With their eyes turned skyward : making sense of tourist experiences in Roswell, New Mexico

This interdisciplinary study explores the tourism industry in Roswell, New Mexico, a theme town that advertises itself as “the UFO Capital of the World.” John Gottdiener, a scholar of themed environments, asserts that consumption is the dominant force structuring individuals’ experiences of these types of spaces. However, tourism in Roswell presents a formidable challenge to Gottdiener’s model. A wide variety of elements influence Roswell tourists’ experiences, including the history of tourism in the American West; popular cultural representations of Roswell; local, small-scale tourist attractions; the souvenir industry; and the worldviews of the tourists themselves. I explore each of these components and the ways that they inform tourists’ experiences in Roswell, drawing on visual, material, and popular culture; secondary sources on the history of tourism in the American West; and ethnographic research on Roswell tourists. This study demonstrates that while consumption is a significant force in themed tourist towns such as Roswell, there are many other factors that also exert considerable influence on the shape the tourism industry takes and the ways that visitors experience it

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

American Studies

Grantor

University of Texas at Austin

Year dc:date.issued

2005

Author dc:creator

• McClelland, Erin Lynn

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Hoelscher, Steven D.

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright © is held by the author. Presentation of this material on the Libraries' web site by University Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin was made possible under a limited license grant from the author who has retained all copyrights in the works.

Language dc:language.iso

en

Identifier URI

https://doi.org/10.26153/tsw/59542

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:repositories.lib.utexas.edu:2152/132198