by Margaret Werry
How does tourism impact theatre? How do theatrical ways of seeing, knowing, and acting shape tourism? How do economic and political processes like colonization or neoliberalization influence them both? And what is the future of these twinned global leisure industries?
Theatre and tourism are kindred practices. Both engage their patrons in experiences of temporary escape to distant places, times, or different lives. Both stage expressive, communicative, embodied encounters in real time and space. Tourism and theatre are both sites of public pedagogy, cultural diplomacy, and cosmopolitan consciousness, promising pleasure and knowledge from the spectacle of others and elsewheres.
This concise study explores the historical and contemporary entanglement of theatre and tourism, and speculates about the future as emerging technologies reshape both industries, offering new experiences of presence, embodiment, and mobility.
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