Tourism and cultural proximity - Examples from New Zealand

While tourism products based on Maori culture are popular among some over-seas tourists to New Zealand, there has been little research as to their appeal to the domestic market. This paper discusses notions of indigenous tourism and the role of cultural and spatial difference in European conceptualizations of the exotic other. It argues that although there is a common cultural antecedence between non-Maori and European culture, the lack of spatial distance between Maori and tourists means that European New Zealanders are not drawn to Maori culture as art attraction in the manner that those from Europe and North America are. The paper discusses "kiwi culture" and familiarity as determinants of tourist demand. (C) 2002 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.