Abstract

ALMIRON, Analía; TRONCOSO, Claudia  and  LOIS, Carla. Tourism promotion and cartography: Touristic Argentina at the maps produced by Secretaría de la Nación (1996-2004). Invest. Geog [online]. 2007, n.62, pp.138-154. ISSN 2448-7279.

Images, representations, and ideas present at touristic texts function as touristic imaginary frames, for they organize potential tourist expectations, anticipating tourist consumption of attractions and destinations. The aim of this paper is to interpret what are the images that Argentine central government agency (Secretaría de Turismo de la Nación) utilizes to promote tourism in Argentina. In order to do this, we analyze the cartography published by this agency from 1996 to 2004. It is assumed that these maps, among other touristic texts, participate in the processes of promotion of Argentine attraction and destinations. The analysis of these cartographic sources allows to recognize that, in recent years, it exists a way of thinking and imagining Argentina as a country with many attractions that are spread all over its territory and are also capable of satisfying all kind of tourist expectations. Thus, official cartography aims not only to generate a touristic consumption, but also to construct a touristic imaginary that is progressively placed underneath touristic processes of interpretation and valuation of attractions and destinations.

Keywords : Tourism promotion; tourism cartography; tourism attractions; images; Argentina.