Sixth International Conference on Tourism & Leisure Studies

Abstract

Costa Smeralda is the most touristy area of the island of Sardinia. Positioned in the north-eastern part of the island, it is actually totally detached from the rest of the territory. Like some areas of Cuba or Maldives, in fact, local people do not participate in its social or economic life, apart from doing there the least gratifying jobs. Differently from Cuba or Maldives, however, no one forces the Sardinians to remain extraneous to what happens in Costa Smeralda. It is a free choice, linked to the fact that Costa Smeralda has followed a totally different development process in comparison to the rest of Sardinia. This paper draws on Bourdieu and the sociology of taste, when they delineate the mechanisms through which tourism and leisure confer social distinction; and on cultural studies links between tourism and national or regional belonging. By adopting multimodal analysis, this paper investigates social media posts and messages on Costa Smeralda written by people stating to be Sardinian and regarding their feelings about this area. The results show that Costa Smeralda is actually seen as ‘the island on an island’, a land geographically considered Sardinian but culturally perceived as belonging to people from Milan (the industrial city which most of the tourists of Costa Smeralda come from). This sense of extraneousness and un-relatedness becomes in many analyzed messages a means to reinforce bonds of regional identity and pride (when they write ‘I don’t go to Costa Smeralda!’), and even hopes of a new-nation building.