'Facing the future': tourism and identity-building in post-socialist Romania

Tourism is an important component of the process of identity building, repr esenting one way in which a country can seek to project a particular self-i mage to the wider international community. As such, tourism has considerabl e ideological significance for the formerly socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe that are seeking to project and affirm distinctly post-soci alist identities as part of the process of re-integration into the politica l and economic structures of Western Europe. This paper focuses on tourism and identity-building in post-socialist Romania. In particular, it focuses on one building - the so-called 'House of the People' which is intimately l inked with Romania's totalitarian past and which is fast becoming Bucharest 's biggest tourist sight. The presentation of the building to tourists seek s to 'reconfigure' its past so that it accords better with Romania's post-s ocialist identity, and particularly its aspirations to (re)establish itself as a country of 'mainstream' Europe. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All ri ghts reserved.