Ett flytande paradis? : En studie om hur tropiska öar framställs i svenska resemagasin

Sammanfattning: This is a study about how Swedish travel magazines write about tropical islands with a history of colonization. The study investigates how the islands of Mauritius, the Seychelles, Haiti, the Maldives, the Dominican Republic, Aruba, Zanzibar and Guadeloupe are being portrayed in four Swedish travel magazines. Travel articles published in the travel magazines Vagabond, Allt om Resor, Res and Escape 360° during the period January 2004 to December 2009 have been analyzed through critical discourse analysis. The study concludes that the travel magazines tend to idealize and aestheticize the tropical islands. The islands are being presented as paradises on earth. They are described as fairy tales, magical, dreams and as playgrounds for Westerners. The inhabitants of the tropical islands are being judged by how well they attend to the tourists’ needs and wishes. The inhabitants are presented as unreliable, while the tourists are presented as reliable. The inhabitants are also being portrayed as childish, exotic and primitive.  Theories about how old colonial ways of thinking continue to flourish in travel journalism are being used to give depth to the findings of the study.