permanent crisis for the industry in the long-term.

Author

• Gabriela Ceja Morales, SUNY-Buffalo