The theme park-ing of travel: German company buys entire Italian Village, American resort creates little USA in Mexico
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Just when I thought I’d heard it all, comes this:
The entire Tuscan village of Tenuta de Castelfalfi has been snapped up by Europe’s largest tour operator and will be transformed into an integrated holiday playground for German tourists within two years. […] The exquisitely beautiful but rundown medieval settlement north of Siena, and close to Florence and Pisa, is soon to be renamed Toscana Resort Castelfalfi. […] TUI says it wants to offer its guests the full rural experience, including locally produced fruit, vegetables and wines.
Sure, that sounds really authentic. And EPCOT Center’s German pavillion is a perfectly authentic recreation of German life, in its totality.
I can understand the tension that makes this sort of development possible. Many people want to experience a change of scenery, perhaps even with some notion of some “authentic” local flavor, but they aren’t willing to step outside of their comfort zone. But this is going too far.
The trend toward self-contained “safe” environments, homogenized for foreign consumption yet situated in an exotic location, isn’t a new one. Travelers to a resort compound in Jamaica, for instance, aren’t experiencing Jamaican culture, but are simply there for the beach and the weather.
In the most crass example, Secrets Resorts, created by the AMResorts division of Apple Vacations, are designed to completely recreate American bar and beach culture in Mexico and the Caribbean, while blocking out the local Mexican environment as much as possible.
“We Americanize it like no one else. The ketchup on the table is always Heinz. The mayonnaise is always Hellman’s. The yogurt is Dannon,” [Alex Zozaya, the head of the resorts,] said. “On the television, you’ll find ABC, NBC and CBS. […] we focus on all the American sports all the time. If there’s an important European soccer match at the same time as a hockey game, our televisions will be tuned to the hockey game. We even have tailgate parties where guests can watch football on giant screens, barefoot in the sand, eating chicken wings and drinking Coronas.”
At least they serve Corona!
So you have two extremes: A sterilized “authentic” museum city in Tuscany — except that it’s entirely in German, and a recreated America-land in a sunny climate with no sense of place.
Travel, by its very definition, means an interaction, or a collision, of cultures. Hoping to experience a “pure,” unadulterated place, or trying to avoid any trace of the local flavor, is equally desperate and sad.
Perhaps the futility of the quest for authenticity is best demonstrated by Monty Python:
(Thanks to Tim Hughes!)
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May 30th, 2007 at 2:44 am |
[…] holiday company TUI has paid 250 million euro to purchase the crumbling medieval Tuscan village of Tenuta de Castelfalfi. TUi plan to transform the village to offer “an authentic rural experience” for […]
June 2nd, 2007 at 7:31 am |
The comment Alex Zozaya made addresses a basic concept about the brand recognition of products used at the resorts being distinctly American. If you’re primary target market is American then this is sensible.
To assume that there are no Mexican foods, drinks, brands, etc… in the Mexico resorts is presumptuous. Offering American brands and giving your primary market a comfort level and a feeling of “being at your home away from home” is also sensible. Is it not a wonderful thing when you’re a parent and your child wakes up to find cereal that they recognize. Happy children…happy parents, no?
This comment made by Mr. Zozaya does not reference the style, flavour, design, and concept of the resort experience and it is pretentious to say the resorts do not reflect the culture of the people and country they are in. A little research will show clearly that all of the AMResorts properties reflect the distinct flavour of each locale.
Local flavour is the essence of each resort along with excellent service standards…..sounds pretty good.
February 2nd, 2008 at 3:29 pm |
Ciao
I am really really sorry to hear this. Keep the multinationals out of the Tuscany tourism industry. Develop the agriturismo and stay with the small businesses.
This is so sad. I have visited Castelfalfi at least six times. It actually was my happy place in the world until now. A place where I always dream of returning to when the rain and snow is blowing in Sweden.
I even have a meter high large photo showing hole number 5 in my living room. It is the most deligtful golf course that really gives you a challenge and has been a gem with very few people using it and now TUI plan to make it into a German Disneyland for over 3000 simultaneous visitors? This is crazy!
The place is now a true stress free santctuary where you feel relaxed the second you arrive. Just to pop out on the golf course knowing that you need no time reservation. The mere fact that there is only a little hut that only serves sandwiches at
the golf course is great. Or entering the small pizzeria/Ristorante by the road an have a Pappardelle alla Cingiale that has a really great taste of boar and rosemary. Will that scale up to 500 servings a day? I don’t think so.
If german old people are slow enough not to be able to go around by themselves or travel in small gropus and enjoy Tuscany as it is, then stay at home. TUI could build a plastic castle in Köln and import some vine and make a Las Vegas like italian experience of it.
I have visited GC Toscana as well which on a smaller scale is what this will turn into: an all german plastic experience with only the pasta as sign that you were actually in Tuscany. Need I say that one visit was enough?
I hope that people boycott TUI, Fritidsresor and their other brands. Creating something in an empty desert like the resorts in Egypt is one thing, raping a fully functional small village is an completely different thing.
Vet hut!