Complex Imaginaries in a Touristic Culture at Son Sant Joan Airport (Palma de Mallorca)

Authors

  • Hugo Capellà Miternique Universitat de les Illes Balears

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.53596/j5cm0725

Keywords:

imaginarios; antropología del turismo; aeropuerto; lugar; Mallorca

Abstract

Abstract Airports have become places that reflect their cultures. First of all, we analyzed from a more theoretical point of view, the evolution of the airport site from being understood as mere peripheral functional space to becoming its own place, increasingly central. Secondly, we focused on the empirical analysis of a case study to prove how Son Sant Joan airport has become a catalyst for the polyhedric imaginaries of an agglutinative tourist culture. Finally, by way of conclusion, we explored into the relevance of the airport for understanding the complexity of tourist culture in Mallorca, as well as, in order to better understand their cosmopolitan cultures.

References

AENA (2023). Estadísticas de tráfico aéreo, informes mensuales. [consultado el 26/04/24] https://www.aena.es/es/estadisticas/informes-mensuales.html?

AENA Palma de Mallorca [consultado el 26/04/24] https://www.aeropuerto-palmademallorca.com/terminal-aeropuerto-palma-mallorca.htm

ALAMY. Estatua de Botero en aeropuerto de Palma de Mallorca [consultado el 26/04/24] https://www.alamy.es/foto-botero-estatua-y-la-informacion-de-la-placa-de-salida-en-el-aeropuerto-de-palma-de-mallorca-espana-39941200.html Augé, M. (2020). Los no lugares. Barcelona: Editorial Gedisa.

Bakir, A., Wickens, E., Boluk, K. and Avgeli, V. (2017). Cross-cultural issues in tourism and hospitality. Tourism and Hospitality Research, 17(3), 245-248.

Berque, A. (2016). Écoumène: introduction à l'étude des milieux humains. París: Belin.

Burns, P. M., and Novelli, M. (Eds.). (2006). Tourism and social identities. Londres: Routledge.

Capellà Miternique, H. (2005-2006). Argonautas en la postmodernidad. Cuadernos de la Universidad Nacional de Tandil, 6, 63-76.

Capellà Miternique, H. (2020). L’importance des lieux touristiques dans la découverte des imaginaires : le cas de s’Arenal aux Baléares, Revue Sud-Ouest européen, Volume 50 : 19-31.

Castiglioni, P (2000). Stazione Termini, Petrucci Marco lighting designer [consultado el 26/04/24] https://www.petruccimarco.it/project-view/italia-roma-la-stazione-termini/

Certeau, M. D. (1994). L'invention du quotidien.París : Gallimard.

Craik, J. (2002). The culture of tourism. In Touring cultures. Londres: Routledge.

Duval, D.T. (2020). Transport and tourism: a perspective article. Tourism Review, 75 (1), 91-94.

Fischer, M. (2009). Fieldwork is not what it used to be: Learning anthropology's. Cornell University Press.

Fletcher, R., et Al. (2023). Pathways to post-capitalist tourism. Tourism Geographies, 25(2-3), 707-728.

Franklin, A. (2004). Tourism as an Ordering: Towards a New Ontology of Tourism. Tourist Studies, 4 (3), 277-301.

Freestone, R., & Wiesel, I. (2016). Place-making in the Rise of the Airport City. In Place and placelessness revisited (pp. 168-185). Routledge.

Glissant, E (1993). Tout-monde, París : Gallimard.

Gordon, A. (2008). Naked airport: a cultural history of the world's most revolutionary structure. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Graburn, N. (1980). Teaching the anthropology of tourism. International Social Science Journal, 32(1), 56-68.

Graburn, N. H. (2004). Secular ritual: A general theory of tourism. Tourists and tourism: A reader, 23-34.

Gravari-Barbas, M; Graburn, N. (2012). Imaginarios turísticos. Via@, Revista Internacional Interdisciplinar de Turismo [En línea], núm. 1. [consultado el 26/04/24] http://www.viatourismreview. net/Editorial1_ES.php

Gyssels, K. (2001). The world wide web and rhizomatic identity: Traité du tout-monde by Édouard Glissant. Mots pluriels, 18(1).

Harrison, D. and Lugosi, P. (2013). Tourism culture (s): the hospitality dimension. Tourism Recreation Research, 38(3), 269-279.

Holland, J. (2017). “Sense of Place now a key part of the airport experience, says latest m1nd-set report”, The Moodie Davitt Report. Retrieved from https://www.moodiedavittreport.com/sense-of-place-now-a-key-part-of-the-airportexperience-says-latest-m1nd-set-report/

Hollinshead, K. (1998). Tourism, Hybridity, and Ambiguity: The Relevance of Bhabha’s ‘Third Space’ Cultures. Journal of Leisure Research, 30 (1), 121-156.

Hollinshead, K. (2004). Tourism and New Sense: Worldmaking and Enunciative Value of Tourism. In M.l Hall and H. Tucker (dir.). Tourism and Postcolonialism: Contested Discourses, Identities and Representations. London and New York: Routledge, 24-42

Horrach Estarellas, B. (2012). Diversity, flexibility and identity: mechanisms for recycling mature tourist destinations. In 6th Conference of the International Forum on Urbanism (IFoU): TOURBANISM. International Forum on Urbanism, 1-10.

Hunt, J. (2023) Terminal 1 at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport. Encyclopedia Britannica, 30 Nov. 2023, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Terminal-1-at-Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle-Airport [consultado el 26/04/24] https://www.britannica.com/topic/Terminal-1-at-Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle-Airport;

Kaduoka, C. (2019). Let’s create sense of place, SITA. [consultado el 26/04/24] https://www.sita.aero/air-transport-it-review/articles/lets-create-a-sense-ofplace?CatId=10866

Kirk, P., Harrison, A., Popovic, V. and Kraal, B. (2014). Deconstructing expected passenger experience in airports. In DRS2014 international conference of the design research society proceedings. Umea, Sweden.

Koc, E. (2020). Cross-cultural aspects of tourism and hospitality: A services marketing and management perspective. London: Routledge.

Kymlicka, W. and Straehle, C. (1999). Cosmopolitanism, nation-states, and minority nationalism: A critical review of recent literature. European Journal of Philosophy, 7(1) : 65-88.

Kymlicka, W. (2007). Multicultural odysseys. Ethnopolitics, 6(4) : 585-597.

Laplante, M. (2011). L'expérience touristique contemporaine: fondements sociaux et culturels. Paris: PUQ.

Leite, N. and Graburn, N. (2009). Anthropological interventions in tourism studies. The Sage handbook of tourism studies, 35-64.

Lundberg, C. and Ziakas, V. (Eds.). (2018). The Routledge handbook of popular culture and tourism. London: Routledge.

Madou, J. P. (2002). Edouard Glissant: Tout-Monde, Une poétique de l’archipel (Par-delà Faulkner et Saint-John Perse). French Prose in 2000 (pp. 1-13). Brill.

Mazor-Tregerman, M.; Mansfeld, Y and Elyada, O. (2017). Travel guidebooks and the construction of tourist identity. Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change, 15 (1), 80-98, DOI: 10.1080/14766825.2015.1117094

McCabe, S. (2024). Theory in tourism. Annals of Tourism Research, 103721.

Melhuus, M., Mitchell, J. and Wulff, H. (Eds.). (2010). Ethnographic practice in the present. Berghahn Books.

Moneo, M. (2022); Antoni Capó: Saliendo de una crisis no podemos invertir en un centro de control nuevo en Palma, Diario de Mallorca (14/05/2022) [consultado el 26/04/24] https://www.diariodemallorca.es/mallorca/2022/05/14/antoni-capo-saliendo-crisis-invertir-66085012.html

Palmer, C. (1999). Tourism and the symbols of identity. Tourism management, 20(3), 313-321.

Picard, M. (1987). Du ‘tourisme culturel' à la ‘culture touristique'. Problems of Tourism, 10(2), 38-52.

Raffestin, C. (1986). Nature et culture du lieu touristique. Méditerranée, 58(3), 11-17.

Redacción Diario de Mallorca (2024); El aeropuerto de Palma bate su récord con 31 millones de pasajeros en 2023. Diario de Mallorca (16/01/2024). [consultado el 26/04/24] https://www.diariodemallorca.es/mallorca/2024/01/16/aeropuerto-palma-bate-record-31-96944676.html

Rojek, C. and Urry, J. (Eds.). (1997). Touring cultures: Transformations of travel and theory. Psychology Press.

Salazar, N. (2010). Envisioning eden: mobilizing imaginaries in tourism and beyond. New York: Berghahn Books.

Salazar, N. B. and Graburn, N. H. (Eds.). (2014). Tourism imaginaries: Anthropological approaches. Nueva York: Berghahn books.

Simmel, G. (2005). La metrópolis y la vida mental. Bifurcaciones, 4(2).

Smith, S. (2015). A sense of place: Place, culture and tourism. Tourism Recreation Research, 40(2), 220-233.

Spain.info, Benidorm [consultado el 26/04/24] https://www.spain.info/es/destino/benidorm/.

Staszak, J. F. (2008). Other/otherness. International encyclopedia of human geography. 8: 43-47.

Theobald, C. (2016). Michel de Certeau. Théologie du quotidien. Recherches de science religieuse, 104(1), 5-8.

Thomas, J. (1993). Doing critical ethnography, Vol. 26. Sage.

Urry, J. (1990). The Tourist Gaze: Leisure and Travel in Contemporary Societies. London: Sage.

Vives‐Riera, A. (2018). Tourism and nationalism in the production of regional culture: the shaping of Majorca's popular songbook between 1837 and 1936. Nations and Nationalism, 24(3), 695-715.

Wattanacharoensil, W., Fakfare, P., & Graham, A. (2022). Airportscape and its effect on airport sense of place and destination image perception. Tourism Review. 77(2), 549-569.

Wearing, S., Stevenson, D. and Young, T. (2009). Tourist cultures: Identity, place and the traveller. Londres: Sage.

Woodside, A. G. (Ed.). (2008). Advances in culture, tourism and hospitality research. Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Downloads

Published

2026-06-26

Issue

Section

Artículos

How to Cite

Complex Imaginaries in a Touristic Culture at Son Sant Joan Airport (Palma de Mallorca). (2026). Journal of Tourism Analysis Revista De Análisis Turístico (JTA). https://doi.org/10.53596/j5cm0725