Cultural Tourism, an Ambivalent Commonplace
This article examines discourses and values constructed in the context of French “cultural tourism”. The author observes interactions between individuals for whom cultural tourism is a common space of intervention and/or confrontation: agents from institutions at the national and local level, administrative managers and business people. These actors are playing out a scenario of separation between “culture” and “tourism” by opposing public and private spaces, culture and business, democratization and profitability. What stands out, however, is that those who are preaching for commercial values are mostly managers of towns of little or no interest to the tourism industry. Referring to markets can be used as a means of seeking legitimacy, even if this means evoking values that are not their own.