Selling Mexico's vistas: A visual discourse analysis of promotional materials of Loreto Bay, Mexic

By examining photographic advertisements for the tourism development of the Villages of Loreto Bay in the Mexican state of Baja California Sur, I analyze how place is consciously associated with and promoted using certain geographical representations and discourses and investigate how images of nature and landscape are used to sell place. Utilizing critical visual methodologies, I unpack the complex socio-spatial relations that inform these visual images and tease out the power dynamics of these representational and discursive practices. I explore how tourism, development and environmental discourses interact, intersect and conflict and demonstrate how the Villages of Loreto Bay are manipulating touristic consumers with an unrealistic hybrid of the three. Using a postcolonial critique, I reveal some of the unseen underbelly of tourism development, which many consumers in the First World neglect to notice, and show how Mexico's ruling powers are both metaphorically and literally selling itself through image perception.