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The article discusses the scientific expedition to Latin America and the Caribbean by German polymath Alexander von Humboldt and French botanist Aimé Bonpland which resulted in the thirty-volume treatise on the region's flora, fauna, and geology "Le voyage aux régions equinoxiales du Nouveau Continent, fait en 1799-1804." TOpics inlcude intellectual history, Humboldt’s legacy, and the history of discoveries in geography and science.

Despite a growing body of work on destination branding, there are few studies to look at culture at the individual level and examine the potential impact of personal cultural orientation on destination brand equity. Based on Social Identity Theory, this study investigates tourists' personal cultural orientation (independent vs. interdependent) and its effect on destination brand equity (destination brand image, destination brand value, and destination brand quality) and revisit intention. All data were collected in Quepos, Costa Rica, using both person-administrated and online surveys. Results of this study reveal that personal cultural orientation impacts the destination brand image, destination brand value, and destination brand quality. In addition, the destination's brand value is positively related to the revisit intention. The theoretical and practical implications, as well as the future research directions, conclude the article. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An introduction is presented for the following section of articles, which focus on the history of scientific discoveries, explorations, and research in Latin America.

After the Caribbean Islands were conquered, there began a time of contact between the Spanish language and consolidated native languages, which would result in the linguistic settlement in the American continent. This paper focuses on the analysis of a selection of works dating between 1518 and 1559, and which have been selected on the basis of the following variables: the author's level of experience in the Indies and the use of communicative strategies in each document. This study is centred on analyzing quantitatively the words included in the chronicles, the tendencies observed, and their interpretation. The resulting textual types show a direct relationship with both the addition of indigenous neologisms and the authors' field of knowledge, through which they filter their personal experience and add the new words. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Latin America has seen impressive developments in the late 1990s and 2000s, and the forecasts for the next decade seem to be brightening after the global economic crisis. Yet despite the overall success of Latin America, research shows that wide regional disparities remain. This research note addresses the key barriers affecting the sustainable economic growth of Latin America as well as provides an agenda for policy and research. To achieve encompassing and sustainable progress, the Latin American economy will need to improve and enhance tourism capabilities in terms of institutional, infrastructural, and innovation capabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the history of geographical chronicling in Latin America during the Colonial Period beginning in the late 16th century. The author examines the importance of the mapping of geographical spaces at the time as well as the eventual shift to an emphasis on the study of culture in the 20th century. She also highlights the increasing influence of a combination of human geography, social sciences, and the humanities at the turn of the 21st century. The role of cartography in understanding society in Latin America is also explored.

This article analyzes the historical continuity between European discourses of indigenous "wildness" produced during colonial travels to Latin America, and during ecotours of the Amazon lowlands in the era of globalization. Historically the two discourses are linked through the Western opposition of nature and culture, and the consequent location of indigenous cultures in the first category. The article reviews the European colonial history of locating the "wild" in nature, and argues that this colonial discourse of wildness continues, uninterrupted, into the era of postcolonialism and globalization. The article analyzes the ways in which "wildness" as a site of cultural anxiety and desire has been re-mythologized in a postcolonial world characterized by a transnational traffic in multiculturalism and uses the case study of ecotourism in Ecuador to trace the connections between European colonial discourse of indigenous wildness and production and consumption of indigenous cultural alterity today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article confronts the positions of Cornelius de Paw and Francisco Javier Clavijero about the description of the ground, the climate and the environment of America. While the ideas of Paw, difunded in the second edition of Diderot's Encyclopaedia put on the mind of his contemporaries the concept that all the americans, indians, half-castes or creoles, will always be dependant of a despotic european power; Clavijero, supported by aristotelic naturalism, argumments the rights of sovereignty and autonomy of the american people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on author Mariano Picón Salas and his technique of writing that was easily readable and accessible. The author discusses Picón Salas' extensive travel throughout South America and his ideas on the concept of nationality, which he contended was an artificial construct created in the 20th century. Picón Salas' studies on the baroque are also highlighted.

The article discusses the travel accounts of Prussian naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt, written during his 1799-1804 expedition through Latin America. He visited the Spanish colonial possessions of Cuba, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Mexico. The author focuses on Humboldt's personal diaries, which were not subject to the censorship of his published volumes of his explorations. Humboldt's comparative assessment of regional and local traditions provide insights to his perceptions of colonialism.

The article discusses the vision of Latin America built by the Italians during the fascist era, especially the literature of travel in which personal reports and articles are published both in dedicated travel periodicals or ordinary media. According to the author, it is a vision permeated with preconceptions in the description, comparative analysis, and other aspects of these lands across the ocean. Topics on the positive contribution of the Italian citizens in the shaping of these landscapes are included.

Economic theory generally treats the duration of a vacation as a constraint on demand imposed by available time. In contrast, in this article, we show that the length of stay is a determinant of destination demand more than a demand constraint that is largely explained by the cost of travel, and moderated by the perceived characteristics of the destination, publicity, and the sociodemographic profile of the tourist. We estimate a heterogeneous survival model to measure the relationship between vacation length and covariates. The empirical application was carried out in Portugal on a sample of individuals traveling to Latin America on charter flights. The article discusses the policy implications of the research findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Along with Eduardo Chillida, Jorge Oteiza is one of the best-known Basque sculptors of his generation. Although many scholars have written on Oteiza's significant contribution to the field of sculpture, and have analyzed his theories on the meaning of art, very few take into consideration Oteiza's 13 years in Latin America, much less acknowledge that these years had a decisive impact on his art and particularly on his critical essays and poetry. In this essay, I explore how Oteiza's stay in Latin America contributed to his reevaluation of the avant-garde movements in Europe and Latin America, and how it led him to redefine his relationship to progress, science, reason and nature, space and time, ethics, and national art. During the course of his interaction with Latin American artistic movements, Oteiza's thoughts on artistic singularity and universality matured, and he confirmed his strong sense of spirituality in order to liberate traditionally defined conceptual opposites such as the intellectual and the sacred from their teleological confinement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Offers a look at the study of Latin American development geography. Major themes of research; List of academic publications; Scholarly activities.

Travel writing, from the era of the Encounter to the present day, has played an integral role in the dialectical envisioning of Latin America and Latin American culture by Europeans, North Americans and Latin Americans alike. In my analysis of the cosmopolitan Argentine writer Ricardo Güiraldes's novel Xaimaca (1923), I tackle this writer's grappling with the Latin American elite's customary trip of acculturation to Europe. I demonstrate that, far from blindly supporting the belief that culture is a principally metropolitan phenomenon, Güiraldes proposes the notion of cultural (re)discovery within the Latin American context as seen through his protagonist's journey from Buenos Aires to Jamaica. Thus, Xaimaca is more than just the narration of a simple journey; it is also a metaphorical pilgrimage towards the autochthonous, as well as a proposal for a de-centring of Latin American cultural production and the creation of a new continental aesthetic in the post-First World War era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a traveler's guide to Mexico. Political situation; Monetary unit; Available accommodations; Tourist attractions.

Discusses Spanish intellectual Rafael Altamira's journey through Spanish America between June 1909 and March 1910. Altamira's educational and career background; Symbolic importance of the journey; Altamira's account of his travel in the book 'Mi viaje a America'; Altamira's Americanist ideas.