Fonte: Turismo y Sociedad; Vol 20 (2017): Enero-Junio; 131-150
Palavras-chave:
Resumo: The idea of “the End of the World” is associated with an extreme location, with hostileenvironmental conditions, with inhospitable landscapes and, by all appearances, a pristine ecosystem. Together these things form a constitutive part the territorial identity of southern Patagonia. The cartography, the scientific expeditions, the religious missions, the journalism and the literature played an important role in the diffusion and permanency of these representations. In modern Western societies, companies have positioned the concept as a powerful tourist resource, capable of motivating travelers coming to Tierra del Fuego. The present communication proposes an approximation to the perceived image of Tierra del Fuego, according to tourists’ statements in trip blogs, taking these chronicles from sources posted on the site Travelpod. The aim is to examine the contents of the perceived image and to investigate the ways that the concept “End of the World” is resignified. The tourists’ testimonies appeal always to the idea of the End of the World; these representations can be condensed to two dimensions, the one linked to physical – geographical aspects and another that recreates symbolic contents. In the perceived images of Tierra del Fuego, there is an intermingling of the archaic, the legend and the distance, the impregnable vastness of the nature and the recollection of heroic expeditions.
