The construction of Slovenia as a European tourism destination in guidebooks

Geographic research in tourism recognizes destinations to be socio-spatial constructions shaped by historic, cultural, and political discourses. These discourses are reflected in and reproduced by tourism literature such as guidebooks. Guidebooks are a key resource for potential tourists to learn about a destination. These texts produced by international publishing companies draw upon existing discourses for a place that will allow external audiences to make sense of the contextual information provided for the destination. At the same time, they reify these discourses by presenting them to readers as objective facts. This paper uses discourse analysis to examine tourism guidebooks for the European destination region, the Eastern and/or Central European sub-region, and Slovenia. In particular, it examines the competing and conflicting discourses of Eastern and Central Europe in these externally authored and oriented texts to understand the socio-spatial construction of Slovenia as a European tourism destination.

► Tourism destinations are socio-spatial constructions. ► External guidebooks both reflect and reify patterns and discourses in tourism. ► Slovenia's construction in guidebooks is affected by Eastern and Central European discourses.