SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF TOURISTIC IMAGERY: CASE OF FIJI

•The evolution of touristic imagery of Fiji is mediated by changing social relations.•The imagery is a simultaneously colonial, corporate and ethno-nationalist construct.•It is today reified and commands particular touristic roles from indigenous Fijians.•Touristic imagery is both an outcome and medium of wider social relations.

This paper seeks to contribute to a fuller understanding of the complex interplay between touristic representation and wider society. It traces the historical making of touristic imagery of Fiji, which centres on the amiability of indigenous Fijians, and provides a sociological analysis of the ways in which this process has been mediated by the broader patterns of social relations and conditions in colonial/post-colonial Fiji. In particular, the imagery is shown to be a simultaneously colonial, corporate and ethno-nationalist construct. The paper further explores how this imagery, although essentially dynamic, has in turn become reified and exerted considerable power over institutional arrangements and practices within and beyond the industry, most evidently in the allocation of specific touristic roles to indigenous Fijians.