Abstract

Residential Tourism: (De)Constructing Paradise offers the first in-depth, critical exploration of the foreign retirement/expatriate communities proliferating in both size and number throughout Latin America. Amidst the widespread development and promotion of international destinations of residential “paradise” intended for retirement, leisure, and experiences of exotica, this book draws on a diversity of perspectives in order to analyze the social and spatial impacts that dynamic phenomenon has on the people and places it directly affects at the local level. Utilizing the community of Boquete, Panama as a case study, this book examines how two diverse residential groups – the native community who have lived in the area for generations and the foreign residential tourists who have just recently relocated abroad – coexist in a shared place of home, define their experiences of place and community, and confront the mass development of residential tourism in Boquete.

The book is a valuable piece of research that is very well written and includes an excellent literature review and the discussion of the qualitative work that helps understand the experiences of residential tourists/local people and the meanings they give to the place/space of the town of Boquete in Panama as a promising residential tourism destination.

Mason R. McWatters is a doctoral student in Geography at The University of Texas at Austin, where he previously earned a Master of Arts degree in Latin American Studies. His research interests are based in Central America and include such themes as consumption-oriented migration, representations of place and landscape, the socio-spatial effects of tourism, and the dynamic tension between preservation and development.

Overall, the book is a valuable piece of research that is very well written and includes an excellent literature review and the discussion of the qualitative work that helps understand the experiences of residential tourists/local people and the meanings they give to the place/space of the town of Boquete in Panama as a promising residential tourism destination.

The concept of residential tourism provides an exciting new dimension in understanding relationships between tourism mobility and the effects of tourists on the locations they consume. In both location and approach this book will be a welcome addition to the tourism and cultural change literature.

Residential Tourism: (De)Constructing Paradise offers an interesting glimpse into the ongoing evolution of residential tourism in western Panama. Mason McWatters goes beyond the physical effects of residential tourism to examine the broader effects on experiences and meanings of place for tourists and locals. As such, this well-written work will be of interest to those in both the fields of tourism and geography.

The research is built on both an excellent analysis of the literature and a solid qualitative research framework. McWatters has produced an excellent, well-written book.