Sri Lanka and the Maldives - Essay Example

Anne McClintock, in her discussion about the concept of the conquest of territory, when framed through female metaphors, suggests that the male has had to frame his experiences through the objectification of the female in order to express the sexuality of these types of achievements. When looking at modern-day advertisements of travel to locations that in Western standards are seen as exotic, this type of framework can be seen. In looking for examples of this type of advertising use of colonialism thinking, the websites for Sri Lanka and the Maldives reveal something about how their tourist bureaus use Western aesthetics to connect with potential travelers, thus reinforcing the theories put forth in McClintock’s work.

In looking at the official national website for Sri Lanka tourism, the first word that appears is heritage. This indicates a strong need for the country to promote the historical value of its country as being central to the event of a vacation within its borders. The website promotes a sense of otherness, attuned to Western sensibilities, through depicting men sitting on elephants, a lounging leopard, and an exotic woman reclining in what appears to be a spa atmosphere. The experience is connected back to the Western traveler through an image of a Caucasian man on a surfboard and a modern look at a beach. The emphasis is on the exotic, with a connection to the modern Western ideal in order to attract a broad set of travelers.

The official national website for the Maldives has a picture of a surfer, swimming below the water towards the surface on a submerged board. The image evokes the sense of the beach, a cool splash of water against the heat of the sun. The first sub-category that is presented is titled culture. Just like the Sri Lanka website, the first promotional factor is the differences in culture that a Western traveler would encounter when visiting the country. The two subsequent headings promote diving and the opportunity for a honeymoon in the Maldives. The website reveals the daily temperature and has links to further information about where to stay and where to go, just like the Sri Lanka website.

The otherness that is expressed in both websites leads the traveler towards thoughts of adventure. In creating an enticement to travel to the region, the websites are intended to evoke a sense of newness of experience so that the traveler will want to know what they do not yet know. The imagery also suggests that the locations have the element of the exotic, the “erotics of imperial conquest” as explored by McClintock (24). While the eroticism is not blatant, the notion that the locations will bring to the vacationer an experience that is defined by adventure suggests that the attendee will be able to conquer an unknown territory.

The use of the woman in the spa-like atmosphere in the advertisement for Sri Lanka can be linked to the desire to equate sensuality with the experience of visiting the island. McClintock states that “women served as mediating and threshold figures by means of which men oriented themselves in space, as agents of power and agents of knowledge” (24). The boundaries of the world have been typically characterized as women, objectifying the presence of the female spirit within the framework of territory. Through using a female image in a position of sensuality, this concept is continued into the modern-day discourse about the experience of visiting a new land, thus having conquered that experience.

The Maldives have a different approach to enticing their visitors. The site is full of images of the rich blue of the sea in contrast to the strand of islands. Several images of surfers, their boards planted beneath their feet and their bodies arched in control of their activity, grace the pages of their website. This evokes a different type of feeling toward the experience. This suggests that the natural environment is what will be conquered in visiting the island. In this respect, the Sri Lanka website is far more successful as it includes this aspect of conquest, but it does not limit the experience in this way. While further investigation into the website of the Maldives reveals a lot more about the vacation experience, the imagery does not have the same all-encompassing point of view. In comparing these two websites, when one connects to the sensuality of conquest where the other does not have this kind of impact, it is clear from the way in which it connects to the observer that the Sri Lanka advertisement has a greater appeal than the Maldives, thus suggesting that equating the female with the concept of territorial conquest is a cultural philosophy that is still in existence.

While the advertising for the Maldives is still inviting, the advertising for Sri Lanka communicates the exotic nature of the adventure. Visiting Sri Lanka appears to have more points of appeal than visiting the Maldives, simply because it has connected with more than one point of interest within the human experience. These connections are subtle, more subtle than suggesting that diving or the spa might be enjoyable. These connections are more deeply rooted in the way in which the Western aesthetic has evolved to respond to certain types of imagery in that the images suggest needs might be fulfilled through athletic, sensual, or intellectual stimulation. This provides a more rounded approach to connecting with the viewer. From the perspective that McClintock has provided, the feminization of territorial conquest has been utilized by advertisers to create a connection between their product, in this case, travel, and sensuality.