Tourist Utopias

This collection, "Tourist Utopias: Offshore Islands, Enclave Spaces, and Mobile Imaginaries" contains a chapter by me on a "Virtual Bulgaria." In it, I try to link together Bulgaria's tourism industry in both its socialist and post-socialist forms with the kind of travel and mobility experienced in contemporary video games. This may seem like an odd combination, but it is one motivated by the concurrent growth of the gaming industry and tourism industry in Bulgaria.

Both the narratives and experiences circulating around tourism and gaming involve ideas about escape, mobility and an approach to the city. The post-socialist landscape of an imagined post-socialist city provides a kind of post-apocalyptic imaginary to be traversed and witnessed. Violence and mobility interact in both the experience of the tourist and the gamer. The chapter jumps from imagery around gaming and tourism to contemporary concerns around terrorism and migration. Please find more information on the book here, http://en.aup.nl/books/9789089648471-tourist-utopias.html