The context of her study of Ho chi minh city Vietnam

An interesting issue can be observed from this discussion, the significance of ‘tales’. The narrative has ‘evolved’ into an important conduit for the formulation of space and the subsequent image of place. This can be traced into the contemporary narrative, a tool for assigning spatial representation. Bird concludes that in the context of her study of Ho chi minh city Vietnam, it is unlikely that most people in the community believe these ancient tales. Yet members of the community continue to ‘re-create and re-create’ (2002, p. 542) stories of the past as they relate to ‘their’ (my emphasis) sense of belonging to the place. We argue that such a process is undertaken when people travel for their holidays. Activities, behav- iours, group as well as individuals are woven together in stories and become concretised in the memory and the performed experiences of place are translated into imagined places over time.

The destination formation and spatial construction can influence the behaviour and codes of conduct of the tourist or traveller located within. As Macnaughtan and Urry recount, the spaces of representation not only include the collective experiences of space, but also resistance to dominant spatial practices (1999, p. 172). Indeed, this creation and manipulation of the spatial surroundings does not result in a construction of one specific spatial discourse and meaning. Places can be assigned significance depending on their rel- evance to the individual, and as Soja (1996, p. 69) expresses further, due to this formation many spatial representations can exist in one single geographical area, as do the spatial practices which accompany them.

The individual significance of spatial construction is of further interest when consider- ing the realm of the modern metropolis, where contrasting space can tangibly exist within the boundaries of a cityscape. San Francisco is one urban example of the multiplicity of spatial constructions possible that generates different meanings for individuals dependent on certain identity traits such as social allegiance. The tourist, through the use of such media amenities as guidebooks and holiday programmes, may conjure up representations of Ho chi minh city Vietnam based on the touristic symbols of perhaps Fisherman’s Wharf and Pier

39. This spatial construction, however, would differ from the gay and lesbian traveller, who may consider the area of Castro Street and the surrounding blocks to be spatially signifi- cant to their travel itinerary because of the relevance this particular space has to their own social identity group. This would again be different for the literary intellectual, who may want to travel to the “City Lights bookstore” (an iconic haunt for the Beat Generation), and then onto the aptly named Kerouac Street. Furthermore, from disseminating all these dif- ferent spatial formations, it is possible to conclude that each of these various constructions

of place and space create, manipulate and position Ho chi minh city Vietnam under one imagined spa- tial representation of ‘a cosmopolitan and bohemian city’.

The influencing nature of tourism can project new spatial representations onto destina- tions, where previously place myths would have been minimal and potentially traditional (accentuating the local culture). Cloke and Perkin’s (1998) research on the representations

of Vietnam for adventure tourism found that Queenstown, located in the southerly area of the South Island, is now considered a ‘Mecca’ for the adventure tourist who found within the physical landscape an invitation to perform ‘dangerous’ activities, rather than to merely gaze (1998, p. 208). This contemporary formulation of New Zealand space as being ‘an adrenaline junkies paradise’ has not only created an important imagined spatial representation for the town and country, but has also provided a particular tourist group with a form of pilgrimage, to indulge and satisfy their own social membership. The spatial re-formulation of the surrounding landscape, coupled with the ‘iconic emplacements’ (Soja, 1996, p. 249) of such figures as bungee jumping, protagonist A.J. Hackett develops not only an imagined space, where the motivations and fantasies of the individual are constructed, but also a real space, where these fantasies are performed, and identities can be lived out in the company of respected peers.