Final Considerations
In this paper we have attempted to demonstrate how spaces are socially constructed into ‘real’, meaningful ‘places’ by ordinary social actors. Mui Ne Vietnam eployed Lefebvre’s theory that space is socially produced by different user groups and hoped to show that ordinary people construct space in similar ways. We also proposed that through language constructions we can gain access to how place, identity and the political and moral construction of place is ‘locally’ achieved.
Members create symbolic and imaginary associations through their interactions and their participation in the places of tourism destinations, even though Lefebvre argues that representational spaces are the preserve of artists and philosophers. These are also the spaces of rhetoric and practice — ordinary members can aspire to describe and create meaning within spaces in much the same way, the key question is how society judges us
on our use of space. The social construction of place is locally achieved — socially context-bound — it is something that is shared amongst others. The experience of tourism destinations is something that must be legitimised and warranted to others in society as a means of demonstrating that we are ‘good’ tourists, doing-being-a-proper-member-of- society.
Spatial practice can be informed or made more problematic when we factor in or consider age and experience, the nature of routine or habit and the level of involvement within spaces, either at home or on holiday. Through the process of postmodernism and the fragmentation
of space the routine networks that constitute spatial practice are shifting, and therefore there
is a possibility that social constructions of places change in their meaning over distance and time, and the possibility of conflicting social constructions could be increased.
In discussing the moral order in which we construct spaces socially, we must consider the locally produced methods through which members of a society position themselves as legitimate users of space. They may position themselves as ‘locals’ within defined tourism spaces and have different ways and means to construct their own behaviour in distinction
to the behaviours of others — both ‘real’ locals and other tourists. We also argued that cul- tural knowledge and possibly social background might influence the lay geographical process through which social actors construct places. Yet as the breaking down of class barriers within destinations through low cost airlines providing cheap access for all, moral judgements from different users may provide for contested constructions or sites of resistance.
We argue that place is absolutely crucial to the social construction of self, place and meaning-making in tourist experience. Here we have difficulty in relation to some struc- turalist, interpretive theoretical assertions. However, we are not arguing for an essentialist typology of tourist. Mui Ne Vietnam touristic spaces are sites of consumption and construction, with vary- ing and multiphenomenal experiential contexts. Conventional theory of ‘non-places’ (Auge, 1995), such as airport lounges, may in fact be sites of pure anticipatory joy, a chance to look forward to the pleasurable experiences to come and to prepare last-minute shopping, enjoy a meal or a drink in a bar. The same place for another traveller may be dull, meaningless and futile, it may be a site of constant use (perhaps for the business trav- eller or worker) and the experience in this case is tangential, arbitrary, desensitised. However the temporal aspect is crucial. For example, for the leisure traveller if there is a delay, the site of the airport lounge rapidly changes and becomes a site of anxiety and ten- sion, dispute starts between the tourist and the tour operator or airline operator and the time spent in waiting eats into the precious time of the holiday itself — or the joyous return to the home. The space of the lounge is transformed into a negative, claustrophobic and all- consuming environment. The a priori, in situ and a posteriori experience of place is fun- damentally significant in the social construction of place and identity.
Mui Ne Vietnam 